Soccer, in bad weather and light...

[namasste]

some of the worst I've shot in a while. Rained the entire game. Glasses were totally smeared as was my fogged up Kata cover so I could barely see anything. To make it worse, what little light there was faded quickly to the dismal light of a HS field. Here's what I managed to come away with....

1.
http://www.sephotos.net/img/v1/p1055647793-5.jpg

2.
http://www.sephotos.net/img/v1/p727072503-5.jpg

3.
http://www.sephotos.net/img/v1/p740873899-5.jpg

4.
http://www.sephotos.net/img/v1/p784263705-5.jpg

5.
http://www.sephotos.net/img/v1/p670596877-5.jpg


6.
http://www.sephotos.net/img/v1/p823406569-5.jpg

[Aaagogo]

brave man, shooting in the rain.

judging from the angles, you were shooting from the sidelines, were you moving up and down the field with play or camped out at 1 spot?

[manutd101]

Nice shots, they convey the atmosphere quite well. I know the feeling of both you and the players.

[namasste]

brave man, shooting in the rain.

judging from the angles, you were shooting from the sidelines, were you moving up and down the field with play or camped out at 1 spot?

I hate shooting in the rain but for this team, I shoot for pay (not spec) so if they ask me to shoot, I usually do unless it's just ridiculous. It was rainign pretty good most of the game.

As for angles, I move a ton during a game (football too). You can always seem to get good action along the sides since many of the "battles" are fought around midfield. I so like shooting goal line when liught permits though so I'll usually try to hit that up early on before I only have stadium lights. Once the lights are up, I move to the sides so I can utilize as much (little) as they give.

[namasste]

Nice shots, they convey the atmosphere quite well. I know the feeling of both you and the players.
thanks, I'm trying to be a little more PJ in my style. It's actually more fun that way.

[chadmcm]

Bad weather - around here, it doesn't feel like soccer season until it's raining so hard you can't see across the field and the temperature's down to 40-45 degrees F. That's why I referee - so I can move around more while I watch the game!

Nice captures. I especially like the exhuberant keeper.

[Dan-o]

They look good Scott. Still no 300 2.8 :)

[AdamLewis]

Scott,

Can you do me a huge favor and post the first image again without any NR done to it? If you shot in raw, you can just do the chroma channel, but Id like to see it without NN or NeatImage done to it.

Also, are you looking for CC or just sharing?

[namasste]

Scott,

Can you do me a huge favor and post the first image again without any NR done to it? If you shot in raw, you can just do the chroma channel, but Id like to see it without NN or NeatImage done to it.

Also, are you looking for CC or just sharing? you know I'll always take some cc. I'll post it from home tonight after I pull the RAW file and upload it. Trust me, for this game, I was happy to have anything usable, NN or no NN, I literally couldn't see between the rain on my glasses and my rain cover.

Dan...guess what man? I sent a check for one yesterday and should ahve it by next week. Cannot wait!!!!!!

[AdamLewis]

#1 Background. The umbrella guy is distracting. As is the overturned goal(?) and the crooked horizon. The NR also kills it for me. This really applies to all the other ones. Thats why Im curious how it looks converted from RAW.

#2 Is alright. Not very dynamic. Just a girl looking at a ball really. The edge of the frame is also distracting. Youve got one left arm that looks like it would be running but then another left arm thats connected to a girl that looks like shes walking? Its just odd.

#3 Background again. What does it add to the picture? I see a giant goalpost and some girls walking around. Its just really detracting from the picture. This one is also just OOF. You can see the patch of grass behind the player being very sharp but theyre significantly forward of that plane.

#4 Nothing you can do about this but the image just falls apart being so wide. I see it was at 200 so theres really not much you can do about it. Having such an empty space kills the emotion that could have been there.

#5 Another background issue. Im also wondering where her other arm is. Awkward position. Its also a little drab to have your subject smack in the middle of the frame. Rule of thirds may seem old but it can be your friend. Ill admit, I fall into the same habit sometimes but Im trying to work harder to avoid it.

#6 Would be nice if you could see the player who the arm belongs to. Could probably benefit from a different crop too.

Keep in mind, Im critiquing these from a sports image perspective and not a "sell to parents/run in the paper" perspective.

P.S. Dont hate me.

[stince]

Not bad considering the lighting.

What lens were you shooting with? :)

[drumebskater]

i love seeing pictures like #4 as i am a goalkeeper too, but it is just too far away from the player, and the angle could be waay better, but besides that, some nice shots

[Paul S]

Scott, Nice job - I really enjoy shooting in the rain. Must be a hold over from my backpacking days :)

[namasste]

i love seeing pictures like #4 as i am a goalkeeper too, but it is just too far away from the player, and the angle could be waay better, but besides that, some nice shots
thing was I was moving back up the sidelines when the goal happened that caused the jube so you shoot where you are and hope to catch the emotion. thanks for the kind words...besides, thats my niece in goal so I had to catch that one or risk her wrath later:lol:

all shot with the 70-200 btw. Had I tried to crop it tighter, it just would have been a poor result.

[namasste]

Scott, Nice job - I really enjoy shooting in the rain. Must be a hold over from my backpacking days :)
Right on Paul, thanks. You gotta love the rain to bp. Photography on the other hand....

[900spg]

I really like shots 1 and 3 the best. The details in the water in the first and then the timing on catching the struggle on the third shot. The rain sucks to shoot in but can add to the photos in some ways. All in all nice work in my opinion.

[corythosaurus]

Great shots. Good action and emotion!

[namasste]

Keep in mind, Im critiquing these from a sports image perspective and not a "sell to parents/run in the paper" perspective.

P.S. Dont hate me.

Adam, you know I appreciate cc so no worries man. As you know some things simply are what they are (backgrounds being one of them). On some of those, had I moved to the other side of the goal, the background you didn't like would be replaced by the opposite post and a concession stand. HS fields are just that way. If you want to shoot goal line at some fields, it's just the way it is. I did laugh at your comment on #6...dude, look where I must have been standing. With her behind an umbrella, I would have to have been in the field of play to have gotten her in the image. You had to see that so that's the only one where I'd say your cc is way off the mark. On the one of the slide tackle, I agree that its a fuzz oof but some of that is dof too. Consider f2.8 then look at the distance from her face to tip of her foot. Pushing the limits on dof at f2.8 I think but it was an expression worth keeping anyway.

Thanks for taking the time to go over each one. I know you HATE noise reduction and when I have 2 seconds today, I'll upload a RAW conversion with no NR. Im anxious to see what you think.

[namasste]

a'ight Lewis....since you asked, here's the RAW converted to JPEG with no exposure push or noise reduction. I did one USM pass at 135/.6/6 and cropped to MaxPreps ratio, that's it. I'm interested to see how you feel about this compared to the other one.

http://www.sephotos.net/img/v0/p24036190-5.jpg

[Croasdail]

I don't think they are all that bad at all. The one that doesn't work for me is 5, it is the only one the background actual hurts the image because of the lack of energy from the players in the background. The players in the back almost make it look like it was taken during warm ups. The others are just a fact of life in shooting high school sports - the venues can be just less than appealing.

On the other hand, I love shooting in conditions like this. Rain soaked players, water spray, muck, mess.... it's a joy to shoot in. Really. And I think you did a good job dealing with it. An area I Adam and I are in sync is noise reduction. You really got to use it like its made of gold - very sparingly. I always prefer a little noise to plasticated leggs. I don't think you went too far, but I don't see a reason to have messed with it either.

On image 6, the missing person associated with the arm doesn't bother me either. It is just the difference of whether the subject is the girl, or the girls. In this case, the subject is the girl only. And what the image says she is having fun with her friends. Who those friends are isn't as important. It's just shows the relationship she has with team mates.

Good stuff though.... thanks for sharing.

[namasste]

I don't think they are all that bad at all. The one that doesn't work for me is 5, it is the only one the background actual hurts the image because of the lack of energy from the players in the background. The players in the back almost make it look like it was taken during warm ups. The others are just a fact of life in shooting high school sports - the venues can be just less than appealing.

On the other hand, I love shooting in conditions like this. Rain soaked players, water spray, muck, mess.... it's a joy to shoot in. Really. And I think you did a good job dealing with it. An area I Adam and I are in sync is noise reduction. You really got to use it like it make of gold - very sparingly. I always prefer a little noise to plasticated leggs. I don't think you went too far, but I do see a reason to have messed with it either.

On image 6, the missing person associated with the arm doesn't bother me either. It is just the difference of whether the subject is the girl, or the girls. In this case, the subject is the girl only. And what the image says she is having fun with her friends. Who those friends are isn't as important. It's just shows the relationship she has with team mates.

Good stuff though.... thanks for sharing. Mark, thanks for the comments and having a peak. I do agree with you and Adam on the NR thing. Sometimes I nail the settings in the Ninja and sometimes I get close then can't help myself and push it just a little too far. I will def. keep that in mind as we enter what I call the season of little light.

Again, thanks for taking the time to raelly have a look, I appreciate that a lot.

[AdamLewis]

a'ight Lewis....since you asked, here's the RAW converted to JPEG with no exposure push or noise reduction. I did one USM pass at 135/.6/6 and cropped to MaxPreps ratio, that's it. I'm interested to see how you feel about this compared to the other one.

http://www.sephotos.net/img/v0/p24036190-5.jpg

I like this one SOOO much better. You can actually see texture now in her legs and her right arm and her forehead no longer looks like a doll! If you want plasticky people, go shoot a Nikon! :lol:

In all seriousness, the only NR I run is mild chroma reduction through DPP. I personally feel that NN runs too much and you end up with something lost. Its, IMO, the exact same thing you get from Nikons. Sure they dont have noise at high ISO but they also lose DETAIL. Its not worth the tradeoff IMO.

[twoshadows]

Good work in very tough conditions. Bravo!

[namasste]

Good work in very tough conditions. Bravo!many thanks!