BaySox at RockCats

Got to go to the RockCats game last night and get some intruction from my Camera Club president who is also the "Unofficial" photog for the RockCats. We had free reign of the stadium and I learned a ton. Here are some of the best I took.

All pics are taken with Canon 20D, 70-200 f/4L in AV mode f/4.

C&C Welcome and Encouraged.
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Very nice series, thanks for sharing.

All could do with a bit of sharpening -- some more than others but these are a good start if you're serious about shooting baseball. Hope you don't mind some negative comments, but if you'll apply them I think you'll be even more pleased with the results next time out.
#1 is under exposed and the horizon is off. If that seam in the background padding is vertical use it as a reference to straighten the image.
#2 is underexposed but an excellent angle for pitcher shots.
#3 is one of your best shots but if you had opened aperture more the background wouldn't have been as distracting.
#4 lacks a face and is of little or no interest. I cull shots like it.
#5 Is probably your best shot -- if sharpened and noise reduction applied it would be an excellent shot.
#6 is a tad underexposed, excellent crop though
#7 is another cull unless you want to make the pitcher look good because the ball is behind the batter, he committed and that makes him look bad.

Thanks for the comments. I agree with all. I have the 70-200 f/4 lens. The aperture was open full for all these shots. Some day I'll be able to afford the f/2.8.

Thanks again.
Doc

Hi Doc,

I shoot alot of Eastern League stuff myself... The 70-200
f/4 is a great lens however you probably want to try again on
a 1pm weekend game. I think the performance of that lens
would be greatly helped by better light. Also, if you do have access,
use it to your advantage to reduce to distance from your subjects.
That said, I'd recommend sticking closely with your photographer
friend, he'll probably help you out with the best places position
wise.

Thanks for all the comments.

The one picture that is far away, I was getting to ready to leave and just thought it was a cool angle. Late in the game and no light left to speak of. After that, the camera went in the bag and I went home.

Noise Ninja is my next little purchase. I didn't do any photoshop on these except cropping. This is something I really like doing and will be pursuing this more.

Doc

I think you would be better served by bagging Av mode and going full manual. If you notice... your underexposures are mainly those with tighter crops. I'd say the light color uniforms fooled your meter into underexposing. If you go full manual, you can find how much light you have to work with and stay there. Your exposures will be more consistant. If you want something to meter off of to find out what your exposure should be, use the infield grass... it's just about perfect in terms of luminosity.

Ditch AV and go with Manual...I used to shoot AV but been 100x happier since going strictly manual. You'll find things "pop" a bit more in manual...

#1 - looks better more down the line towards 3rd base.
#2 - dead arm looks bad (the follow through), get the release if ya can and that angle looks better.
#3 - backgrounds distracting, good action
#4 - delete IMO
#5 - about a second too late, him lookin for the throw would be better.
#6 - delete IMO - it's an obvious miss or bad foul ball by his body posture and his expression - it makes the hitter look bad.
#7 - makes the hitter look bad - ball in frame is not always a necessity with baseball though some will argue it and they are completely wrong.

just my 2cents