Soccer, football, baseball (oh my!) action shots

9 years 9 months ago #394631 by [email protected]
Hi gang! Sports photography is my passion. Give me some thoughts on these.

1)


2)


3)


4)


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9 years 9 months ago #394644 by icepics
You got some nice shots. I usually try to frame to not have the edge of someone in the photo (I'd probably crop the left side of the first one). I like the way you framed them nice and straight, I find that can be really noticeable in sports with posts etc. I usually like to have enough depth of field to have all the players who will be in the shot all in focus, I'm thinking the one with Dugger might have worked better to have the kid ready to receive more sharp.

Are you familiar with http://www.sportsshooter.com ? I've used their site as a resource, it's done by a few pro working sports photographers (took a workshop I found out about thru them several years ago held at the NCAA headquarters, and a webinar with SI's photo editor).  

Sharon
Photo Comments
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9 years 9 months ago #395423 by Stealthy Ninja

icepics wrote: You got some nice shots. I usually try to frame to not have the edge of someone in the photo (I'd probably crop the left side of the first one). 


Disagree.  That shot needs the leading space on the left, that's the direction the guy is looking and it seems to be where the ball will be heading.  If anything I'd have cropped a bit out of the top right (like this):

Uncropped:


Cropped:

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9 years 9 months ago #395425 by Stealthy Ninja

icepics wrote: I usually like to have enough depth of field to have all the players who will be in the shot all in focus, I'm thinking the one with Dugger might have worked better to have the kid ready to receive more sharp.


I agree the other kid should have been the focus of this shot, but I disagree with the DOF being too shallow.

A shallower dof in sports can look great:




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9 years 9 months ago - 9 years 9 months ago #395672 by garyrhook
+1 on SN's posts, above. Completely agree regarding the crop and DoF.

<Edit> Those football shots are awesome. Where did they come from? </Edit>


Photo Comments
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9 years 9 months ago #395704 by [email protected]
Yeah, I left the left side of the baseball pic in there, like SN said, to have space on the side the ball is going and he's looking. I did however, stamp out the clutter in the background which makes it a bit more pleasing photo now:


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9 years 9 months ago #395748 by icepics
I think that looks much better, that's been my experience doing sports, to go for a clean composition. I'd thought too it would have looked better if possible to change the vantage point so the tree trunk wasn't directly behind the batter, and adjusting the framing could have provided more leading space. I learned to go early and figure out possible vantage points before a game, to take a look thru the viewfinder at backgrounds and how that's going to look in my pictures, and what action I could get from a particular location. I've also found shooting sports involves a lot of posts and poles and signage and I usually try to take that into consideration since it's often going to be in the background - looks great here keeping things even and straight in the shots.

My thinking of the one with the two players was that the photo is of them interacting so it would have been better having both in focus. Often sports photographers tend to use a midrange aperture depending on the sport and the playing field but may use a larger aperture to isolate a particular player.

Sharon
Photo Comments
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9 years 9 months ago - 9 years 9 months ago #395760 by ubookoo
Great shots!! Really like numbers 3 and 4. My only nit would be to crop a bit lower down on the top of the last one so the ref has less of a "decapitated" look.


The following user(s) said Thank You: [email protected]
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9 years 8 months ago #398934 by Travel Nut
Beautiful captures; excellent series!!


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9 years 7 months ago #402295 by Simon Says
Nice set. #1 and#3 are my favorite.


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