U-5 Soccer Photos, C&C wanted

[canons900]

A few shots from this Saturday. It was cloudy and overcast most of the morning. I bumped the ISO to 400 ,all shot at f4 with the Sigma 100-300mm.

SS was at 1/2500, all shot manual. If I left anything out, let me know. any recommendations on making these better or improving for the future are greatly appreciated.

I enjoyed it this weekend, the boys are learning a lot and beginning to understand passing. They still bunch up, but they passed the ball quite well for 5 year olds. It was a close game too.

Most importantly, the boys had fun. Anyways, here are the images, let me know your thoughts.

[canons900]

21 views and no comments? Are they that bad?

[shootinsmiles]

Give it some time. You'll get responses.

Both images seem a little soft. It appears that your focus point was about 12 inches in front of the main subject each time. It might be my screen but the grass blades in front of the subject are in focus while the blades around the shoe are OOF. While the bokeh looks great in the background it's causing too tight a DOF around the subject. Were you shooting AI Servo? It could be caused by a delay in time difference between focus and shooting. If you are not using AI Servo, then you should switch. You could also bump up the f-stop a little to give you more "in-focus" range on the DOF.
Otherwise the composition is good as you got faces and action in the shot. With little ones it's best to get their eyes up (there is so much emotion in little player's eyes) but that's very difficult when they are focused on not missing the ball.

My .03 (adjusted for inflation)

[Eric2007]

I agree with shootinsmiles that they do look OOF. Always try to post your images with EXIF data intact...it helps a lot! Were you using center focus point and AI Servo? If not, do so for that could fix the OOF issues easily. I think both images could benefit with being cropped a little tighter but the most common mistake I see people do is not straightening the horizons and it appears that yours are good so +1 for you! I also think that the smaller the player, the closer to the ground you should be when shooting these guys. A while back I saw some shots from someone who I think was shooting from their belly and those I thought looked really good. Anyways...that's my opinion...

[canons900]

I am shooting center focus point with AI servo. I am sitting on the ground using a monopod.

These were shot at f4 iso 400 (very cloudy) 1/2500th. I have a few more to post if you want to see them. These looked sharp on my imac in the office. I do see they are OOF. I will try shooting at some at f 5.6 this Wednesday. Another game.

Yes someone commented on an earlier post about my horizons so I have become aware of that when I do PP and shooting.

Where would you crop more, top and bottom, sides, or all of them. I try to leave a little extra for printing borderless. I guess I can crop tighter for web posting and redo the crop in LR prior to printing.

Let me know if you want to see more. I can post the more link to them.

[canons900]

And thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it.

Scott

[shaneh]

http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m440/808_paintball/Soccerpotn2of1.jpg

My quick edit. That half guy was bothering me, so i put some stuff to cover it. Maybe some PP will give it the oof. Try lightroom

[Eric2007]

How tight to crop all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Personally, I generally crop to 5"x7" since my intent is to sell printed versions of the images. I don't crop specific to the image since it does me no good if the image looks bad at 5"x7" but looks good at 4.3" x 6.6" because they don't sell 4.3" x 6.6" paper or frames. Now, if you are just trying to make your image look its best on the web...crop away because it doesn't matter on the end size/ratio. So, with that said...below is how I would have cropped those 2 images. You will notice on the first one that I had to clone out the arm of the person in the background. Leaving it in was way too distracting IMO...

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/EJB2007/IMG_3153_edited-2.jpg

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/EJB2007/IMG_3167_edited-1.jpg

[canons900]

Eric,
How is this crop and the focus for this image? I am really trying to nail that sweet spot when it comes to getting the focus spot on. Let me know your thoughts on this photo.
Scott

[eigga]

Im not on my editing monitor but they seem underexposed. f/4 1/2500 and ISO 400 also sounds like too much shutter for a cloudy day.

Any editing done? Contrast, Vibrance, Saturation? They lack "pop" you can get in post on cluody days. Also I almost always warm up the WB slightly on cloudy days

Focus just takes practice...

Most of these were on a cloudy day
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=685171

[Eric2007]

I think the crop on this is fine but for some reason, it still looks soft. I think the focus is correct based on how the blades of grass look. Two things I am thinking:
1. How cropped is this image (can you post the original?)? If these are heavily cropped from the original, that could be the issue right there...
2. If these are all shot at f4, try f5.6 on your next outing and see if things sharpen up. Your lens may be soft at f4.

[canons900]

Here is the original. All I did was remove the crop and a few minor adjustments before exporting it.

Let me know.

[canons900]

It just does not look as sharp on the web as it does locally on my machine here at work.

[Eric2007]

Well, if they are sharper on your display then most likely, the conversion and down-scaling must be softening them. You still might want to try stopping your lens down a bit the next time you go out to see if it gets any sharper. And, I agree with eigga, they are a little underexposed now that I look at them again. Have Fun!

[canons900]

I will try 5.6 tomorrow nioght. I may change to my 70-200 2.8 tomorrow night. Game is at 6 pm. Or I will start out with the 300 then change as it gets darker.
I will also try and work on the PP tomorrow while in the office. See if I can punch it up a bit more.

[canons900]

Okay, I shot some more last night and added two more photos. Let me know if this is an improvement from the previous posts. I am not happy converting these to jpeg in PS and sharpening there. They seem to lose something when I do the conversion. Maybe I am doing something wrong.

All shot with the 100-300 f4 Sigma.

The first image was f5.6 at 1/500th, 0EV, iso 100
The second image was f5 at 1/800th 0EV, iso 200

The sun was harsh at the fields last night. Shadows were difficult all evening. I am looking for C&C on the focus and if the images have that pop. On my monitor in the office, they look sharp in LR, and I am not applying any sharpening in LR. Open and resize in PS and sharpen there.

Please let me know your thoughts. I have a couple more I can post if you want to see them.

Feedback is appreciated.

Scott

[canons900]

I must be doing something wrong when converting in PS. The shots on the website look much better, even on a Dell monitor and my iMac. Will keep trying though.

[kini]

Well. The first set were under exposed and OOF.

This 2nd set shows the typical Canon/Sigma relationship. Lots of back focused images.

That's what I see. Plus it looks like you were shooting in AV mode. Which would explain the slowish SS. xxD body metering kind of sucks. I have a 40D and nearly always have to use it in manual exposure mode to get decent exposure consistancy.

I also have a Sigma 120-300 that back focuses 90% of the time. I'm ready to dump it in the ocean at this point.

Gene

[Eric2007]

Scott - Based on this last set I am leaning towards the conversion process. I use Elements v6 myself so I don't know what to tell you. I think most folks here use PS so I know there is a way to do...I just don't know how. Good Luck!