sports shooting help

pepperell

i'm just learning how to shoot ultimate frisbee. i've played the sport for years but am now trying to snap pictures while i'm on the sidelines. at least i can get up close and personal to the game.

i'm slowly getting the knack of predicting the action on the field. here are some shots i got yesterday at a tournament. the white balance seems like it's a bit off and the pics look a touch hazy. i'm wondering what might have caused this.

any other critiques and/or suggestions welcomed.




http://pepperell.smugmug.com/gallery/3016861

aktse

You caught some nice moments, but I think the exposure is off. It looks like you shot during the full harsh sunlight and things seem to be on the over-exposed side with the highlights blown out.

Is there any reason why you're shooting ISO 400 in full sun? Were these post-processed?

This is a thread about softball, but I think it will apply:
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=60009
You also might do some searches for football.

In general, a good sports photo share some elements -- faces in focus, clean backgrounds (DOF), quality images (exposure) and good editing.

This captures some of the elements:


It woudl be better if the crop was tighter. Was this one taken later in the day?

Scotty_R

Aktse makes excellent suggestions. One of the most important compositional elements about any photo is to fill the frame with the subject matter--the primary element then the secondary element to add context. You need to learn how to crop much more tightly in camera, or have enough data in the image that you can crop it later. Most of your subjects are too small and seem lost in relationship to their surroundings.

pepperell

Scotty_R wrote:

Aktse makes excellent suggestions. One of the most important compositional elements about any photo is to fill the frame with the subject matter--the primary element then the secondary element to add context. You need to learn how to crop much more tightly in camera, or have enough data in the image that you can crop it later. Most of your subjects are too small and seem lost in relationship to their surroundings.

thanks for the feedback. yeah, i realized the ISO was set high only once i had uploaded them. i was basically just grabbing shots when i had a sec on the sideline.

i can trim them up later for better emphasis on the subject, my main concern is the overexposure and hazy cast over some of the images. unfortunately most of the pictures were taken in the hour or two with the sun at it's highest. i can bump the ISO down lower next time too.

you can see the haziness i'm refering to when comparing this picture (not taken by me) to one of mine:

not mine



and mine:

wmstumme

You're white balance looks fine--the shots look just a little overexposed in some parts.

I'm no expert--but I tend to shoot sports at around 400 ISO--even on bright sunny days.

With sports, I usually have the lens open as far as possible to reduce the DOF and isolate the player I'm focusing on--and since I don't have any f2.8 telephoto or zooms, That usually means about f5.6 or more out past 300mm.

Trying to freeze the action, I usually try to keep the shutter speed at 1/1250 - 1600 or faster -- which also seems to help when shooting handheld with a longer lens.

What I generally try and do is push the speed up another notch more than the meter reading and to try and underexpose the shot by just a little bit--expecially if people/players are wearing a lot of white/light colors. I figure I can then pull it back with just a second or two of photoshop tweaking.

Shooting tighter (rather than cropping in pp) has several advantages--including generally helping to get a shorter DOF--which will help focus the viewers attention on the subject--rather than the background. But in a sport like ultimate, you'll have to stay on your toes to keep up with the action.

Best of luck

JoeL

You need some in camera exposure compensation to brighten them up without blowing the highlights.

Not sure what your shutter speed was but it looked a touch low. Which lens are you using? Also much tighter crops.

Shots from the back without faces are no good, they are just snapshots unless you know the people involved.

If I can help, please email me, I would be happy to help any way I can...

Joe