Soccer pics for critique please

[Julianne]

I normally shoot basketball, but was excited to take some soccer pics last weekend for my neighbor.....how could you miss! Outdoors, green grass, blue sky, red uniforms.... Never having even seen a soccer game, however, and not having the best glass for telescopic photography, I could use some tips on technique for next time... Here are a few shots.

[In2Photos]

Not bad for a first attempt. The timing is pretty good and you can see faces which is very important. I can't comment on color and exposure as I am not on my calibrated screen.

Here are some things to work on:

1. Keep your shutter speed up. You can see motion blur in both pics. First one is 1/180. Try for at least 1/1000. You can accomplish this by wither opening up your lens or raising the ISO.
2. Shoot wide open or at least close to it. This will blur your backgrounds and make your subjects "pop". It also allows for faster shutter speeds. If your lens is not very godd wide open you can stop it down but not too far. In the first your aperture was f/9.5, way too high.
3. Watch your focus. The second appears to be on your the player in the background. See how sharp the number on the jersey is compared to the players in the foreground.
4. Shoot close (which you did) and crop closer. Get rid of the extra space when you can.
5. You shot low from the ground which is good but watch your backgrounds and foregrounds. Shooting wide open can help hide those trees and power lines but so can standing up sometimes.

[Julianne]

Thanks that's great advice.....if I shoot wide open and my shutter speed is too low, I can compensate w/ ISO up to what point without getting grainy? I am shooting RAW....

[In2Photos]

Thanks that's great advice.....if I shoot wide open and my shutter speed is too low, I can compensate w/ ISO up to what point without getting grainy? I am shooting RAW....
Assuming you are shooting with your 70-300 f/4-5.6 you should be able to shoot at f/5.6, ISO100, 1/800 in direct sunlight. At ISO 200 that moves to 1/1600. On your XTi ISO 400 should be pretty clean with grain starting to show at ISO 800 and 1600. I shot ISO 1600 with my XT last night at some softball. Normally I don't shoot that high but I had to in order to get 1/200 at f/4 and I still have to increase exposure during processing. The noise is certainly more tolerable than completely blurry pics though. ;)

[Big Hands]

I would also try to shoot in a vertical orientation if possible to give you the most resolution after cropping. It takes a bit of practice to keep the subjects in the frame, but it's not terribly difficult.

I shot soccer with that lens for several years when I was shooting film with my Elan 7e and you can get plenty of usable shots in good light.

Not bad for a first try, but a couple other things to consider.

Your exposure is decent and it looks like you had the sun more or less behind you. That's good.

You also shot from a lower perspective. Good as well.

You have faces (good) and some degree of activity (good again), but there is no ball in the first and in this case it makes it confusing to figure out what is happenning.

The second shot shows a lot of promise if it were not for the misfocus. BUT, you're heading in the right direction with that one. I'd crop it closer for presentation. That player running away from the play is distracting and takes from the shot, but that's what photoshop (or other photo editors) are for.

You're off on the right foot though, so keep at it.

[superdiver]

You are off to a MUCH better start then I ever had....LOL

All the above adice is dead on...practice some more and post. You will see how much you improve...

Then if you really want to feel bad, go look at Gmans work...the stuff is out of this world...but it gives you something to shoot at....LOL

[Julianne]

Thank you thank you thank you...... I will take another stab at it this weekend and post what i get. I didn't think about turning that big long lens sideways into a portrait angle, which is how I always shoot with my 50mm, so I will try that as well.

Superdiver, YOU, actually are the one who taught me how to shoot basketball, so I always take your advice very seriously. :)

Here's a couple of basketball shots I took .......just so you can see your faithful student's efforts.....