Here Goes Nothing! First Baseball Shots of the Season

[liza]

I'm having difficulty transitioning back to field sports after spending many happy hours photographing basketball. Here are some shots from our first game of the season. I used the Canon 20D and the 70-200 f/4L, the 75-300, and the 200L.

#1
http://EMPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/62229599-L.jpg

#2

http://EMPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/62229607-L.jpg

[liza]

#3

http://EMPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/62229626-L.jpg

#4
http://EMPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/62229605-L.jpg

[fslshooter]

Hey liza -

Looks to me like you're off to a great start in your transition! Your framing and shooting angles are perfect -- #s 1 and 3 would make excellent baseball card. I see that you were shooting into the sun which calls for more exposure than you've got here. Next time make sure your histogram shows more exposure to the right -- even blown out some. Then during post processing add more contrast and tweak saturation, curves and levels as necessary. They all look like they need a bit of USM too. I'm looking forward to the season and seeing more of your baseball stuff.

Edit -- Correction; USM looks good on #2 suggest you apply about that much to the others.

[liza]

Thanks, Jerry, for the advice on post processing. That's probably the most daunting issue for me. I only have Elements 3 and RSE, so I'm a bit limited as to what I can do. I'm always afraid of oversharpening and adding too much contrast to images. As for exposure, that was the biggest problem I had that day. I was chimping the histogram and making adjustments on the fly. Hopefully, I'll get everything worked out by the next game.
Thanks again for your advice.

[QUASIPHOTO]

Looking good Liza. It took me a couple of tries till I got that shooting into the sun thing semi ok. Good thing is.....I don't see any of that white stuff on the ground........lol. Hopefully the weather in our states will start to get more baseball/softball friendly.

[emurph2]

These look GREAT Liza!

[liza]

Thanks, guys. Yes, the shooting into the sun is giving me fits. I have a boatload of shots from baseball and softball last night to sort through and process. Don't think I'll have too many keepers from the look of things. :( As for white stuff, we had a freak storm on the 21st, but today the temps are in the 70's. We had to cancel today's baseball game due to excess rain and muddy field conditions, though. I was rather upset since I have absolutely nothing else to do this evening. Guess I'll try some of Jerry's suggestions regarding post processing.

[Curtis N]

Nice work, Liza.
On #3 and 4, the unlevel fence in the background makes them seem a little off kilter. I don't know if the camera really was out of whack or if it's just a perspective thing. Did you try straigtening them to see if they looked better?

[nicshow]

Lisa,

Good pics, thanks for sharing them!

Did you shoot these on TV? If so, what shutter speed did you use?

Thanks,

Nic

[liza]

No, as a rule I don't use TV. The exif for these is as follows:
#1: 200L lens, Aperture priority, f/3.2, ISO 200, 1/8000

#2: 200L lens, Aperture priority, f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/4000

#3: Aperture priority, ISO 200, f/5, 1/2000, (Can't remember which lens. Either the 75-300 or the 70-200. Must be my age. :) )

#4: 70-200 lens, Manual exposure, f/5.6, ISO 400, 1/1000

As you can see, I was all over the place. I like to experiment with settings in a variety of lighting conditions to see what works and what doesn't. Hopefully, I'll get it all together and post better images soon. Thanks again for all the suggestions. It's very helpful.

[chrishunt]

Great shots and it looks like you were really low on the first one, I like it! Thanks for sharing your first game of the season. This is my first season shooting baseball and I'm realizing it's a lot different than basketball, as you have pointed out. Thanks for the EXIF, it's useful.