First Regular Season Game

wmstumme

Trying to sneak some more field hockey in here. My daughter's team first game of the year. Score ended up the wrong way--but the girls played hard...

I find FH to be about the hardest sport to shoot--everyone bent over and the ball at the feet--but here are a couple I thought I'd share.

Always appreciate any critiques...









Thanks for looking...

dbaker1221

good job i really like the second shot

wmstumme

DBaker:

Thanks for the feedback.

I really missed a shot I probably should have taken. One of the girls took a stick to face causing a large cut on her cheek--which later took about 10 stitches to close. It happened on the other side of the field, and I really didn't see what happened and didn't realize what all was going on. When she came off, I thought she had just been a little shaken up. However, a little bit later she left the bench area with a ice bag on her cheek but to with a bunch of blood on the front of her white jersey. At what I thought was a lull in the action, I had set my camera down and wasn't ready as she and her father began walking over near me to leave the field. I think would have made a pretty neat "battle scar" photo--you wouldn't have seen the cut--just the facial expression of pain, the ice bag and the blood on the shirt. However, with it being a teenage girl (and having 3 of my own--I know how they can get about their appearances) I couldn't bring myself to raise the camera and point it at her as she walked and looked directly at me. However, the girl is quite a spitfire -- and my daughter talked to her the next day and she wished I had gotten the shot. Guess you never know...

JohnEBongo

Nice shots with good color and nice DOF. 1 and 4 look like the focus just missed. In 1 the goalie looks sharp while the main subject look a tad soft. In 4 the girl in black looks perfecly focused while player #2 is slightly soft. I like shot #2 but that is not a great background to shoot against. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about that, but keep it in mind to watch your backgrounds. I like #3 the best, good action well taken.

wmstumme

John:

Thanks for the feedback. I think you're right in every instance about the softness. I used a bigma on a Canon 30D--and I've got the aperture opened all the way up trying to keep the DOF short. I'm also trying to shoot zoomed out as far as possible to also keep the DOF short. I have only the center focus point enabled, but I think I didn't have the AI focus on--I think I had it set to just "one shot." So I think between the combination of little room for error and the camera not keeping up with the movement, I had these near (hopefully) misses. I'd appreciate if anyone has any tips for improvement.

Color actually came out better than I was expecting. In many of the shots, because of where the action was and the sun's position, I was shooting back towards the sun. That was the case in the first photo. Overall, I was using the aperture priority setting, and had it set do underexpose by 1/3 stop to make sure I didn't blow out the white jerseys. Seems like I get more color when I'm slightly underexposed on a bright day.

Regarding backgrounds--you're correct again. However, this field is really surrounded on all sides by unattractive backgrounds. I have several other shots that I like how the subject is captured, but the background really degrades the overall effect.

Cherieg

like the expressions you captured.

oldtime

Looking good Will, nice action and crops
a Fun but tough game to shoot