Under Armour H.S. All-Star Game

[Damen Jackson]

Evening. This is a fresh post from the 2009 Under Armour H.S. game at Wrigley Field this afternoon. Hope you enjoy, and any thoughts or comments are welcome.

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Trey Griffin hits a broken-bat single in the eighth inning of the Under Armour All-Star game. (August 8th, 2009)

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Trey Griffin steals home in the fourth inning of Saturday's Under Armour All-Star game (August 8th, 2009)

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Garin Cecchini attempts to turn two against the Baseball Facotry squad Saturday afternoon (August 8th, 2009)

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Yordy Cabrera waits to apply the tag to Jacob Felts on this steal attempt (August 8th, 2009)

[Cubbie Blue]

Nice images here Damen. I was at the game too.

Looks like you were a little late on the steal of home, and it's unfortunate that the coach got in your frame in the third photo. I like the fourth the best out of this group. The first would be a nice catch had you not been sitting right behind blue.

I don't know if it's just the way the quality gets reduced when you post photos here or what (and I have similar problems with photos looking different on flickr than they do on my hard drive), but these all seem a little gray-ish to me. Maybe try boosting the contrast, I don't know. I'd like to hear someone else's thoughts.

And I have a favor to ask of you, if you get a chance would you look through your shots to see if you can find a player using a tan Marucci (http://s7ondemand1.scene7.com/is/image/TeamExpress/CB15M) bat with a black spiral tape-job on the handle and the initials AF on the knob. Chevez Clarke took it out of the garbage can in the Baseball Factory dugout after the game and gave it to me, but the name on the cracked bat is of a player (Alex Facundus) who was not in the game.

[ufgatoralum]

Awesome pictures! I am a beginner, but have tried to take a few shots at some Gator baseball games. Did you get any good shots of Gator commit #13 Karsten Whitson? He threw in the second inning for Baseball Factory. I would love to see some. Keep it up! It gives us something to work toward.

[Damen Jackson]

Cubbie Blue,

It's just the white balance on the shots. It went from cloudy to sunny frequently throughout the afternoon, as you know.

Now the interesting thing is, I actually have a few shots of #3 that might allow for the coach to be cropped out. However, I'm here now with a number of photo editors and designers, and they love it as is. So, I'm going to keep this one and see how it plays.

I'm pretty sure I've seen that tape job before. I'll see what I can do.

[dmwierz]

Damen,

Honestly, these need a lot of work. I don't recall what your gear situation is, so maybe you did as well as could be expected, but I'll give you my thoughts as if your gear was OK.

The first shot is an interesting capture, but it would be MUCH better if it were shot wider.

The timing on the second shot, the steal of home is off, and the runner isn't even fully in frame - you've cut off most of his right arm. If you hadn't mentioned the subject we'd have no way of knowing what had occurred. A good sports photo should tell a story without the need of a caption, and this one doesn't. It might have even been OK if we saw the ump's call, but all I see is the back of a catcher, parts of some runner face down in the dirt, a batter and an on deck batter, and an umpire looking on. Plus the only subject in focus is the umpire. Everybody else is OOF.

The shot of the double play turn is also late, and the coach being in the way makes it a non-keeper. I'm sorry, but I can't imagine any PE liking that shot, but OK, everybody has an opinion. IMO this shot would have been deleted in camera if it were mine.

Again, even if you ignore the coach, there's no way to tell exactly what is happening or has happened. Two guys in baseball uniforms looking at something happening off-camera......

The steal attempt is OK, but not that interesting, plus you need to open up the area under the fielder's hat to expose his face. It's also not a sharp image.

[dmwierz]

Oh, and BTW, I have found Auto WB to work in almost every outdoor day time situation.

[Damen Jackson]

Well hey, thanks to everyone for the feedback. I'm a new hand at this, so I'm sure there is still much to learn.

Cubbie Blue, no luck with the bat thing. Sorry. I'll take one more pass, but it doesn't look good.

Ufgatoralum, I had two pictures of your recruit. The best of the bunch is below.

I finally had a chance to sit down and do some post-processing. I've updated the thread with a few of my favorites. I kept all of your recommendations in mind, so thanks again for the input.

http://cubbienation.net/multimedia/081109-1.jpg

http://cubbienation.net/multimedia/081109-2.jpg

http://cubbienation.net/multimedia/081109-3.jpg

http://cubbienation.net/multimedia/081109-4.jpg

http://cubbienation.net/multimedia/081109-5.jpg

[ufgatoralum]

Wow! Love it! This kid is unbelievable! I'll be in San Diego this weekend to see him in the AFLAC Game. Thanks.

[MJPhotos24]

Who were you shooting for?

[Damen Jackson]

Who were you shooting for?

I wasn't on assignment. I just have friends in low places.

[patwill]

In the one's where you did your post processing - the captures are pretty good but they still are sort of flat and grayish, Try boosting the contrast, saturation, and maybe the sharpness, by small amounts. That might get a little more "pop" into your posted images.