Here is some feedback on these shots:
1. Appears over-cropped. Not much detail here - you want to see detail especially in the face. The challenge there is - unless you're right behind the dugout, 200mm is too short to get it. Detail asside, exposure is off for the face. Bright day and dark skin - drop down the contrast on your camera and expose more for the faces than uniforms. Also, no ball in the frame and not a particularly majestic pose so even if the other two aspects were fixed it still wouldn't be a very interesting shot.
2. Not level - i.e. crooked. Focus is again soft. Either from over cropping or poor focus technique. Exposure is again a problem - you can't see faces. FACES make good shots. The backs of players at the plate rarely do. It may be exciting to be that close to the player that you can clearly read his jersey - which makes iit a great snapshot. But even if exposure were on and sharpness were there it would still be a boring sports photo.
3. best action so far but it's from the wrong side of the player. From the third base line, concentrate on the left handed hitters.
4. Best so far but again overcropped so you've got softness issues.
Here's the thing - the 70-200 2.8 is a fantastic lens. But it's too short if you're shooting from on the field. It's way too short to shoot from the stands. It's a good lens for little kids and some little league but by the time you're on full size diamonds it's just too short. So, if you want to shoot baseball and you have only that lens you need to pick a lower level of baseball where you're closer to the action. If you want to shoot major league baseball from the stands I might suggest the 100-400 and a day game. If you have good seats, it has the reach (and the downward angle negates the lack of subject isolation caused by 5.6).
Here's an example with the 100-400. You lose 2 stops but you get the reach desparately needed. Or you could use another combination to get the roughly 400mm you need:
Comments
1. Appears over-cropped. Not much detail here - you want to see detail especially in the face. The challenge there is - unless you're right behind the dugout, 200mm is too short to get it. Detail asside, exposure is off for the face. Bright day and dark skin - drop down the contrast on your camera and expose more for the faces than uniforms. Also, no ball in the frame and not a particularly majestic pose so even if the other two aspects were fixed it still wouldn't be a very interesting shot.
2. Not level - i.e. crooked. Focus is again soft. Either from over cropping or poor focus technique. Exposure is again a problem - you can't see faces. FACES make good shots. The backs of players at the plate rarely do. It may be exciting to be that close to the player that you can clearly read his jersey - which makes iit a great snapshot. But even if exposure were on and sharpness were there it would still be a boring sports photo.
3. best action so far but it's from the wrong side of the player. From the third base line, concentrate on the left handed hitters.
4. Best so far but again overcropped so you've got softness issues.
Here's the thing - the 70-200 2.8 is a fantastic lens. But it's too short if you're shooting from on the field. It's way too short to shoot from the stands. It's a good lens for little kids and some little league but by the time you're on full size diamonds it's just too short. So, if you want to shoot baseball and you have only that lens you need to pick a lower level of baseball where you're closer to the action. If you want to shoot major league baseball from the stands I might suggest the 100-400 and a day game. If you have good seats, it has the reach (and the downward angle negates the lack of subject isolation caused by 5.6).
Here's an example with the 100-400. You lose 2 stops but you get the reach desparately needed. Or you could use another combination to get the roughly 400mm you need:
Canon Stuff
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