trying things out... Comments please

I tried a few things today, please give me your input....

Very cloudy day.... kids about 40 yards away....

Edited in PS...

This was practice, so no real exciting action shots.... I was trying ISO, F-stop, etc. combinations....

What do you think about the final product(s)? Color?

** The kids were farther away than I would have liked, but I had a chance to see how the 2.8 70-200 lens worked and then cropped in PS....

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Two more....

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Looking back at my post.....

Pics sure look noisy... thoughts on how to fix... (already went through neat image)... Were they just too far away?

They look rather soft and also very grainy - alomost like each player was part of a larger photograph but cropped in real tight.

OK.. edited two pics....

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Anderson-Photography wrote in post #5167480
They look rather soft and also very grainy - alomost like each player was part of a larger photograph but cropped in real tight.

Well, I was at 200mm and they were a good distance away. Maybe too far....

This is the original at 200mm

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First,

Why IS01600? Look at your ss. In 1, it is 1/4000sec.? Your Xti can NOT do more than that. For little kids at 200mm, even 1/1000 should be more than enough.

Get closer, or let the action come to you. No point shooting from that far unless you have longer lens.

Im going to give you an honest answer because thats the only way to get better. Please dont be offended.

I dont think any of them are good picture-wise. The only action I like is the first one but it looks rather hazy. I dont know if thats part of the NR being done or if you just cropped in too far but I have a feeling the combination of the two is not working out very well. I try to crop as little as possible. Its ok to do if there is a picture you just MUST have but otherwise, if you wait for them to come closer and fill the frame or you get closer to them (through moving or a longer lens), youll get better pictures as a result.

Sharpening in post should only be applied to a picture thats already pretty sharp. Oversharpening an already blurry picture just makes it look worse.

Keep at it but remember to shoot at the lowest ISO possible to get the job done (did you need 1600 ISO?) and to try to crop as little as possible.

Thanks for the responses.....

As mentioned, I was trying out different things during this practice (before an actual game). I wanted to try different ISOs (I only posted a couple of pics and they happened to be 1600) with different shutter speeds and I wanted to see how far action could be so come game time I am not taking shots that will not be acceptable.

As I previously posted I was not happy and did not know if I exceeded my camera/lens or if it was a photographer problem.

What I have learned thus far....

Lowest ISO to keep shutter above 1/500 --- Is that high enough?
Get closer and take the picture closer..
Do not try to crop a far shot to make it look closer

I also learned some PS skills that I did not have before....

Again, I appreciate the input so far and would welcome additional comments on outdoor soccer techniques... (and yes, I have searched and read other forum posts)

Thanks....

Good learning follow up. That is why you/we post on here, which is to learn. Now just apply what you learned and post a follow up set.

any pocket camara can do better

keep on laerning

vreeke wrote in post #5174444
any pocket camara can do better

keep on laerning

I am going to call BS on that....... The distance and conditions made this a difficult shot...

If you can't make a suggestion that I can learn from and help then don't make a comment...

Get a 1.4x teleconverter. I picked up mine last week for $75 and it helps a lot

drmac wrote in post #5212864
I am going to call BS on that....... The distance and conditions made this a difficult shot...

If you can't make a suggestion that I can learn from and help then don't make a comment...

Good call and I agree 100% that this comment was harsh and unhelpful.

However, the light isn't that bad, and by not overshooting your lens (more on this below), I'm convinced you could have done better. Yeah, it's challenging, but that's why you're here, right? To learn how to handle the situations that will baffle the GWC's out there.

Honestly, these are all underexposed and soft. I've posted the histogram of your first shot (the best capture, action wise) and you can see you're quantitatively close to 2 stops underexposed. Qualitatively, the shadows have almost no detail.

At:
Exposure Time: 1/1600 sec
F-Number: f/2.8
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
ISO Speed Rating: 800
Metering Mode: Pattern

I would have shot somewhere around 1/400s and ISO800 ( do not take this as gospel - you need to evaluate the light at the time you are shooting and make you own exposure decision) and this would have still been OK since these little guys don't move very fast. Heck, I've shot night MLS games at 1/640s, and while this wasn't great, it was OK.

Since you were in Av mode, I wonder how you could have missed the exposure by this much? I would use evaluative metering, for one and would also consider learning to shoot in manual. Av can and will be fooled (though not usually by 2 stops).

Now, which AF mode were you in? AI Servo?

How many focus points? Which ones?

Some of the softness could be from you overshooting your lens. In other words, you're shooting the 200 and trying to make it behave like a 400 by capturing action that's too far away and cropping severely. As has been said above, and in the words of Rocket J. Squirrel : "That trick never works!"

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