College Men's BBall (w/ the still new lens)

Shima

Last time I got to play with it was the women's game... now round 2 was at the men's game last night. They won of course, an amazing 93 to 46 (Valparaiso University vs. Indiana Wesleyan).

Here are some of my favorites. I'm loving this lens!!



stupid ref in my way...




tipoff:


The rest are here.
http://shima.smugmug.com/gallery/4100520

As usual feedback is welcomed!

tedeb

They're pretty good. Slight white balance issue in #3 though.

One comment I do have would be to try and get more faces. #1 has number 23's face blocked by his arm and #3 has the guy facing the other way. Faces tend to make these shots. It can be hard because of arms/people in the way, but you'll get the timing a little better as you shoot more of the sport.

And yes, the ref will ALWAYS find you and stand right in the way at the worst possible moment. It's Murphy's Law of sports shooting.

Shima

tedeb wrote:

They're pretty good. Slight white balance issue in #3 though.

One comment I do have would be to try and get more faces. #1 has number 23's face blocked by his arm and #3 has the guy facing the other way. Faces tend to make these shots. It can be hard because of arms/people in the way, but you'll get the timing a little better as you shoot more of the sport.

And yes, the ref will ALWAYS find you and stand right in the way at the worst possible moment. It's Murphy's Law of sports shooting.

Yeah and murphey's law is that when I've got faces they will always be blocked as soon as I click. Believe you me, I try! Thanks for the feedback.

jonh68

I have found players and parents like to see their sons and daughters playing and participating in sports. They have plenty of portraits and candid shots, but only a few action shots.

Getting face shots are important for newspapers for sure, but shooting sports is like shooting wildlife. You can only be in one position and if you get the backside of someone making a dunk, then that's what you get.

The ideal is to get great face shots for sure, but not at the expense of getting the action. Sports is about action and a particular play cannot be re-shot because the picture didn't get the athletes face. Your pictures look sharp and you captured great form in the athletes.

Dbl

My experience has been somewhat different from jonh68. Over the last six years of selling shots a great many are more of the candid, portrait type of shots on the field. The one thing they have in comman with action shots is a visible face. I think faces are very important! I am not saying that it is a must but the best sports shots show emotion, and faces are the best way to convey that.

Your shots are improving with the new lens Shima, glad you are enjoying it. Your white balance is still a bit off on these might I ask how much post processing you have done? At the very least a bit of color correction should get you more natural looking light with your posted shots. Good job and just keep shooting.

jonh68

My experience has been somewhat different from jonh68. Over the last six years of selling shots a great many are more of the candid, portrait type of shots on the field. The one thing they have in comman with action shots is a visible face. I think faces are very important! I am not saying that it is a must but the best sports shots show emotion, and faces are the best way to convey that.

I agree with that! The ideal is great facial expression and action. However, you are not always going to be in the best position. I usually never submit a shot to my paper if it doesn't have both of those elements unless it was a crucial play or that's all I got.

I will put up less than ideal on my gallery and I have been surprised at what parents buy. I have had pictures bought where only the parent would who the player is. You can't see their face and can only make a portion of the jersey number. However, their kid made a great play.

I do like getting candid shots after the play and action that takes place away from the ball. We sometimes follow the ball too much and that neglects players who don't touch the ball too much by the nature of their position, but their role on the team is important.

Shima

Dbl wrote:

My experience has been somewhat different from jonh68. Over the last six years of selling shots a great many are more of the candid, portrait type of shots on the field. The one thing they have in comman with action shots is a visible face. I think faces are very important! I am not saying that it is a must but the best sports shots show emotion, and faces are the best way to convey that.

Your shots are improving with the new lens Shima, glad you are enjoying it. Your white balance is still a bit off on these might I ask how much post processing you have done? At the very least a bit of color correction should get you more natural looking light with your posted shots. Good job and just keep shooting.

I've lightened the shots, and amusingly enough the only one I tried to fix white balance on was #3 and then ended up liking it even less (but the original was VERY yellow unlike the other ones which are acceptable in my book)... I sometimes add some blacks back... sometimes up the highlights depending on where is dark, these exact ones I'm not sure of off the top of my head which fixes I did for certain...

I shoot them on floursecent lighting for white balance on camera, because all the others look terrible, I know I should and need to get a white balance card, it's on my list of to-do's...

Thankfully at this stage no one buys my photos so they're purely for fun, which is why I enjoy posting them on here and getting tips so hopefully one day I will get a buyer!

Dbl

Just remember you don't need anything special to take a custom white balance. The white uniforms, white tee-shirt, something white along the walls, a coffee filter. The key is make sure you are in the same light as you will be shooting in. I don't use anything special at all for CWB whatever is on hand gets the job done.

Honestly the fluorescent setting doesn't look like it is giving you correct colors in that gym. Another idea would be to change your K temp setting until you get the proper color. The easiest way to do that is to shoot a RAW shot that can be processed latter for correct color. Once you get the colors balanced the way you want take note of what the K temp is, you now have a K temp setting you can use every time you shoot in that gym. No need for a CWB shot. This is just another way to get the colors rendered correctly. There are multiple ways to get the color balanced the way you want, these are just two suggestions.

jonh68

Just remember you don't need anything special to take a custom white balance. The white uniforms, white tee-shirt, something white along the walls, a coffee filter. The key is make sure you are in the same light as you will be shooting in. I don't use anything special at all for CWB whatever is on hand gets the job done.

True. I plan on getting an expo disk, but I usually find a piece of paper before the game put it on the gym floor and take it's picture. This method is pretty decent and cuts down on post processing, although it's not perfect. This I will do if I don't use a flash

If I can get away with it, I tend to bounce flash and I find AWB does a good job. It also makes it easier going back and forth from flash/no flash in regards to WB as I can go back to custom WB easily as long as I saty in the same place.

johng

one other tidbit on setting custom WB:
make sure you take the shot at a shutter speed around 1/60 - not at the speed you'll take the game shots at. This way you tend to get more of the cycle in the lights and get a more average white balance. I picked that tip up this past year from someone (wish I know who so I could give credit) and it definitely helps.

Shima

johng wrote:

one other tidbit on setting custom WB:
make sure you take the shot at a shutter speed around 1/60 - not at the speed you'll take the game shots at. This way you tend to get more of the cycle in the lights and get a more average white balance. I picked that tip up this past year from someone (wish I know who so I could give credit) and it definitely helps.

Thanks, wouldn't have thought to try that, will do next game!

Dbl

johng wrote:

one other tidbit on setting custom WB:
make sure you take the shot at a shutter speed around 1/60 - not at the speed you'll take the game shots at. This way you tend to get more of the cycle in the lights and get a more average white balance. I picked that tip up this past year from someone (wish I know who so I could give credit) and it definitely helps.

May have been here, http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=75859&page=3, I actually prefer 1/15s to 1/30s. It doesn't matter if the shot is in focus you are as johng said just catching the cycling of the lights.