1st attempt at college basketball

[sportsphotos]

I used the canon xt with the 4f 5.6 70-300mm lens with 1600 iso and shutter around 500 i think

Here are some photos i took at the game saturday any comments or help would be helpful Click on the picture for a larger view


By ncstateguy79, shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2007-12-19



By ncstateguy79, shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2007-12-19

By ncstateguy79, shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2007-12-19


By ncstateguy79, shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2007-12-19


By ncstateguy79, shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2007-12-19

[dmwierz]

I got tired of clicking and waiting for the images to download after 6 of them.

See this thread for ideas on how to get good C&C:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=423055

All 6 of the images I looked at were seriously out of focus, mostly focused on the crowd behind the subject player. It looks like your timing is pretty good, but when I can clearly see the faces of the people in the crowd but the ball handler is fuzzy, that's not good.

One a couple of them, like the last one, nothing is in focus.

[sportsphotos]

Originally Posted by dmwierz

I got tired of clicking and waiting for the images to download after 6 of them.

See this thread for ideas on how to get good C&C:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=423055

All 6 of the images I looked at were seriously out of focus, mostly focused on the crowd behind the subject player. It looks like your timing is pretty good, but when I can clearly see the faces of the people in the crowd but the ball handler is fuzzy, that's not good.

One a couple of them, like the last one, nothing is in focus.

any idea why the crowd was in focs over the players Im still trying to get use to taking action shots i dont know if Im setting the camera to the right settings seems like iso of 1600 made the pics a little granny but thats all the ISO I have.

should I center the spot meter? Set the shutter at a different speed?

[dmwierz]

Originally Posted by sportsphotos

any idea why the crowd was in focs over the players Im still trying to get use to taking action shots i dont know if Im setting the camera to the right settings seems like iso of 1600 made the pics a little granny but thats all the ISO I have.

should I center the spot meter? Set the shutter at a different speed?

The reason why the crowd is in focus and not the players is you told your camera to choose this to focus on. You didn't do so intentionally, but how you used and set up your camera told it you wanted to photograph the crowd, and not the player.

I just went back to see if any of the images had their EXIF intact and you've removed the pictures.

My guess is you inadvertently moved your AF point off the player and onto the crowd. This is a common mistake and happens all the time, especially with new shooters. Shooting sports isn't as easy as it may seem, although the last shot you posted was of a player standing still, and preparing to take a free throw. On that shot nothing was in focus and in fact, it should have been tack sharp since nobody was moving.

If you do a search, and look at the stickies at the top of this forum, you'll see how to set up your camera (AF scheme, aperture, etc.) for shooting sports.

[Sledhed]

Did you run him off Dennis?

[dmwierz]

Originally Posted by Sledhed

Did you run him off Dennis?

Perhaps, but that wasn't my intention.

When someone asks for "Comments and help", one might actually get the idea that the OP is looking for honest comments and genuine help.

But maybe that's just me...

If the OP genuinely wants to get better, he/she needs to know the areas where they can improve.

Now, time for me to crawl back into my hole...

[redoor]

Originally Posted by dmwierz

Perhaps, but that wasn't my intention.

When someone asks for "Comments and help", one might actually get the idea that the OP is looking for honest comments and genuine help.

But maybe that's just me...

If the OP genuinely wants to get better, he/she needs to know the areas where they can improve.

Now, time for me to crawl back into my hole...

Dennis I love your posts...there so on the mark....I have learned so much from your advice. Your my hero...ok maybe hero's not right. Haha

[sportsphotos]

Originally Posted by dmwierz

The reason why the crowd is in focus and not the players is you told your camera to choose this to focus on. You didn't do so intentionally, but how you used and set up your camera told it you wanted to photograph the crowd, and not the player.

I just went back to see if any of the images had their EXIF intact and you've removed the pictures.

My guess is you inadvertently moved your AF point off the player and onto the crowd. This is a common mistake and happens all the time, especially with new shooters. Shooting sports isn't as easy as it may seem, although the last shot you posted was of a player standing still, and preparing to take a free throw. On that shot nothing was in focus and in fact, it should have been tack sharp since nobody was moving.

If you do a search, and look at the stickies at the top of this forum, you'll see how to set up your camera (AF scheme, aperture, etc.) for shooting sports.

Hey there i found a place I could post the image so people didn't have to click on the image to see it . I agree they arent clear I did a crop on every one of these photos.

[dmwierz]

OK, that's better. Thanks for posting the full-size images. Glad you didn't "run off"

It would help if you posted the EXIF data (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) for your images, too, as this makes it easier to figure out what happened at the time the image was taken.

The first shot, of Grant doing the reverse jam, shows the following:

Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Exposure Time:1/320 sec
F-Number: f/5.6
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
ISO Speed Rating:1600
Focal Length:130.00 mm

1/320s is pretty slow for hoops at this level. You probably couldn't get any faster because of your lens, but what I see isn't motion blur that would be caused by the shutter speed being to slow - what it looks like to me is you just missed the focus. Cropping a soft shot makes it look even worse, unfortunately.

You shot Aperture Priority, which is good but your image is still under exposed by at least one stop (see the histogram posted below). At 130mm, you might have had a little more aperture (your lens would probably have been around f/5.0 at this focal length), but in Aperture Priority, this would have caused the shutter speed to get faster, which probably wouldn't help the exposure. Shifting to evaluative center point metering might have helped get the exposure better. Again, though, manual exposure would be preferred.

I would use single center point AF, AI Servo, spot evaluative metering, learn how to shoot in manual, learn how to use your histogram to analyze your shots, and practice, practice and practice. Come back here with what you get and well see how things go .

[n1as]

First, Dennis, your answers & posts are great! I greatly appreciate your straight answers and complete & honest constructive feedback. Thank you.

OP - I can't see your pics here at work but I can offer something from my own experience. I too had fuzzy pictures despite having shutter speeds in the 1/300 to 1/500 range. Even on free throws (which I only shoot for test purposes). Turns out the issue was that I was not holding the camera steady when I tripped the shutter. Shockingly, even at 1/500 second, you can blur the whole image my just twitching the camera while you trip the shutter. All it takes is just a little to take the crisp edge of the photo. Here's what I did to get it under control.

Think "one good shot" plus follow-through. As the player is coming down court, I'll put my center AF target on their chest, press the AF button and begin tracking them. Then, just before the "right time" I begin the shutter release press, concentrating on a smooth press and on keeping that AF zone on them the whole time. I want to see the AF zone on them after the shot just like it was before. In other words, I'm looking at my follow-through and making sure that I didn't jerk the camera off target.

The result was an instant improvement in sharpness in my pics. My keeper rate went way up.

I still have some issues but I know what they are and continue to work on them and improve.

- Keith -