Minor Leagues

[bricynt]

All - please critique these shots from a rookie league game. thanks

[Donald]

On my work Tablet PC at the moment, so not going to comment on the reproductive qualities of the images.

But there's one general comment I'd make for you to consider. There's one bit of advice I got from a professional who won a number of national awards for his sports photography: - 'If you're shooting ball sports, include the ball'. Now, there are obviously exceptions to this rule, but as a general principle it has a lot going for it.

If you look at your first and second images and compare them to the third, what's the difference? In the third the player has the ball in his hand and as a result, I suggest, you have a more powerful image that's more complete in terms of telling a story. In the first, we can speculate that the player has the ball in his hand, but we can't see it or his hand. In the second we imagine that the players are looking at something that's inbound to the guy on the right. But, if that image had the ball on its flight to his hand, then it would be xxxxx times more powerful.

[Geoff F]

Nevertheless, they are all good sharply focused well exposed action shots, and the lighting appears to have been a bit difficult.

The background of the second photo is a bit distracting but you couldn't do much else there.

Keep shooting. With this type of real action photography you are bound to get a lot of rejects but the successes make it all worthwhile.

[Shadowman]

I sort of agree with Donald about including the ball, but what hurts photo#1 is timing. You captured the image about three seconds before the real action occurred. It would not necessarily have included the ball but would have shown the tension or relaxation of the pitcher prior to winding up for the pitch.

[rpcrowe]

I like the images but, think that they could be improved a bit by some tighter cropping. Cropping the row of players sitting on the bleachers off the first picture puts more emphasis on the player. Each of the other two could benefit from some jusicious cropping also.

[bricynt]

Thanks everyone for the tips and critiques. Yes, I definitely need to do a better job timing the shots...

Donald - I do have some shots with the ball included, but I did not "freeze" the
action well enough and the ball is somewhat blurred.

[wilgk]

Hi
just a thought, in some cases sharp players, with a slightly blurred ball, look ok.
The sense of movement by the fast paced ball can perhaps assist in telling the story of the action sport.

[bricynt]

Here's one with the ball, but I'm not too proud of it...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Brian,

I agree with Kay - the last thing you/I (normally) want is a static, completely frozen image.

The shot with the ball in is good in terms of shutter speed, both the bat and ball have (I would say) just the right amount of blur.

In this case, the ball's position could be better (could be worse too!), but that's down to sheer luck with timing, as even if you had shot at 5 fps and could select from a shot before or after this one, it probably wouldn't be in a significantly better position. All you can do is keep shooting (each pitch), try to improve the timing and if you have a burst/continuous mode, use it and get say 3 of each pitch/throw/whatever they're called.

It is also a shame about the foreground net, but you've managed a reasonable focus through it, but ideally a less sharp background would be better I'd suggest.

OK that's me done for now advising on something I have never shot myself but hoepefully it is good advice.

Cheers,