My first time shooting lacrosse. How can I improve?

This is my first try at shooting lacrosse please let me know what you think and how I can improve.

1

Stop shooting in Tv mode and shoot in either M or Av mode.

When shooting backlit like you did here, M is a much easier mode to shoot since you need to set your exposure for the players faces which is going to leave your background a bit overexposed, which is just fine.

If you are not comfortable with M, then at least shoot in Av mode. Sent your aperture at it's widest setting (lowest number) use + 1/3 or + 2/3 exposure compensation (If you are shooting backlit) and adjust your ISO until you are getting shutter speeds of at least 1/1000.

It also looks like several of your shots are back focused so work on keeping your focus point on the subjects. This will improve with practice.

Thanks...I'll give it a try using your advice. Hopefully next time I can get into a position where the lighting is better and the players aren't backlit.

Thought of another question...do you recommend shooting RAW or JPEG.
Also how about shooting a burst of photos and then editing for the best vs picking my shots?
Thanks for the help....I'm doing another game tomorrow and am hoping to do better.

cigna63 wrote in post #9978501
Thanks...I'll give it a try using your advice. Hopefully next time I can get into a position where the lighting is better and the players aren't backlit.

I would not worry too much about that. Unless it is really late in the day, I personally like shooting sports with hats and helmets backlit. You just have to work harder to get the proper exposure because almost any sort of shot that is metered by the camera will underexpose the subject when shooting backlit but there is no other way to deal with the hard shadows on their faces that you get when shooting with the sun at your back. I feel the faces lost in shadows look totally trashes way too many shots. Once you get it down, you will really like the results.

The more important thing is to set up so you can minimize the number of shots where the subject is half in the sun and half in the shade. Those are almost always a no win situation.

cigna63 wrote in post #9981554
Thought of another question...do you recommend shooting RAW or JPEG.
Also how about shooting a burst of photos and then editing for the best vs picking my shots?
Thanks for the help....I'm doing another game tomorrow and am hoping to do better.

RAW vs JPEG is a very touchy subject around here. There are pros and cons to each and if you do a search you can spend the next four months reading a lot of hate and anger about the subject.

For me personally, I shoot everything RAW. Why? Because I figure I paid a boatload for my camera and I want every piece of data it can capture. Memory cards and hard drives are cheap in comparison and with very few exceptions, I am not shooting on a deadline that is so tight that I can't afford the extra few minutes for the files to download from the computer. I also believe that in the future, RAW processors will continue to improve and add even more advanced functionality and having the RAW files today might allow me to do even more creative things with them later. Again, this is just my personal reasoning. The JPEG only gang has their own reasons and they are also very valid.

You should always be trying to pick your shots and not just randomly firing at the field. An increased knowledge level of the game helps a bunch with this so if you are new to a sport, spend some time watching it first to get a sense of where the action happens and what tends to happen leading up to it.

I tend to shoot in bursts of 3-5 shots. Sometimes I will machine gun off a long run of shots but this is typically when a play becomes another unexpected play (Ex Football player breaks a tackle, ball gets tipped into the air, etc.) or if it is a major play where there might also be lots of emotion afterward. (Ex Play at the plate in baseball, touchdown in football, a band kid walking down icy stairs carrying a tuba , etc.)

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck at the game.

Kevin love the ice fog

I have never shot lacrosse, but I can say there are allot of things that need to be addressed with the images you posted. To pick out what could be the biggest improved that I could suggest would be to practice and get as much action as you can. Back of heads, no face or ball in frame should be thrown out. I don't even bother to hit the shutter unless I can see a face and ball in frame. Try to shoot as tight as possible and the crop your images even tighter. When it comes to sports images and what I personally think are good images are ones that are real tight and focus on the action. Loose images can also work well but must be taken correctly.

NY Irish wrote in post #9983327
Kevin love the ice fog

Hey thanks. I appreciate it.