Texas High School Football

[jpsamora]

I tried last week with my 400D and was severely disappointed with my results. Borrowed a friend's 40D and paired it with my Sigma 70-200 2.8 and am much happier this week. Looks like I'll be saving up for a 40D!

C&C always welcome. I'm looking to get better after all!

1
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/td.jpg

2
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/stretch.jpg

3
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/run.jpg

4
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/run2.jpg

5
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/qb2.jpg

6
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/catch.jpg

7
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/Tanner1.jpg

8
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/Tanner3.jpg

[Big K]

Your white balance is way off on most of these. Did you AWB or something else?

#1 appears a bit underexposed.

#2 is very soft

#3 is better than #2 but also soft

#4 is good but could benefit from a tighter crop

#5 is soft and looks like the shutter speed was too slow

#6 needs a tighter crop

#7 is way soft and should have been deleted in my opinion

#8 is the best of the bunch by far and would have been excellent if the WB was corrected.

[vetkrazy]

Have to agree, white balance is all over the place. I see from your exif that you used a manual white balance, were these shot under lights? If so, the cycle of the lights can explain this. If you did not I would suggest shooting in raw as the white balance issue is much easier to correct. The other issue is that most of these are very soft. Are these heavy crops?

[hprebel311]

1-good boca and you can see his eyes but did you try at a higher exposure (it seems dark)?
2- this is one of the best ones. it's got good focus and you can even see the flag mid fall.
3- cool shot with good focus but somehow not as exciting as some of the others.
4- another one of the best ones. i like how you see his face and the guy behind him who already missed him.
5- grainy but really good because you can see the effort he's putting in in the shot. and i know maybe even better than you how grainy they get at dick bivins.
6- good shot. i like how you left it wide to see the reactions of everybody else, plus it has good boca.
7- i disagree with big k, don't delete. it's not as soft as he thinks and you can see the focus on his face. i actually think it's a really cool one.
8- i think this is your best one. the focus is great and you can see his eyes and focus really well. i like how you even have the blur on his hand pushing the guy off.

the white seems kinda blue, but i remember having a lot of that in soccer that time of day too. overall they're really good! and it makes me jealous to not have a nice camera anymore. :P

[jpsamora]

Thanks for the comments so far.

I got to the game a little late and took a few pictures at AWB and it wasn't working. I switched to Tungsten and they still looked off. So I took a picture of a white t-shirt and used that for Custom WB. It's weird because I don;t get a blue cast on my desktops monitor at all. I guess it needs to be calibrated. Now that I am more comfortable with the 40D, I will shoot in RAW if I get to use it again.

I knew most of the pics would be a little soft since I was shooting at 2.8 and at the higher end of the zoom. Any suggestions on how to get them sharper in camera? I did two applications of USM at 150/1/10 and then faded the second application to 50%. All on the lightness channel in Lab color.

Are these any better/worse?

9
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/oline.jpg

10
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/Tanner2.jpg

11
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/qb.jpg

12 This one for the reactions of the coaching staff. Going for it on 4th and 2 down by a touchdownn and the QB never turned up field!!!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/jedisrus/Football/emotions.jpg

[hprebel311]

all of them except the third are a lot better on the white balance problem, and i think the third might just be because it's dark. i like how the focus is in 9 (like with the ref in it but blurry).

[AdamLewis]

Theyre all either dark, blurred, slightly out of focus, or have WB issues. The ones that dont exhibit one problem exhibit another.

Im not sure what you used to manually set your white balance but it was done improperly.
Im also very confused on the lighting. At 740, you had enough light for 1/2000. Then, just 12 minutes later, you only have the light for 1/400. Thats rather odd to me.

FWIW, try to get off of priority modes if you can. Colored uniforms and dark/bright backgrounds all fool the camera into thinking there is more/less light present than there really is. Shooting in manual will fix this. It may be annoying to learn, but it will make you better in the end.

What focus mode are you using? And how many focus points?

[jpsamora]

Theyre all either dark, blurred, slightly out of focus, or have WB issues. The ones that dont exhibit one problem exhibit another.

Im not sure what you used to manually set your white balance but it was done improperly.
Im also very confused on the lighting. At 740, you had enough light for 1/2000. Then, just 12 minutes later, you only have the light for 1/400. Thats rather odd to me.

FWIW, try to get off of priority modes if you can. Colored uniforms and dark/bright backgrounds all fool the camera into thinking there is more/less light present than there really is. Shooting in manual will fix this. It may be annoying to learn, but it will make you better in the end.

What focus mode are you using? And how many focus points?

I think the field had some hot spots. I shoot soccer in manual. But sometimes I forget to adjust one setting or another while shooting football and get some messed up shots. I'm going to try RAW and manual next week and see if I can get the job done properly. Of course I will probably be back with the Rebel XTi at that point.

This was my first time using the 40D and I didn't have a chance to figure out how to access all of the settings before the game. I think I used AI Servo and I know I only used 1 focus point, that being center. Good or bad move in your opinion?

Thanks again for the comments.

[manutd101]

I think the field had some hot spots. I shoot soccer in manual. But sometimes I forget to adjust one setting or another while shooting football and get some messed up shots. I'm going to try RAW and manual next week and see if I can get the job done properly. Of course I will probably be back with the Rebel XTi at that point.

This was my first time using the 40D and I didn't have a chance to figure out how to access all of the settings before the game. I think I used AI Servo and I know I only used 1 focus point, that being center. Good or bad move in your opinion?

Thanks again for the comments.
Good move.

[AdamLewis]

I think the field had some hot spots. I shoot soccer in manual. But sometimes I forget to adjust one setting or another while shooting football and get some messed up shots. I'm going to try RAW and manual next week and see if I can get the job done properly. Of course I will probably be back with the Rebel XTi at that point.

This was my first time using the 40D and I didn't have a chance to figure out how to access all of the settings before the game. I think I used AI Servo and I know I only used 1 focus point, that being center. Good or bad move in your opinion?

Thanks again for the comments.

Wow those are some definite hot spots then. I hate fields like that. The only thing you can do is adjust on the fly or shoot with a flash.
RAW is always better IMO so long as you have the storage space and the time to work with them. The JPG will end up looking better and it will control noise better (you can also fix your white balance easily AND it gives you more exposure latitude to mess with).

Servo with center point is definitely the way to go. Just make sure you keep the center point on your subject.