College Womens Softball

Pat:

Not sure what is going on with this one but it appears very noisy / grainy, my guess is it is way oversharpened? Sunny day like this, you should be low ISO and no noise.

it looked better on my computer?

but I see what ya mean

here is one from the same game

Pat, like the 2nd one posted better, looks more natural

still not sharp
elray, todd and flying photog are great
Its so frustrating
I fell so dumb here a lot

thanks for your help guys

I still cant tell if its me or my 40d

drives me nuts

What lens are you using?

70-200 2.8 ISM II

Pat:

With 40 D and 70-200, try these settings next time you shoot on a sunny day. these are my basic baseball settings:

The Basic Triad of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed
- AV Mode and set aperture to f3.5
- set ISO so that you are getting a shutter speed of at least 1/1000, even higher. On bright sunny days I am often at 400-800 ISO. If your shutter speed drops below 1/1000 you may find too much motion blur with some things in baseball...arm motion, bat swing, etc. I am often shooting at 1/2000 or higher.
- dial up your EV (over or underexposure) by using the wheel on back of camera to + 1/3 to +2/3 to lighten shadows under caps a bit. This is another reason why ISO needs to be high so that you have room to do this without dropping shutter speed too much. If it is cloudy and even lighting, then you may not need to use this.

Auto Focus Settings
- AI Servo, HIghest FPS camera has
- Use center point ONLY for focus
- learn how to move your AF start to the back * button and not on the half-press of shutter (search for details on this)

-SHOOT RAW format and then learn how to process. You get much more flexibility in bad lighting situations than if you shoot JPEGS out of camera. As to processing, don't overdo, start with a little bit of sharpening (which all digital images need) and depending on shadows and such, a little bit of lightening or darkening as needed. At 400-800 ISO on 40D you should NOT need any, or only a tiny bit of noise reduction.

- If you have image stabilization on your 70-200, turn it OFF. Not needed at the shutter speeds you are using.

- consider a monopod to help stabilize your rig. Many think it is not needed with 70-200 but it can make a big difference, if only not having to constantly hold up 8 pounds worth of camera and lens!

Those are basics. Hope it helps.

burnet44 wrote in post #14723286
70-200 2.8 ISM II

Your lens should be plenty sharp. Can you post the exif data for that first shot?

ajaffe wrote in post #14724744
Your lens should be plenty sharp. Can you post the exif data for that first shot?

iso 400
1/8000
2.8
wb-manual
jpeg
metering mode matrix
EP shutter priority
color space s RGB
canon 40d
lens 70-200 ism II

great stuff stew thanks

Are you shooting in jpeg and then sharpening again in post?

no
thats just the jpeg that came out

burnet44 wrote in post #14725833
iso 400
1/8000
2.8
wb-manual
jpeg
metering mode matrix
EP shutter priority
color space s RGB
canon 40d
lens 70-200 ism II

Where exactly were you and is this first or third base?
What was the focal length used?
My guess is that you have cropped the photo to much.
Over cropping will make the photo look bad.