First try at Football

My son started playing football this year, I went to his first scrimmage Saturday. Here are a few from that game. I have a few better pictures, but I chose this set to display because I love the capabilities that the combination of the 7D/70-200II bring to the table:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/9​732901398/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/9​732901274/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/9​729674233/

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Nice series, just need to level out the horizons

Yup.. You're right -- I am surprised that I didn't do that when I processed these the other night.

hairy_moth wrote in post #16290873
Yup.. You're right -- I am surprised that I didn't do that when I processed these the other night.

I used to do the same and still forget on occasions!

Nice set.

Voaky999 wrote in post #16290858
Nice series, just need to level out the horizons

Concur not bad but the horizons need to be adjusted.

Excellent job for the first time out. The sharpness and action are good. Others have mentioned the horizons and the cropping might be tighter.

One idea for you to consider next time would be to add 1/3 stop of exposure compensation. The shadows inside the helmets tend to make the faces dark and it's a pet peeve of mine to see African-American players pictured where the faces are underexposed. Don't worry if there is a small amount of 'burn out' on the white pants. Your shots are good but could be a tad better in this regard. Shooting back-lit avoids harsh shadows on the face from the face-bars but requires that exposure boost.

I like the pics. Shoot and post more.

Phil

Thanks for the feedback!
Here are a few more from the same game. The first 2 shots are from the same (touchdown) play; that's my son making the block in the second shot. I don't know the particulars of football rules, but I suspect that, had the ref seen that, he would have called my son for holding.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/9​734172500/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/9​734172742/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/9​734172852/

Zivnuska wrote in post #16291040
Excellent job for the first time out. The sharpness and action are good. Others have mentioned the horizons and the cropping might be tighter.

One idea for you to consider next time would be to add 1/3 stop of exposure compensation. The shadows inside the helmets tend to make the faces dark and it's a pet peeve of mine to see African-American players pictured where the faces are underexposed. Don't worry if there is a small amount of 'burn out' on the white pants. Your shots are good but could be a tad better in this regard. Shooting back-lit avoids harsh shadows on the face from the face-bars but requires that exposure boost.

I like the pics. Shoot and post more.

Phil

That's actually exactly how I did shoot (+1/3). About 1/2 of the team is African American, including the quarterback and tailback (#4), though neither of them have extremely dark complexions, but you are absolutely right, it is a challenge to get the faces, which are already in the shade from the helmet, exposed properly without washing out the rest of the shot. To make matters worse, it was a partly cloudy day, the sun was in and out all day. I typically prefer shooting Av, though, if the lighting would have been consistent, I would have found my exposure and stuck with it in M, but because of the changing light, I stuck with Av +1/3.

I probably have enough detail in that 4th shot (from the first post) to try lightening it up a bit when I get home.


I like the idea of shooting back-lit for football. Normally for soccer, etc., I try to keep the sun (somewhat) to my rear, but the helmets do change the things.

[edit:] BTW.. I just took a look at your page, your work is incredible!

If you are using LightRoom, you can bump the exposure on the faces with the adjustment brush.

I fixed them.. Only re posting 1 though.
Yes, there is still plenty of detail to work with from the original raw CR2 file.

Thanks for the comments.
I have been having a lot of fun shooting football this (my son's first) year.
Here are a few more shots after a few tries at it:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …44350103@N05/10​460862074/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …44350103@N05/10​460882295/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …44350103@N05/10​461054633/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …44350103@N05/10​460861714/

If you are not posting print ready images, I would always suggest shoot tight, crop tighter. A lot of these need to be cropped tighter. Good action, that just needs to be isolated better.