Tennis Shot From Today

Here's a shot from today. Didn't mean to cut off his head off, but it's a work in progress. C&C much appreciated!

Cool shot. A bit yellow?

Love the ball!

VinnyC01 wrote in post #8638837
Cool shot. A bit yellow?

Love the ball!

Yeah! also a bit soft.

VinnyC01 wrote in post #8638837
Cool shot. A bit yellow?

Love the ball!

Yeah, I noticed that. I'm fixing it now and will post another one in just a sec.

silvex wrote in post #8638962
Yeah! also a bit soft.

Yeah...the AF kinda focused more on his junk that it did his face, but that's what I get for shooting at 2.8 on a 70-200. I also had to crop this one. Any tips on capturing these shots better?

What shutter speed were you shooting at, when it comes to sports, in my opinion completely stopping action is key. The only time to let that slide is for artistic effect or just because the enviornment is beyond your camera's ability to do so.

Here's the shot with some quick PP

Shot at 1/800, f/5, ISO 160. I have shots due for class this Wednesday: 10 shots in Tv: 5 blurred, 5 stop action. This is going to be one of my blurred ones.

Any other comments or advice?

Increase your shutter speed so you can freeze the racket and ball. 2,000+
Daylight should allow that.

wyofizz wrote in post #8642850
Increase your shutter speed so you can freeze the racket and ball. 2,000+
Daylight should allow that.

Thanks for the advice.

You shouldn't have to do much PP with this type of photo. It's either working for you or not.

For me, it's not. Mostly because I don't like the composition. I would shoot this type of shot either looser or much tighter. Probably try both and I suspect I'd prefer the looser because isn't it really about him flying off the ground while he contacts the ball ? So I don't want any part of his body cut off. For me, his facial expression is not intense enough to make that the focal point of the photo so super tight wouldn't do it for me.

But that's for you to decide. What is the shot about ? Get that in mind first and then your shooting will be more focused.

The colors look off to me. That court color and the skin tones.

I also don't think the PP helps. It produces a weird glow around him and his shoes.

I don't think you have to freeze the racket and ball (again, that's your call) but I do think the face has to be sharp. And you don't need as high a shutter speed as you may think to do that. The players head should be still at contact (though the better the player the more likely it actually will be).

So what do I like? That you blew out the background. And obviously that you nailed the contact point perfectly. So perfectly that the ball appears to be precisely at that point where it's reversing direction.

Thanks for the advice. This was my first time shooting with my 1D2, shooing in manual, and my first time shooting any kind of sports. I did a lot of things wrong, like keeping the iso at 100 when it was getting relatively dark (and without a flash) and just a lot of novice mistakes, but I've been shooting everyday and am starting to get the hang of it.

It's a work in progress though. Thanks again for the advice.

Good job for your first time. My first sport series were soft but I'm working on that and have been getting better. Keep it up!

Glad to know I'm not alone. Yeah, I'm working on try to focus better though. Anybody have suggestions aside from picking specific focus points? Should I use AI Servo or one shot focusing?