New to Photography, Please Help

[morenoar]

Ok, I went out and just about 400 pictures this weekend. Most of them in Sports mood and others in P mode. Most of them where all MF, AF seemed to be to cumbersome. The only processing these samples have are Resizing to fit on my web page. 300D camera with a 75-300III USM 4-5.6. This is the lens that I used for 98% of my shots. All advise and pointer are appreciated. I am practicing with takeing many pictures so that when I get better, I can justify getting an L lense.

All settings on my camera where of default values. No changes except for making them on the lower L, and not raw.
Thanks


www.angelmorenojr.fotopic.net

[G3]

I think you are not getting any responses because the web site that is hosting your pictures is very, very S-L-O-W to load....I gave up after about 5 minutes.

[SoCal69]

Well, here goes....

First off, let me say, I am strictly an amateur and I have really never done any sports photography, so my comments should certainly be taken with that in mind. Overall, they are nice shots, but I noticed a couple of things. First, a few of the shots seemed under exposed to the point where I couldn't make out the player's facial expression (this may be because I am viewing them on an LCD however). The other thing was that I didn't see many close action shots or shots which really showed what was going on with the game. You had a few, but they just seemed to far away to really have any impact. I would say that you should try getting in closer on some of these shots. I like the shots of the player who was down, but I think it might have been better if we could see the expression on her face.

Again, these are just my amateur thoughts and I realize how difficult action shots are to get. I would definitely go with AF however as opposed to MF... it will give you more time to follow the action and shoot more quickly.

Hope this helps.

[G3]

OK..I got it to load that try. Maybe your hosting server was having issues before...

Anyway,
I agree...autofocus is the way to go here. It just takes a little getting used to. And, I agree that it would help tremendously to get closer to the action.

[mvrekum]

I got it loaded too, but whit some hick-ups. So here are my comments.

Personaly I do not have experience in photographing socker matches, but I do have experience in shooting other events.

The first thing to do is find the right position. For a socker match I would would choose a location between the goal and a corner flag of the weaker team, cause that is where most of the action will be. Then follow the game and if the action tends to concentrate on a different location, than move there.
Next try to shoot an action sequence. That means do not just take one picture, but keep your shutter release button pushed and take multiple images. The most difficult thing in sports photography is to hit the right moment.
One image in your album (http://angelmorenojr.fotopic.net/photo.php?id=2455792) shows the kind of action I mean, but unfortunatly you are on the wrong side of the field. :oops:

Good luck,
Martin

[morenoar]

I realy appreciate all of your comments. Most of the shots that you can not see the players, might be becuase of the angle of the Sun, maybe. It is not easy taking picuters of soccer. The moment I move to where the action was, it would move. I need to get a longer lense. I just wanted to hear from different opinions on how the pics where. There is no way I can shoot RAW. not fast enough to download the pics to the card. Now that read your comments, I can convince the Wife to let me get a BETTER LONGER lens. thanks for all of your comments. Really appreciate it.

[cityboy_ca]

IMHO

The best picture is the close up of the girl looking back over her shoulder (2455793).

Perhaps some post-processing to blur the background a bit would help to focus viewer interest on specific elements of some of the pictures. Getting closer (not always possible) would help and fill flash might have made the image of the injured girl more appealing.

Getting close in situations like this can be impossible sometimes - why not try taking pictures of the players NOT in the game or of the spectators. Sometimes their expressions can tell an interesting story.

[morenoar]

Tha you all for your input to my pictures. I have a better idea of what I must do. I just wanted to hear from you about how good or bad the pictures came out. these pictures have only been reduced in size to fit on the server. No processing what so ever. I also wanted to know if the lens I was using, you guys thought it did well in taking pictures. I have only been doing this since November, but did not realy take any pictures in December. I am saving my money for either the 100-400L or mybe the Sigma 120-300 f2.8. I think either one of these lenses will help me in regards to the pics being sharper and not having to move around to much on the field. I opted for a tripod instead of a monopod. Feel safer and more secure, but it is harder. thanks all, and I will take pictures of the crowed too. Have a good one