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11/15/2011 07:16:44 AM · #1 |
First time I'd done anything with football shots. These were all taken at a series of 'social' games in October. Have at 'em...
    
    
Would appreciate comments / critiques.
cheers |
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11/15/2011 07:29:15 AM · #2 |
| I like the series. Photos are sharp, but the thing that stands out the most is your great sense of timing. |
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11/15/2011 07:31:10 AM · #3 |
Some nice action shots there. Many of them suffer from some clutter in the background (not your fault, just due to the location). I would try and find vantage points where you can isolate your subjects against a more neutral background rather than vehicles and whatnot. If you walk all the way around the pitch you should find angles which will give you nice clear framing. Then it's a case of waiting for the action to come your way :-)
Some shots might also benefit from a tighter crop, again in order to remove some of the background distractions, but it would also serve to bring the action closer to the viewer.
e.g.
But yeah, as cloudsme says, your timing and clarity are spot on!
Message edited by author 2011-11-15 07:31:54. |
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11/15/2011 12:20:18 PM · #4 |
| I realise i didn't resize the cropped image back up to the orignal size when uploading but you get the idea... |
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11/15/2011 01:46:14 PM · #5 |
What settings are you shooting on? There seems to be a wide variety of depth of fields in these shots.
As others have said your timing and focus look to be spot on; but there is a good deal of background clutter which could be dealt with by picking a different angle, of using a narrower DOF to blur what can not be avoided. Are these full frame images?
Robert Capa said, if your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough. In this image if you could crop down to the man being tackled and the three men tackling him (and rotate it a touch, and perhaps blur the background a bit to fake a shorter DOF) you would be left with a near perfect shot. I find I tend to frame rather loose when shooting sport so I don't lose some of the action and cut off bits I will need later, but try to be vicious in cropping later, to pare the image down to it's essential action. Anyone not involved with the action the photograph is trying to convey, should not be allowed to remain in the frame. |
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11/15/2011 02:53:50 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by BrennanOB:
I find I tend to frame rather loose when shooting sport so I don't lose some of the action and cut off bits I will need later, but try to be vicious in cropping later, to pare the image down to it's essential action. |
It helps if you have a larger sensor/more pixels to work with, and are shooting from closer than the third deck. ;-)
 
Also, whenever I try this, I try to shoot with both eyes open -- one monitoring the "larger scene" and the other keeping the subject positioned in the frame. For the above photo, I was able to see the runner and the right fielder throwing the ball in with my left eye, while my right eye kept the camera centered on the home plate area, with the shutter half-depressed and ready for the runner to arrive.
Message edited by author 2011-11-15 14:54:53. |
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11/15/2011 03:11:28 PM · #7 |
Steve and I volunteered to shoot some athletics for my job. It worked out pretty well and I learned a tremendous amount. One of the tricks that Steve,  Yo_Spiff taught me was to duplicate the layer, then multiply the layer, then reduce the amount of the layer used by moving the slider. His best suggestion is to set the slider or amount to 20 but to change it up or down depending on looks. It really improves a bright picture without darkening it too much. If this does not make sense. contact Steve and NOT me to help. We currently use Paint Shop Pro but this would work in Photoshop too. The steps might be a little different but the process is about the same.
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11/15/2011 03:12:53 PM · #8 |
| shooting football? look at how Peter Bush the master of rugby photographs. |
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11/15/2011 03:17:52 PM · #9 |
| some really good images there! |
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11/15/2011 04:40:59 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
I try to shoot with both eyes open -- one monitoring the "larger scene" and the other keeping the subject positioned in the frame. |
Good tip. It takes a bit of getting used to, and can lead to headaches because they eyes are reporting back such different information.
when you do your crop, let the action dictate the frame, IMHO weird proportions are fine if they suit the image.
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11/15/2011 05:05:13 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by BrennanOB:
when you do your crop, let the action dictate the frame, IMHO weird proportions are fine if they suit the image.
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One more reason I'm not afraid to put a border ("digital mat") around the picture to bring it up to standard print size. Put a caption and the date in the border and your descendants won't have to wonder when and where you took it ...
Message edited by author 2011-11-15 17:05:39. |
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11/15/2011 06:33:12 PM · #12 |
| These are quite possibly the worst football photos I've ever seen. Not a single helmet in sight and the ball looks really weird. |
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11/15/2011 07:35:42 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by bohemka:
These are quite possibly the worst football photos I've ever seen. Not a single helmet in sight and the ball looks really weird. |
I was waiting for a class clown to chime in with a comment like this, lol! We breed our boys tough - helmets are for sissies!
Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. I will have to be far more vicious in my cropping in future. Three of these pics are full frame - numbers 3, 4 and 9; the rest have been cropped already and should obviously be cropped more - I can see what everyone's talking about there.
I was using mainly f7.1 because I was afraid I'd miss the sweet spot if I shot at f4 all afternoon (I went to f4 as the light faded). Should I have been at f4 the whole time?
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11/15/2011 07:42:57 PM · #14 |
| at that distance shooting shallow shouldn't be a problem. If you are serious about getting into shooting sports I would look at getting a 1.4 extender for your 70-200. It would give you an extra 80mm pretty cheap. Of course you would have to shoot at 5.6 at the lowest but with your 5D your iso can handle pretty high numbers. |
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11/15/2011 07:45:02 PM · #15 |
Get tight on the action and remember face, ball and action. You want those three things to make a great sports photo. Check out Skips and MattO's profiles for ideas. There was a thread about shooting sports from MattO that would be worth finding as well.
ETA found the thread HERE
Message edited by author 2011-11-15 19:47:41. |
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11/15/2011 08:32:24 PM · #16 |
To reiterate a point already made - a cluttered background can really detract from an otherwise great shot. Often you can't avoid the background, but you can greatly eliminate its impact but utilizing a shallow DOF. You have a lens that is sharp at F4, so use it there. By way of example, here's one of mine shot at F3.5. Not the greatest shot in the world, but the fact that the background is OOF isolates the subject from it.
Message edited by author 2011-11-15 20:34:59. |
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11/15/2011 09:20:29 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by pamb:
Should I have been at f4 the whole time? |
You might miss the occasional shot, but with a messy background I will always take a blurred background and a bit more speed. |
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