7-on-7 Football (Attn. SportsShooters Mbrs)

[gpgyo]

Here's a couple I took today of 7-on-7 high school football. A warm up to the real thing!

Number 1



Number 2



All comments welcome,
Greg



To any TPF members that are also SportsShooter members:
I would like to begin building a portfolio of sports photos for the purpose of applying to SportsShooter. To that end, I would appreciate your most honest and constructive criticism of my sports photos. I need to know if you think I'm missing the action, not cropping correctly, take good pictures but lose it in post processing, etc. I would like my mistakes pointed out in great detail. I hope this level of critique will not only help me but the others on this forum. For the past few months I have been shooting for a community weekly newspaper and from that experience I am taking better sports pictures than ever before but I know I have a long way to go before I am producing SportsShooter caliber pictures. Over the next few months I will be shooting division 3 college football and high school sports and posting selected pictures here. I hope that you will take the time to review my posts and I look forward to your comments.

Thank you,
Greg

[Kar]

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[gpgyo]

KHlava,

First, congratulations on the recognition of your photo of the Thunderbirds. It was only one of many that you have taken that deserve recognition.

Next, thank you for your advice. The picture I posted was as I submitted to the sports editor for the paper I was shooting for. I left generous room for the paper to crop, if necessary. Based on your advice I will not do this again. Instead I will begin cropping for impact and posting those shots here for critique.

Thanks again,
Greg

[swanny338]

the first shot has nice action

[dbphotos]

Get this book from Amazon or your local bookstore:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...s&n=507846

I got it last week and read it in 2 days. I'm reading it again and looking over my notes. Great, to the point, guidelines on shooting and submitting. The author is a photographer for ESPN Magazine, Sports Illustrated, NFL Pictures (until the ended last season) and a bunch of others. He was also a photo editor for NFL pictures. He has great advice and tips.

Its worth the $23!

Bottom line is if you are submitting to a publication, let the editor decide on cropping. If you're doing it for your portfolio, crop for the biggest visual impact... that can be a problem as everyone's tast is a little different.

With regard to the photos... you have very clear and sharp photos. The colors could be a little more vibrant. A little tighter cropping, but not where you're cutting off importanta parts of the body, i.e. legs in a running shot or arms in a catching shot.

My .02 cents...

[saroy]

I'm no pro, but I like both shots. I think the action is better in the first shot, but the photo quality (lighting & sharpness especially) are better in the second. I tend to agree with KHlava about cropping, but of course it's better if you do the "cropping" with the camera itself.

Nice shots though!

[gpgyo]

Originally Posted by swanny338

the first shot has nice action

Thanks. I was glad I got this photo. The kid pictured is a great talent and much is expected of him this year.

Greg

[gpgyo]

Originally Posted by dbphotos

With regard to the photos... you have very clear and sharp photos. The colors could be a little more vibrant. A little tighter cropping, but not where you're cutting off importanta parts of the body, i.e. legs in a running shot or arms in a catching shot.

My .02 cents...

I'll work harder on better cropping when I post next and also on post processing for better color. Not very long ago FM frequent PShizzy posted his post processing workflow, which I printed. I'll revisit that to see what I can do to give better colors.

Thanks,
Greg

[gpgyo]

Originally Posted by saroy

I'm no pro, but I like both shots. I think the action is better in the first shot, but the photo quality (lighting & sharpness especially) are better in the second. I tend to agree with KHlava about cropping, but of course it's better if you do the "cropping" with the camera itself.

Nice shots though!

All comments are appreciated, especially from the non-pros who post great pictures.

The first was taken at about 60 yard at 280mm (with 1.4TC,) the second at about 30 yard at probably 150mm, no TC so I would expect the second to be better than the first. I guess your point is only ask for opinions on the best-of-the-best, which is sage counsel. On the cropping issue, I do as much as I can in camera but trying to crop perfectly in camera on a moving subject is not easy, at least not for me. Its something I'm getting better at but I still crop away 25%-40% of each picture in post processing. Is this normal? How much do you crop?

Thanks for your comments,
Greg

[Kar]

There are pleanty of articles on cropping on their web site. Sports Shooter has an annual contest and this is what they have to say. Here is the full link; http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1379

JUDGES COMMENTS:

Overall comments:
Wally Skalij: "To start off, the overall entries continue to be outstanding. In the four years I have been judging this contest, photographers seem to be taking note on what makes a great sports photo. Cropping seemed to be the only persistent problem but much improved over last year. There is a fine line in cropping and a learning process which photographers need to grasp."

Matt Brown: "What makes a good sports photo? A photo that tells a story. I don't want to have to read the caption to decide if it is an award winner ... or not. Tell me in the photo. What doesn't make a good photo? One that is cropped BADLY, with no focus point. We can't say it enough, you don't have to shoot pros to be a pro. I saw better photos during the contest from non-pro events. We saw a t-ball photo that was fresh and 50 photos of receivers catching or dropping balls."

Skalij: "On a final note: When cropping photos make sure you cut out the unnecessary backgrounds or body parts. It's ok to crop above a waist and give the photo much more of an impact. My philosophy is to shoot tight and crop tight BUT to keep it loose if the players have beautiful body language. Take chances on cropping and see what it looks like and if it doesn't work at least you are training yourself and seeing the possibilities."

[Kar]

First, congratulations on the recognition of your photo of the Thunderbirds. It was only one of many that you have taken that deserve recognition.

I want to thank you for the compliment.

[saroy]

Originally Posted by gpgyo

The first was taken at about 60 yard at 280mm (with 1.4TC,) the second at about 30 yard at probably 150mm, no TC so I would expect the second to be better than the first. I guess your point is only ask for opinions on the best-of-the-best, which is sage counsel. On the cropping issue, I do as much as I can in camera but trying to crop perfectly in camera on a moving subject is not easy, at least not for me. Its something I'm getting better at but I still crop away 25%-40% of each picture in post processing. Is this normal? How much do you crop?

Oh, I totally agree -- getting the framing perfect while tracking a moving target is not easy at all! :roll: I really have no idea what is normal. I don't shoot for publications, but when I try my hand at sports photos just for fun, I probably end up cropping anywhere from nothing to 50%? It's directly related on where I happen to have been when taking the photo. At Astros games when I'm way the heck up in the cheap seats ;) I crop a ton. Of course it shows in the image quality, and the photos would never be worthy of publishing.

Anyway, I'm sort of rambling. :) I don't even really know what my point was earlier, but I think they're both nice shots and good luck in your work towards Sportsshooter! I'd love to be a member myself someday.

[MyKey]

Being a member of SportShooters also I have to agree with Kar here. The key to getting great sports shots is tack sharp focus and a good crop to make the action "pop" out at you when you first look at the image. Negative voids are not good for action shots.

Also stay away from the posed non-action shots, those are dime a dozen, while you only may get one or two great action shots a game, work on getting those two. In time with practice you will start getting more and more of them.

[eurotrash]

the first one is nice but is a bit misfocused. and as for that white grate thingy, upon seeing that i would search as hard as i could to find a vantage point that conceals that.

im kind of in between the og photo and kar's crop really, a middle ground would do.

thanks for the book suggestion im going to go look today kar!

[mdurisseau]

Greg: The one thing that the guys that shoot sports here have taught me is to crop! Almost ruthlessly...good shots, good focus...nicely done, sir!

Kar: Where ya been?!! Good to see you post! And my congrats on your recognition...though I haven't seen the photo...

My copy of Lowrance's book is on the way...can't wait to get into that!