first paintball photog event! CC plz

[wasabean]

didn't get any love in the critique section...

hey everyone! yesterday i had my first photoshoot of a paintball event. as much as i love paintballing, i also love taking pictures of events, so i sacrificed a day of paintballing to take pictures. i mainly used my cheap-o Tamron 70-300mm telephoto to snap all the action, i didn't want to use my ef-s 17-55mm IS for obvious reasons, but please let me know what you think of some of my shots, thanks in advance!!




http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3569.jpg
3569
100mm
F/7.1
1/320
ISO-100

http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3588.jpg
3588
168MM
F/7.1
1/400
ISO-100


http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3366.jpg
3366
147MM
F/5.6
1/1600
ISO-400

http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3815.jpg
3815
176mm
F/5
1/200
ISO-100

http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3229.jpg
3229
271mm
F/5.6
1/250
ISO-100

http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3219.jpg
3219
154mm
F/5.6
1/320
ISO-100

http://www.wasabean.com/misc/paintball/IMG_3200.jpg
3200
70mm
F/6.3
1/80
ISO-100

[phylet]

Composition is quite good, and those landscape crops work well.

focus seems out on most of them and colours seem a bit bland.

What focus settings were you using?
Any USM/PP?

Oh, would you like to turn on image editing perhaps?

[LeuceDeuce]

I know that it's very hard to get the timing, but for a WOW shot I would want to see the impact of a paintball on body.

Obviously staged, but a shot like this in the field would be awesome: http://www.swatuk.com/resources/impact.jpg

[wasabean]

Composition is quite good, and those landscape crops work well.

focus seems out on most of them and colours seem a bit bland.

What focus settings were you using?
Any USM/PP?

Oh, would you like to turn on image editing perhaps?

i was on AF but the lens i was using was extremely slow at focusing, i had the tamron 70-300mm conventional lens.

i just enabled "image editing" i wasn't aware that it was turned off. thanks for you input!

[phylet]

You say AF was enabled, Drive mode or one-shot? which focus points were you using?
Id be tempted to use one-shot here, since the players are /relatively/ still.

One thing i noticed whilst 'shopping these quickly was your watermark, i hadn't noticed it before hand and even now cant read the email (i presume thats what it is).
Might wanna make that larger or remove it, personally, id go slightly larger in a semi-opaque text so its quite un-intrusive but still there for contact, also, if you know how, leave your contact details in the EXIF.

Here ive removed the distraction of some of the background paintball splats, just a personal opinion. Image almost struck me as a freedom fightery vibe, just cooled it down/added a tiny bit of contrast to add to this, think photojournalist style.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7338/wallpi9.jpg


Added some sharpness by means of USM filter in photoshop, some saturation on the guy, and a little de-saturation on the rest, with the aim being to bring him out a bit more
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9662/bankig3.jpg

[wasabean]

thanks phylet!! the first picture looks awesome, i was trying to get the same feel too; i was actually looking for a way to describe that picture, and your "freedom fighter" was EXACTLY what i was feeling.

i used mainly lightroom to do my PP, i didn't bother to use photoshop, maybe i should now since the results can be so much better.

my AF was set on one-shot center focus point.

thanks again! i have to learn how to use PS more =D

[phylet]

Thought i should add, If it were me in your place, id have gone to ISO 200, maybe 400, and used the extra light to goto F8, ive used a few 70-300 F4-5.6 lenses, and stopping down makes SO much difference to the sharpness, if you add two stops of ISO and take a stop of app and shutter, you'd be ecstatic i should guess!

Keep shooting, you've defiantly got an eye on composition that id love to have..