MLS Soccer (Earthquakes vs Columbus Crew) CC please

Here is my second attempt at an MLS game. It got a bit tricky as the sun went down. Any critiques, comments and tips always appreciated as I'm still learning and looking to improve.
Here are some more shots from the game http://www.flickr.com …2/sets/72157629​850199954/

great shot! love number 3!~

Yea I find the transition from sun to arena lights a little tricky myself. Watch your horizons and white balance, the last shot is out of focus.

Nice work.

Is the stadium built on a hill? I mean the side of a hill that slopes right to left?

Thanks...I see what you mean Chunky, I should have rotated those 2 photos a bit (or try to keep the camera straight)

To what ChunkyDA was referring to ... get your horizons sorted. I know it doesn't sound like much but it makes a huge difference.

That is what you were referring to Mr. DA? I hope.

In the interest of helping you improve, I am going to be honest.

Almost all of those are deletes beyond the technical errors like horizons, white balance, timing, focus and cropping.

You typically want the face of the person in control of the ball. The only real keeper would be the PK, but that needs to be cropped tighter to get rid of the background. Speaking of the backgrounds, unless something is adding to the photo or the story the photo is telling, get rid of it.

1- No face, extra player on the left, distracting background. What is going on here? Did he miss-control the ball? Did he just receive a cross and is trying to settle it? Is he pulling it back or doing a Cruyff to shake the defender? Too many questions.

2- The keeper caught the ball, nice. Where is the action though? This could be a neat sense of place type shot if the stadium was bigger. But as it stands, the stadium in the background is ugly.

3- Too loose because the timing was off, but going past that, where is the action? Did someone take a bad touch? Is the ball in the air because it was chipped to them? Too many questions again.

4- Their legs got chopped off. But where is Lenhart's face? Again, what happened here?

5- Good timing. This is a good stock photo. Crop the background out though, it only serves as a distraction.

6- Decent timing. No faces though and out of focus where the action is taking place.

Thank you all for the advice, I tried fixing it a bit. Hope this is better

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I really appreciate your honest opinion Ajaffe. Will try to keep all that in mind as I try shooting the next game.
Thanks

The simple equation for me is: Face, ball, action.
The technical stuff just builds off of that.

Good luck!

ajaffe wrote in post #14476587
The simple equation for me is: Face, ball, action.
The technical stuff just builds off of that.

Good luck!

Completely agree with this. When I was shooting soccer for my internship, these points were hammered home with me.

One other thing to look at is the amount of noise in a good chunk of these. I know as it gets darker it becomes more obvious (I had to deal with that all the time). You might want to look into doing some noise reduction on these if you will shoot more night games.

I think you need to use a tripod for footie photography, like someone said, watch your horizon..yes, it is more restrictive but there you go....

Tripod what? Monopod sure. If you need a tripod then you are either doing video or your camera cannot handle low light conditions without having a ton of motion blur.