Still a noob...some youth baseball

[abie10]

Still new in this world...here are some youth baseball pics... (I'm VERY weak at post-processing)

http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/1.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/2.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/3.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/4.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/5.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/6.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/7.JPG
http://www.grantsbikerally.com/waytogo/images/8.JPG

[LeesaB]

Some look a little dark, some noisy, are you using any kind of PP on them? or are these straight from the card?

[dmwierz]

The good news is, your timing looks pretty good.

It's always a good idea to number your shots, too, so people can more easily refer to them individually.

Now for the not so good...

Here's the info from one of the images (the batter in the pink helmet):

Exposure Time: 1/4000 sec
F-Number: f/9.0
Exposure Program:Shutter Priority
ISO Speed Rating:1600
Lens Aperture: f/9.0

Where to start? First of all, there is NO reason on Earth to EVER shoot ISO 1600 in broad daylight (at least none I can think of). That's why every one of these shots has way too much noise.

Secondly, you are shooting sports, so open your lens up all the way. f/9.0 is far too stopped down for a sports shot.

Thirdly, do NOT shoot Tv mode. Reread that last sentence and commit it to memory. Is there something Canon is publishing that is telling folks to shoot Tv for sports? I have never seen so many sports images shot in shutter priority as I have in the past 6 months.

Shoot Av or learn to shoot manual. You want to isolate your subject from the background - this is one of the hallmarks of a solid sports image. This means shooting with the largest aperture your lens will allow (while maintaining the highest quality). Shooting Tv will allow the camera to decide on aperture, which is wrong, wrong, wrong. Small aperture lenses are for point-n-shoots, not expensive DSLR's with expensive lenses.

See how the people in the bleachers are in focus on the pink helmet shot? This is not what you want - you want to BLUR the background via shallow depth of field, and the best way to do this is to open your lens up and keep it open. And the best way to take control of your aperture is to (you guessed it) shoot in Av mode.

The EXIF also shows you did something to the white balance. Why?

You'll want to learn about curves adjustments in PhotoShop to recover the details in the shadows - you shot at mid-day which is pretty challenging, but parents (and most folks) want to see nice faces, not smudges.

Given that most of these are a tad under-exposed, and assuming we maintain the same exposure value as you shot, if you open your lens up to even f/4.0 and bring your ISO down to 400, you would still be able to have a shutter speed of around 1/2500s, and your depth of field would be much better and all the noise in the images would go away, the background would blur nicely, and you would be able to better pull the details out of the shadows in post processing (due to the noise decrease). If your lens allows a larger aperture (like f/2.8 ), go with that, and either bring your ISO down one more stop, or let your shutter speed get one stop faster.

Sorry to be so "harsh", but since you're just starting out, this is an excellent time to learn.

[pigtailpat]

I love the expression you got on the little one in the purple (pink??) helmet (batter shot) wherein you caught the ball in the air as well.

If it were not for the noise on that shot, it would have been so lovely for the mom of the kid. The expression is priceless. Perhaps the shot can be saved with noise ninja or some other noise reduction software.

Dennis is right - there is no reason to shoot an ISO that high in broad daylight. I can't figure what camera you have - if you have the 30 d, even at 1600 there will be noise no matter what.

The goal is to keep your ISO as low as possible, but your shutter up, and shoot in AV (aperture priority) mode. It will take awhile to figure manual mode (I experiment with manual every now and then - I'm still trying to work myself up to get more comfortable to use manual shooting - I'm still a bit gripped by fear that I am not fast enough and will miss shots).

The shooters on this forum are a great bunch of people, don't hesitate to ask if you need information.

A great tip I learned from Jerry here on the forum, use center point for focus and keep it aimed not at the face, but at the chest/beltline of the person. In my beginning I was getting so many OOF shots and I just couldn't figure what I was doing wrong. Just that simple little tip helped me alot.

Hope this helps.

[abie10]

Please...be harsh as possible!

I'm using the Rebel XTi...I'm still learning all the exposure stuff...so I left it at 1600 ... but what you all have told me has already taught me more than I have read.

I'll take all your tips and learn from them...if you or anyone has more, please please help me out :)

[dmwierz]

Abie,

There is a lot to learn, but it's actually pretty simple, and once you learn the stuff, most of it them comes down to how to apply it, and timing. Your timing is already pretty good, so you got that going for you, which is nice.

Download this document:

http://www.digital-eos.com/PDF/Shooting_LLB_Baseball_Handbook.pdf (clicking will download the PDF)

It has a TON of great information about shooting Little League baseball.

[jrjphoto]

so you got that going for you, which is nice.

Good Caddyshack reference. :)

Abie, your timing really is great (it probably doesn't hurt that you're a coach). Those are some wonderful captures. Now all you need to do is learn the technical side of photography and you're all set. And like everyone is saying: it's really not that hard. It just takes practice, like everything else. So keep trying and keep showing us your pics! :)

Oh, and what lens were you using with your XTi?

[akhoopes]

great timing great info here thanks

[Yuztoo]

Firstly, as others have mentioned your timing on these shots is great.
You're already ahead of the game in that regard.

Secondly, as a fellow user of the 400D (xti) and noob, heres a few things I found to be useful.
ISO 100 should be your defult setting, I exhaust all other avenues before pushing ISO up (aperature wide open, slower shutter speed, moving lights/subject around) as in my case even at ISO 400 the results are pretty noisy, and too me mostly unacceptable.

Also you mentioned PP is your weak point, here are three links which have just about taught me everything I know about photoshop (admittedly thats not a whole lot, yet).

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/
http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/
^^^this one I especially love as there a hundreds of short video turorials usually adressing a single problem or task.
http://www.photoshopusertv.com/
^^^this can only be described as cheap and cheesy, without a NAPP subscription you can only watch this weeks episode, but the quality of information presented is pretty good, even though some of it too advanced or of little interest to me personally.


Lastly, I had a play with one of your images, just so I could try out some of the things I've learnt the last few weeks, as I'm slowly getting sick of looking at the same shots I've already taken.

This is what I did in CS3.
Corrected Highlights, Midtones and Shadows (although this was probably unecessary)
Slightly sharpened + selectively sharpened the ball
Dodged eyes
Created DOF effect (its at the start of this weeks photoshopusertv episode) and also my first try at it, so the result isn't fantastic.



You definetly have a great eye, well done.

[TiKTaC]

You guys have answered so many questions that I didn't know how to ask. Great post and thanks. ;)

[kgauger30]

Another tip is to make sure that your shutter speed is above 1000. That way you can get that occasional bat on ball action and everything that goes along with it. It looks like you are shooting young kids so if they are pitching it shouldn't be that fast to get your timing down perfect. Adjust your ISO as needed to keep it above 1000. And if it gets dark out and your shutter goes under say 800, then it is time to put it down and enjoy the rest of the game as a wise man on here told me.
Have fun and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE, you have a good start.

[sportsphotos]

I have to admit I was shooting sports in TV mode to at 1st. Since you can slow the image a little better but then you loose so much clearidy.

If its sunny I Would Put it on AV mode and set the shutter at 1/500 or 1/800 and the iso between 200 or 400 and have it on AWB (auto white balance) you should gwt some great shots I believe.

does that sound right Dmwierz

[Mike_Canon5D]

Your timing is great, just apply the technical stuff already mentioned, and thanks dmwierz, those are great pointers.

[dmwierz]

As for the Tv versus Av thing, the only time in the past 6 months I have shot in Tv (day, night, sunny, cloudy, etc.) was when covering a NASCAR race a few weeks ago, when I knew I wanted to have exactly 1/200s for my shutter speed in order to pan, and didn't care much what my aperture was because the background was going to be blurred from the panning. Other than that, it's been Av or M - All day, All night, Marianne (down by the seaside siftin' sand). OK, at night, I usually will shoot Manual, but I liked the oldies song reference...

I use M when the light is consistent and there are no shadows on the field (track, court, pitch, etc.) then Av when the sun is in and out of the clouds, or when there are shadows across parts of the playing area, etc.

This is a curious statement, though, Yuztoo:

in my case even at ISO 400 the results are pretty noisy

There is no reason why you should see anything resembling "noise" with a modern Canon camera until you're up to around ISO 1600 unless you're severely underexposing your images. You've got some 'splainin' to do, Lucy

[silvex]

Here you go a lil neat image and USM...

[dmwierz]

OK, I'll bite. Let's see how well we can pull his eyes out from the deep shadow under his helmet...

Lost some detail in the highlights, and his skin got a little too light, but the parents would probably never notice. Took 3 minutes. A little curves adjustment a levels adjustment and a boost in saturation (before the save-for-web routine) was all it took.

Compare it to the original image below it. A little bit of an improvement, and you could get something better with more time and effort.

[Mike_Canon5D]

Here are my 2 cents. Shadow/highlight adjustment, a bit of saturation, some dodging around the eyes, USM, and Noiseware.

194552

[pigtailpat]

[quote=Mike_Canon5D;3659318]Here are my 2 cents. Shadow/highlight adjustment, a bit of saturation, some dodging around the eyes, USM, and Noiseware.


WOW! I really like how the noiseware took care of the noise. Is it a photoshop plugin, or a standalone product? Is it hard to use? What's the learning curve to using it?

I really appreciate you posting your efforts on this pic. In 2 weeks, I will be shooting alot of indoor stuff at my church's VBS and I anticipate getting some noise with that type of lighting.

Thanks!

[dmwierz]

The "Pro" version of Noise Ninja comes as both a stand alone and plug-in. I believe the Standard version is a stand-alone only.

[Mike_Canon5D]

Yes, the pro version comes in both, stand alone, and plugin. You can download a free version (not the pro though) of Imagenomic Noiseware here: http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx Just scroll down the page and look for the Noiseware Community Edition Standalone.

[TiKTaC]

Here is my try at it.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/TiK-TaC/3.jpg