New to Sports. CC please ;)

kidzmom · September 14, 2010

WOW, sports photography is just SO much different than portrait work :rofl It certainly is a challenge for me, but I'm always up for learning about photography.

I was asked by a Road Runner organizer to shoot races in our area...and of course I said yes. Before I share a few pictures, I have just a few reflections about sports shooting in general (coming from a portrait artist)...

SPORTS shooting is intense! I swear I had the same adrenalin rush that the althletes were feeling, lol! Having to work fast, be precise, and nail the moment were such challenges, but it was incredibly exciting. It was an amazing feeling to capture the emotion and action in the moment. Really amazing! I do believe I"m hooked.

Okay, I'm always up for CC.

These are a few of my favorite images from the race. I usually shoot exclusively in manual, but after about two dozen shots with my exposure shifting so radically (at mid-day) I switched over to AV-things were moving fast. I also upped my ISO a bit (to 200) to get a fast enough shutter, all shots were wide open at 2.8 on my 70-200 IS (with is on). Focusing mode was AI Servio, camera was handheld.

Lay it on me folks :thumb

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5 A blind runner! YES very amazing!

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

Last but not least, my favorite of the day

I appreciate all and any comments and thoughts :lust
Thanks,
Kelly

GP Images · September 14, 2010

Great shots Kelly. The first ones are all shot in "landscape" and I think most would have benefited from "portrait" positioning. I have shot running events for the past 4 years and I totally agree with you on your thoughts. Runners are very dedicated athletes and it shows in their intensity.

kidzmom · September 14, 2010

Thanks so much for the comment GP. I looked at your site and you have some amazing sports captures! Do you pp all of your shots, even for spec sales? I was just going to put up my sooc images since I have so many. Thoughts? I will try to keep things in portrait format. I was going b/w the two for variety, but I agree that the portrait framing just works better for runners. It was SO much fun!

reyvee61 · September 14, 2010

Well you did a good job out of your element.
I personally have not shot too many events like this but I have done a few in the last few years.
That being said I have shot action photography via the kids for many years consistently.
I agree a few of the landscape orientation images would be better suited in portrait mode.
Also a few of the images: #2 and #3 appear to be soft on the subjects.
I often will shoot at ISO 400 or 800 or higher to bump shutter speed to capture crisp images in aperture priority but more times than not I find shooting in shutter priority works best.
Not sure how forgiving your sensor is at high ISO's but it definitely helps when shooting at f/4 or better.
Definitely some shots to be proud of though.
Number nine is my favorite capture, crop aside.

Agnieszka · September 14, 2010

I'm in pain just looking at them

Great series

kidzmom · September 14, 2010

Thank you Angie! I was in pain too..but kind of jealous of how great shape they were in. Makes me want to enroll for race--well almost

And thanks again to rayvee too.

johng · September 14, 2010

You've got good color and good focus. You're off to a good start. Now the challenge is: framing. You have to make decisions about when surroundings add to the "story" and when they're just a distraction. In a number of shots you've got some very uninteresting surroundings. You've also got some uncomfortable crops of the people. Shots 2 & 3 are examples of this. In shot 3, the story is the expression - that needs to fill the frame. The surrounding area doesn't add to that story. So the best part of the image fills a very small portion. Shot 2 just looks akward cropped at the knees. Shot 5, you cut off the feet. shot 11 - again a great expression but you've got a ton of dead space above his head - and it doesn't add to the story.

You get the idea. So when you set up to take shots you need to ask yourself: is the background here interesting enough to include or not. Then you can decide whether or not you want to capture individual runners or multiples.

Again you've done a good job of freezing the action and picking some good shots. I think you just need to work on your framing a bit and think about what you want to include in an image vs. exclude. BUT, try to do it in-camera and not crop too much afterwards. You end up losing too much important fine detail when you crop heavily in PP.

Great first step.

Rocketman766 · September 14, 2010

I agree with the above comments, you are off to a good start. I liked the colors that you have here. I will be the first to say I am not perfect and will be trying to practice what I preach this season and all to follow, but some of the horizons were off, but that can be fixed in PP if needed, but as johng said, you lose alot of detail when you do that.

Do you really need to use the IS? The slowest ss I saw that you used was 1/1250th.

Lance.

kidzmom · September 15, 2010

Wow, Johng and Rocketman766 this is exactly what I was looking for! Very valuable input indeed! Johng...I very rarely do pp cropping, thus why things look the way they do. I THOUGHT about cropping these but I just cant bring myself to chop them down so much. I know I need to work on better framing. you are absolutely right. What is the killer for me--- is that these guys are moving fast, infact everything is moving fast (but sometimes not my brain, lol!). It really is a challenge to keep up with the framing, plus work with Servio for focus. Hats off to you that pull this off perfectly!!!! I'm sure like all things, practice makes perfect. I know what I want, but I will really have to work to get the best parts in the shot. You are 100 spot on. Like in cutting off the shoes. They are running so fast and I was just happy to get Servio to cooperate with me...and then zip...off goes a shoe. Just a split second before it would have been perfect, but they weren't in focus etc etc. You know where I'm coming from.

Rocketman...I wasn't sure about the IS and that is why I asked. I know for portraits this is wonderful and in my quick run of test shots it seemed to help with the runners, but I'm not sure. I boosted my ISO to 200 to keep a high shutter for safety. I know many sports shooters say IS isn't needed, but some that do. It does eat batteries, but mine last an eternity anyway. Thanks again you two!!!!

GP Images · September 15, 2010

Kelly,
johng went into more detail on the framing/cropping. To answer your question, yes I post process and crop almost every shot. With sports it is very difficult to get the framing just right when things are happening fast. When in doubt, I shoot wide and crop later.
Glynn

rockcanyonphotos · September 15, 2010

I am with Glynn. With sports it is very difficult to get perfect framing with the action moving so fast. I would strongly recommend PP to at least crop your images and with programs like lightroom it is just so darn painless.

You have some wonderful expressions... it is a shame not to frame them properly. Great job for your first foray into sports. I have seen many a portrait photog completely lay an egg when they try to move into action photography.

Well done. Kevin

kidzmom · September 15, 2010

Thanks for popping in GP and Kevin. I'm so glad you 2 chimed in on the framing. I really was actuallky trying my best on the framing (especially later in the day with the portrait orientation shots) and just couldn't avoid cropping a shoe or hand. I am always so weary of cropping *due to degredation of quality. BUT if you guys do it then it must be okay. We're only talking a tad around the corners so it really shouldn't make a difference in print quality right? Even if they enlarge to 11x14? One last question about framing... Are there general guidelines to follow? As a portrait person I was aiming to shoot each runner in 1) full body and then as they approached 2) waist upwards. I was told by one fellow photog to be careful on where I frame for women's chests... Just wondering if there were guidelines and if I broke any "rules".

I really REALLY enjoyed the intensity of shooting action!! It was a total rush and I feel addicted to it already. It makes portrait work seem so easy, lol...Not cropping a hand or a foot off looks like a piece of cake now!!

As for the PP. I shot over 1000 shots and I don't have lightroom. I edited 60 of them (some cropping and curves, contrast, light sharpening). I can't do this with 1000 shots and will need to get lightroom soon if I continue. Is there anything else that can do bulk edits (contrast, sharpening, blacks)? I put up the SOOCs for the runners and they can contact me if they want a print and I will edit then. There were some slightly underexposed shots but they are easily fixable. It was hard shooting at mid-day in harsh shadows.

Oh and one last thing about cropping.. Have you/do you use the smugmug cropping features?

Thanks Kevin for your nice compliment. Man, I'm in awe of the posters on your site. Sweet!

Cuong · September 15, 2010

Kelly, you're making a very nice transition from shooting stationary people to running ones. Others have touched on framing and cropping. I just want to chime in on a couple things. IS is definitely not necessary at the shutter speeds you shot. Lightroom is the best choice for bulk selection and processing of photos.

One more thing, you might want to consider getting a battery grip, if you don't already have one, to provide a shutter release button in the portrait position. It really helps when you use your camera in the portrait position all day long.

Cuong

rockcanyonphotos · September 15, 2010

Kelly, re: cropping... what software do you use currently? Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), that is part of the Adobe Bridge, is also very effective for making short work of cropping photos.

regards, Kevin

kidzmom · September 15, 2010

Hi Cuong and Rock canyonphotos. Thanks for posting. I appreciate the input on the IS, Cuong. Is having it on going to have any detrimental effects? ie better to play it safe and have it on, or just turn it off? I had no idea that the battery grip had a shutter release. I just read thedigitalpicture.com's review about it and it said it also adds bulk to the camera so that larger lenses are handled easier. This is what I need for sure! THANKS! I already have 2 batteries also so this will be wonderful.

Kevin, I do use ACR version 5.5 but with PSE 7. I do need to consider investing in LR3 for bulk processing, but I have been reading up on doing this with ACR for batch processing--but haven't tried it out yet. Until now I've been able to do things individually, but there is just no way for 1000 images. I am going to upgrade to version 5.6 later tonight and see what I can come up with. I'm only using PSE but according to a few tutorials I've read batch processing should be possible, but probabally not as well as LR. It is such a hassle to have to open up both ACR and PSE to save as JPEG for each and every photo. It would be great if this could be done with one program to slightly sharpen, adjust contrast and save as jpeg all in one go.

Thanks again everyone

RobFoto · September 15, 2010

Good shots. I'd just add: While you're working on framing, also pay attention to the horizon-line as well...most of your shots are severely tilted (e.g. light poles and trees are falling).

GadgetRick · September 15, 2010

Nice shots Kelly! JohnG speaks the truth. The toughest part (I've found) about sports photography (besides actually capturing something interesting at the right moment) is cropping. I either crop too much or not enough at times. Just takes practice...

rockcanyonphotos · September 15, 2010

Kelly,

ACR should do the job just fine. You will need to crop each photo individually but in ACR you can have them all open at once and make very quick work of the cropping and even minor adjustments once you get the hang of it. I just moved over to LR3 in the last few weeks because I didn't want to spend the money to upgrade my PS CS3 when all I really wanted was to be able to process the latest RAW formats. As for volume, If I shoot a football game during the daytime, I usually will shoot 1200+ shots in RAW, then process them all within an hour, output to JPG and upload to Smugmug... It is just a matter of getting used to the tools you have and developing a flow that works for you. Sounds a little daunting coming from the portrait world but it really is not as challenging as it sounds.

regards, Kevin

Cuong · September 16, 2010

The only detrimental effect of having IS on is its starting up or shutting down while you're making the shot. This effect is more obvious with long exposures. I doubt that would make any difference at high shutter speeds. So in this situation, it's up to you.

Cuong

photodad1 · September 16, 2010

Nice photos. The only recommendation I would make is to turn "off" the IS for shutter speeds of less than 1/500. This will add a little more sharpness to the photos.

kidzmom · September 16, 2010

Thank you everyone! I have really learned so much from this thread! RobFoto, I agree the horizon lines stink...that 70-200 is HEAVY and I'm not very big so it was tough. I just bought a double axis bubble level so hopefully that will help me out until it becomes more automatic. 7 bucks is worth the time in straightening and editing to me! Kevin, I'm glad you think ACR will be sufficient and really glad to hear that is what you use for your batch work. I may shoot you a PM if I have any questions..if you don't mind Kevin. Rick..I do agree that the cropping issue is tough. Once again, I tip my hat to those sports masters that get EVERYTHING right in camera

Cuong..I think as photodad pointed out I am probabally better just to turn it off. Why is it that the IS works so well for portraits and increases sharpness, but then for sports it reduces sharpness? I often use a high speed shutters in my portrait work due to shooting wide open. If I'm shooting at 2.8 in bright sun at 100 my shutters have often run up to 1/4000. Would I be better of turning the IS off for those portraits also? Thoughts on this anyone? You all are great. Thanks again!

trevorb · September 25, 2010

Excellent set! I still can’t get over how sharp these images are and the color is perfect.

New to Sports. CC please ;)

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