First Softball (6 images) -C&C welcomed

Actually, it's my first anything as far as DSLR's are concerned.

I have been a member of POTN since 2007 but I now was just able to afford a DSLR. I have briefly played with the camera around the house a few times and today was the first time I could actually get out and really practice.

All the images are from my 40D and 300mm f/4 IS, hand held, sports mode, shot in JPEG, PP in Lightroom.

I left the monopod at home not expecting to find a softball game ... my left wrist was killing me after about 40 minutes into it.

I tried to focus on the eyes. I seemed to have a hard time keeping the players feet in the frames ... I need to work on that. Towards the end I was getting the hang of finding my subjects in the viewfinder, at the beginning of the game I was laboring a bit. I think it went well considering this was my first time. The IQ may not be the best, but I was able to practice timing and composition.

Any C&C is welcomed. Anything I should try / avoid? How are my crops? Exposures? Etc.

Thanks in advance for viewing.

1/2000, f/5, ISO 400

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IMHO...the ball is missing! I think that what makes a sport picture interesting are 1)the eyes open/facial expression 2) the bat/raquet/whatever... 3)the ball.

Great first start, look forward to seeing some more!

First time with DSLR? Wow ... NICE job!

Not sure about 'sports mode' as I've never shot with it. Thinking back to last year's baseball shots, my settings were something like f/4, ISO 200-400 and 1/1600-2000 on the shutter. Shots like pitching motion and bats move really fast. If you want to completely freeze them, really fast shutter speeds are required.

dave

Looking back I would recommend you shoot manual next time, get there early and play around with the settings to get everything right, that way you don't have to worry about it exposing for a dark shirt and lowering the SS. As long as it's not in the very early morning or in the evening, the light should be about the same for the whole game.

I know people say to crop tight, but personally some of these shots look like they could have benefited from less of a crop, I like to be able to see where the players actually are, mainly in the last two.

+1 on the PM. I shoot with basically the same set-up and shooting in manual and in RAW vs. jpg will let you control the camera instead of the camera controlling you. Are your crops of these pic done post or are these the actual pics? If the actual pics I would zoom out to get more surroundings and then crop in post as needed. Also the faster the ss the better. This is not your mother's softball and the game and players move very fast.

snyderman wrote in post #9949213
my settings were something like f/4, ISO 200-400 and 1/1600-2000 on the shutter. Shots like pitching motion and bats move really fast. If you want to completely freeze them, really fast shutter speeds are required.

geoff5093 wrote in post #9949308
I would recommend you shoot manual next time, get there early and play around with the settings to get everything right, that way you don't have to worry about it exposing for a dark shirt and lowering the SS.

Thank you both for the advice. When I first stumbled upon the game, I started in manual, but the results were not good. So I tried sports mode and the previews looked much better, so I stuck with it and tried to focus on my angles and timing. Though I really don’t want to rely on anything automatic if I can help it.

Unfourtenetly I deleted all the rejects, but I know I set my shutter at its fastest, 1/8000. I played with the ISO too, and I tried to keep it at f/4. Looking at the data of the images in this thread, the shutter wasn’t as fast when I was in sports mode. --- ( I just edited my first post with the data over each image)

geoff5093 wrote in post #9949308
As long as it's not in the very early morning or in the evening, the light should be about the same for the whole game.

The images I posted were shot in between 6:28 – 7:05PM.

geoff5093 wrote in post #9949308
I know people say to crop tight, but personally some of these shots look like they could have benefited from less of a crop, I like to be able to see where the players actually are, mainly in the last two.

Here are the last two, untouched.