First ever sports shoot, critique seriously needed

Hey good people of POTN, I had my first sports shoot this Sunday. I shot the Women's Basketball game for my university.

A few things:
- This was the first time I ever used a telephoto lens.
- This was the first time I ever used L glass.
- This was the first time I ever did a sports shoot.
- This was the first time I shot for 'someone'.

I had a LOT of fun.

After uploading to photobucket, the image quality seems to have gone down considerably, don't know what's up with that.

Some analysis from my side:

0. I was using my Rebel XTi + (not mine)70-200 f/2.8L (I am selling my kidney soon) + No grips no nothing.

1. I shot 1/320~1/400 at ISO800 f/2.8, instead, I should have shot 1/800 ISO1600.

2. I need to anticipate the players moves.

3. I was having a weird time framing the shots having selected center point AF Servo.

4. Need a battery grip for vertical shooting.

5. Not lose orientation and keep the camera parallel to the ground (or the background).

6. I should learn to make use of the burst mode, I did not use it at all.

7. I've missed focus in quite a few photos, I must make better use of the AF point selection.

I had a 30D to use, but I stuck to my XTi cos I was more familiar with it, and also because I wanted to see what the lens does to my Rebel "Clark Kent" XTi.

Many more, but I'd like to hear from the pros. I had a lot of fun on my first outing.

I would say for the first time ever shooting sports, you did a very good job. (how and who were you shooting 'for' for the first time?) (and what do you shoot, I mean is there anything other than sports??)

Your self critique pretty much hit everything, except I don't think that a grip is necessary, I don't have one and I like to think I do pretty well without it. The only time I was really really missing in once was shooting volleyball.

I wouldn't move the focus point off the middle. AI Servo takes a bit of getting used to, but it's the only way to go with really any moving subject.

Funny to see PC in pictures! Not one you usually see. If ya'll are playing App State at any point I might see you on the sidelines!

Since you're shooting for Clemson, the focus on the Clemson players was right on in the first few shots but they were on defense. Typically you'd want the ball handler to be facing you and the focus of the shot unless there is a good defensive move going on. Generally across the shots, there is too much dribbling and not enough shooting. You'll get better at knowing where the action is going each game you shoot.

@tomcat:I was shooting 'for' my university's paper. Of course I wasn't the only one, but I was offered a chance to explore this and I jumped at it. I'm going to shoot more games in the near future (like this coming saturday).

I still feel a grip would improve comfort by leaps and bounds, especially on the monster of a lens like the 70-200 f/2.8L.

I will have a Nikon D2H + Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 to shoot with, and that has quite a few fancy AF modes, so I'll be trying out those, probably the Single Servo + Dynamic focus point selection AF. It should be fun

TheHoff: Good points. Too much dribbling, not enough offense shots. I will be getting quite a bit of practice, so hopefully I should get decent at shooting this stuff.

TheHoff wrote in post #6719917
Since you're shooting for Clemson, the focus on the Clemson players was right on in the first few shots but they were on defense. Typically you'd want the ball handler to be facing you and the focus of the shot unless there is a good defensive move going on. Generally across the shots, there is too much dribbling and not enough shooting. You'll get better at knowing where the action is going each game you shoot.

I agree with everything TheHoff said. It would be great to see more shots of your team on offense, shooting, jumping for rebounds.. that sort of action. It looks like you had a good first outing though.

Your third to last shot was at 1/400s and that looks a bit dark to me compared to the other shots, most of which were at 1/320 (I didn't check exif on all of them though).

I think your ideal settings in this gym would be something like f/2.8 1/640s ISO1600 (lucky dog... my home gym is f/2.8 1/500s ISO3200 ambient)

On the topic of using burst mode, I think you'll quickly get frustrated by the number of shots where you miss peak action if you're bursting (especially with a slow fps body) If you practice with single shots, you'll quickly get a good feel for the timing your shot to successfully get the ball leaving a shooter's fingertips, etc, without using burst.

(now, after that well timed first shot, it definitely wouldn't hurt to burst that extra frame or two. It's just not a good way to get peak action)

edit: having read your recent post, the D2H will burst quite a bit faster than your xti, but I'd still recommend getting that timing down. it's well worth it.

Hey Thanks Matt.

I should have popped up to ISO1600, but didn't realize that 1/320 was a little too slow. The gym is so well lit because its the University's Coliseum and is not a gym at all.

I do have some shots of action, but to my untrained eye, they didn't seem like better shots.

I'll post a few a little later, and maybe you could critique those too?

I agree about the burst mode, that's what I initially thought and didn't turn it on at all.

Thanks for all the feedback, its very valuable. Keep it coming.

Right on. Until we're at 30 FPS, timing is better than burst any day of the week.

powerslave wrote in post #6720053
I should have popped up to ISO1600, but didn't realize that 1/320 was a little too slow. The gym is so well lit because its the University's Coliseum and is not a gym at all.

Well excuse me didn't mean to insult your coliseum lol...

Just poking a little fun. We D3 peasants still call them gyms.. even the really big ones

For your first time, these are rather good. Just up the shutter speed a little, as you already know. You can use ISO 1600 on that camera no problem. Also, you didn't mention anything about post-processing. A little PP can go a long way: (I hope you don't mind)

Before:

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Matt: Now you're just showing off :P Show the noobie some love.

Thanks for all the pointers, I'll remember these when I hit the gym this saturday. Keep them coming guys.

emtp563: I don't mind, that's quite a bit of improvement over my shot. That's great. I'll keep that in mind too. At this point I feel getting my technique right is far more important than rectifying my mistakes in PP. But yes, I'll keep working on that front too. Time to Google.

powerslave wrote in post #6720229
Matt: Now you're just showing off :P Show the noobie some love.

Thanks for all the pointers, I'll remember these when I hit the gym this saturday. Keep them coming guys.

emtp563: I don't mind, that's quite a bit of improvement over my shot. ...

Haha, sorry. you know I'm just jealous of your arena!

Anyway, for image editing, you can turn on "Image edit and repost permission" under User CP --> Edit Profile so people know they can do that. GL with your next shoot.

Thanks

I've turned the 'Image editing OK' sign on.

Keep those brickbats coming..

emtp563 wrote in post #6720221
.....A little PP can go a long way

563, can you please share what you did to the picture ? Im starting to use PP and I'll love to know how you did that.....any tips will be great.

Thanks......and nice work.


.

Mike414 wrote in post #6723128
563, can you please share what you did to the picture ? Im starting to use PP and I'll love to know how you did that.....any tips will be great.

Thanks......and nice work.


.

I used Photoshop CS3.

1.) I used the Neat Image CS3 plugin and removed the noise (Auto-profile with default settings).
2.) Smart Sharpen. I did a slight sharpening with a radius of 1.0 and amount of about 45% or so.
3.) Auto-level adjustment
4.) Auto-color adjustment made the white-balance look a little better
5.) I boosted the contrast a little
6.) boosted the saturation a little also, not much I think like 10% or so

Just about everything I did I used automatic settings. It only took me like two minutes to do. Someone with greater knowledge of Photoshop than I could have made the image look even better, I'm sure.

I think you did a very nice job for your first time out and your self critique was very good.

I have a slightly different opinion regarding your selected shots than has been posted earlier. You shot the players and angles that most shooters don't shoot. Since you were an extra body at the game for your paper and I am sure the others were shooting lots of the offensive action, your shots should have been a nice complement to the overall take for your paper of that game. These shots typically don't have as much fast motion which is what allowed you to get good shots at a lower than ideal shutter speed.

While I fully suggest practicing shooting everything when you have the chance, keep shooting these different types of shots as well. I think it says a lot about your overall eye for photography that you saw these shots. That is the key to being a successful photographer. Anyone can learn the technical stuff with enough practice.

Good luck.