American 4th
by mpreslar

Comment by vtruan:
nice capture, quite different look at the celebration fun.

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by posthumous:
Greetings from Critique Club!

It's a nice capture, you caught the moment at just the right time. Your shutter speed and DOF work well. And you have a decent score as a result.

To do even better would probably require a better composition. I like the fence and how it is composed, but the houses in the background, and the ball being right on the door of one of the houses, are more distractions than anything else.

I know it is VERY difficult to control such things, but one trick is to set up and compose a shot before the action starts and then hope the action ends up there.

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by NicoleB76:
love his expression

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by jccminty:
A very nice photo. A little cropping to get rid of the fence would have made it even better

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by Man_Called_Horse:
There is this guideline to sport photography.

You have basically qualified this image within the guidelines except for a couple things.

First, especially when the ball is in play, it needs to be very crisp. The reason is that, as in this image, the ball will distort and detail is lost. The same goes with the athlete. A higher shuuter speed would of solved this issue.

Secondly, a tighter crop. There is too much negative space on the left. The fence is distracting. If the bg was less dynamic, more static, then the negative space would of worked. It does not in this case.

And last, your title says "Throw from Third". I see the throw, but where is third? The title does not match the image.

Comp could be better, color good, whites blown, blacks too deep, texture good, light ok, capture could be better, crisper, emotional value excellent, dof excellent, movement excellent, overall a great attempt.

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by MattO:
This has nice focus on the subject. I wish you had done a tight vertical crop to get rid of the fencing on the left. Too much space to the left and its distracting.

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by jblaylockrayner:
Lovely capture - Nice and sharp but the fence distracts far too much.

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by kolasi:
Nice framing, i like the blur on the hand and ball shows motion, which what sports are about.

Throw from Third
by mpreslar

Comment by tjbel05:
Nice capture, great clarity

Keys to Victory: Don't Beat Yourself!
by mpreslar

Comment by ursula:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Interesting idea, "competing against yourself", and you went to a lot of trouble to edit this image.

Strong points: The kid looks great, good smile, great postures. The blurred background has just enough detail to give context without becoming intrussive. The colours are gentle and good to look at. The composition is fine.

Possible weaknesses: The second pasted in shot (your son on the right) looks very much pasted in. It is not organic with the field, it looks like he's floating there, not really part of the image. However, you did a great job of editing out the other people you mention in your notes.

Overall: This is two nice images of your son playing soccer, but as a composite it needs more work to really work. Also, even though the image might mean a lot to you and your son, usually family pictures do not have a strong meaning to other viewers, especially viewers who will spend only a couple seconds voting on each image.

I hope this helps. If I can be of further help, please let me know.

~Ursula