Elementary School Track Meet Shots

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Hey everyone, shot my little brothers track meet today. Grades 4-6, and unfortunately it was once again a cloudy day.:cry:

Shot most everything in ISO 800, shutter speeds 1/1000-1/2000, f/4, AI Servo with my 70-200 f/4L lens.

Just got my camera within the week so I'm a complete noob and would apprechiate any good critique.:lol:

Well, here's a few!!

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

A few more.:lol:

[PhotosGuy]

Nice shots!

[PaCiFiSt]

Well done. I think they turned out pretty good.

[22littlereasons]

Nice shots... but I'd disagree with your disappointment for a cloudy day... I love the disfused light. *s*

[PhotosGuy]

but I'd disagree with your disappointment for a cloudy day... I love the disfused light. *s* Yeah! Be careful what you wish for! ;-)

[TxLerman]

I have shot inline hockey (outdoors) in bright sun-light and that is much more of a challenge because of the dark shadows. Your pictures turned out very nice and it appears that you captured well the actual conditions at the meet. Take a bow. Nice pictures!

[Cadwell]

They're pretty nice. It would be good to see some shots with more than one runner in though.

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

I'll get some shots with more than one runner next time then. I was just trying to get the basics down since I had only had that lens for 1 day when I shot those, and I just got the camera last week.

More advanced, interesting stuff comes later I guess.:lol:

[J Rabin]

Hi. Really good first photos! But guess what? You and the camera will do better.
1. Where was your plane of focus? On these reduced jpgs, focus plane looks out in front of the runners. Were you panning aggressively? On 4th pic, focus plane looks on the grass behind the runner.
2. To my eye, they look a tad under exposed, with shadows on the runners, etc., which I would not expect on a cloudy day. You can stop action at a track meet at 1/400 +/-. By shooting that fast, you were wide open at f/4, with very little depth of field. May have contributed to #1 above.
3. Can you walk around at these meets and find an attractive angle to catch a runner's eyes?
4. Did you set center focus point?
Hope this helps. J.

Here are couple sports pics I just posted in the lens section for exposure comparison:
In my post above, I promised more good/bad shots from my 70-300 DO. Here are two from from the Air Products youth bicycle racing at Velodrome. I've only had it two weeks, still getting to understand this lens.
70-300 DO at its best:
http://postit.rutgers.edu/uploads/TTown%20Velo%20Sprint%2Ejpg
300mm f/7.1, 1/1600. I had to hit this HARD with sharpening, but the 8x10” print was fabulous. Good sports shots come harder with this lens compared to 70-200 L IS I use normally. I don't have to sharpen much. But, I happen to have access to that great chunk of glass and comparison is not fair.
But, THIS IS STRONG photo with good detail. I think families would be elated if they took travel/kid/candid photos with this detail all the time, if they only had one tele zoom.
The narrow depth of field, even at f/7.1 is typical. Some whiny web forum carpers do not understand how narrow DoF is at 200-300mm. Go to Canon museum and print the DoF chart for this lens. Learn it.

70-300 DO at its worst:
http://postit.rutgers.edu/uploads/Standing%20Start%20Time%20Trial%2Ejpg
180mm, f/6.3, 1/125. A parent or kid could display this standing start time trial photo with pride. But for me, look at the OOF background against the chain link fence. Pixel peep 200%. You will see when this DO lens encounters repeating OOF backgrounds it forms weird ugly target bokeh, or when it has overexposed backgrounds, it gets confused and “cracks-up” the image or flares, really badly.
This was only my second day with it. So, I will take great care where I point this from now on. That's this DO lens' weakness. I can live with it, but I had to experience it and learn.
Heck I was shooting at only 1/125, so I should not complain about lack of sharpness. IS works as advertised.

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Huh, wow. Thanks J Rabin that's exactly what I was looking for! I was aggressively panning, and there wasn't really any way I could get a good angle. The coach wouldn't let me past the fense, and the kids were only running 50m's so I could have gone all the way to the end of the fence where the track curves to shoot right down the track at their faces and stuff, but with 200mm that was impossible.

Also, you don't think f/4 is a good apeture setting? Hm, I was pretty happy with it's results.... what would you suggest then? f/7.1, f/5.6, f/9?

Oh yea, and I did use center focus point.

[PhotosGuy]

2. To my eye, they look a tad under exposed, They look good on my monitor. Any brighter & you'll start to blow out the area at the top of the thigh.
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

[gmen]

The exposures look pretty good to me as well. Also the DOF is most acceptable.

If you're shooting this kind of subject matter, don't be tempted to stop the lens down - the backgrounds will soon start to become distracting. Work at the maximum aperture as far as possible. With a relatively fast moving subject coming pretty much towards you, the 20D may (at times) struggle to stay in focus throughout a sequence of pics, but you'll still get plenty of sharp images at f/4. Trying to buy a bit more DOF by stopping down can ultimately be a disappointing compromise.

It's a shame you are unable to shoot from inside the fence. With kids it's even more important to make your images from a low position - i.e. to get on their level.

Also, watch your composition in camera. If you end up cropping off feet/toes (which can and will happen from time to time), then better to crop the final image above the knee rather than have missing 'extremeties'.... just a thought.

Good work and I hope this feedback helps a little for your next attempt!

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Thanks gmen! Very helpful! Hopefully tomorrow I'll be shooting a lax game if it isn't raining. There wont be any fense to shoot over there. So, I'll try to get close, low to the ground, and get some great shots. I'll remember what you said about the feet and stuff. I didn't know that was a problem.

Thanks a lot, and I'll hopefully have some more to post tomorrow! :-)