Baseball Pony Nationals First Attempt C.C. Be Brutal Guys

First attempt at sports tell me wat you think and be brutal let me know,
darkend the grass and the sky shapened and dodged the girsl face.
be brutal guys i want to get extremly good.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com …/27959778@N04/2​716772931/" title="baseballsmall by three_acres, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.fl​ickr.com …2716772931_435f​ed927b.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="baseballsmall" /></a>

Kemo:

Your position on the field makes for really tough shots at first base. This shot would have been better from the third base side so that you can see ball arriving and first baseman's face (Bit of EXAMPLE HERE). While your timing was good (showing a close play) you can't see the batter's face either. Your focus/DOF looks a tad off and seems to be really good on her back foot but not on face/jersey...same for back of 1B as the letters on her uni are fuzzy. You don't say what shutter speed you were using or show your EXIF data. What are the details. Baseball should be shot at relatively high shutter speeds to really freeze the action. I am usually using 1/2000 or higher when the light permits. What was your aperture? Was this with your 80-200? IF so I'll assume f4? Not sure what the sky looked like before but in darkening it it appears that resulted in more noise/grain being in it than I would expect. For shots like these, worry about getting the exposures and lighting on the players correct first and let the sky and grass fall where they may. If they are then really off you can correct again if needed.

I would also crop a little tighter and remove some of the grass in the foreground and also check your horizons...it looks a little tilted to the right but not much.

Other than that, keep shooting and posting to learn more!
Cheers!
Chris

OH yes some other things...from your position on the field, focus more on getting shots of the batters as they come out of their swings and start toward first. You can get really nice facial expressions. (EXAMPLE). You can also focus on plays at second and come up with some nice action shots (EXAMPLE).

thats what i thought that the focus was on the shoe i did use the 80-200 the apereature was at 7.1 i should of lowered it but i am still new to this and my lens isnt a usm or anything shutter speed was only 1000 iso at 400 to alow for the fast shutter speed at the slightly closed aperature ok so next time ill try it at 4 for the aperature. i was only there for like 30 min because i had to ask alot o people to just sit in side the fence got kinda tired of it.

The other benefit of shooting wide open at f4 is that it will blur your background more and make the players you are focusing on "pop" out of the image better. I though that backstop looked too much in focus to be at f4. Definitely take advantage of what your lens offers and this can get you higher shutter speeds too!

Also, how were you focusing? Most of us advanced shooter and all pros will use the center point only for focus and ensure that we are in AI Servo Mode to help track focus on moving subjects.

thats exactly how i was focusing and i am shooting with both eyes open something that i read to do and it helps time everything. the only thing is that i cant really tell then all the corners of the viewfinder. oh my lens is a 4-5.6 so the lowest i could go would be 5.6 unless of course im zoomed out i wish i had an L lens but its kinda high for my budget.