Soccer - Criticism and Comments Please

Hello everyone. I posted these in the Sports Talk section on accident so I thought it wold be best to bring them over here.

I originally posted the first 3 images and got some good criticism. The last 4 images are from yesterday while I kept the criticism in mind. Hopefully there is improvement. Both were shot with a 70-200 f2.8L.

These were from a 50D from about two weeks to 2 months ago:

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I like "#11 vs #23" because we're seeing the action NOW. In the others it seems that we're anticipating action, but it we're still waiting for it. "Here comes the ball ... " or "I'm gonna kick it .. I'm gonna kick it ... "

Biffbradford wrote in post #10850291
I like "#11 vs #23" because we're seeing the action NOW. In the others it seems that we're anticipating action, but it we're still waiting for it. "Here comes the ball ... " or "I'm gonna kick it .. I'm gonna kick it ... "

Yeah I tend to do that. I need to work on giving the climax as well as the buildup. Thanks.

Quite nice action, and good eyes/facial expressions. You could crop a bit tighter in several of the shots.

Second lot of photos are really good. Nice and sharp, and giving a real sense of the match.

wow great photos. i like how sharp they are. makes me want to get a better lens to do sports with

I would definitely crop the first two much tighter. I don't know if you have a compelling reason to stick with the same crop ratio on all of your photos, but as far as presenting them here, I don't think they present as well as those cropped as needed on an individual basis.

Regards,
Jeff

I am not sure I follow you in regards to the crop ratio comment. Are you saying that all of my images are cropped to the same ratio? I personally have no idea how I did that if so as I go through each image individually and crop from there.

Just crop tight to the main subjects and get the faces nice and sharp. Not a lot wrong with the actual photos at all. Just crop as tight as possible unless theres something in the background thats contributing to the photo that you really need in - eg crowd or referee or whatever.
No 3 would be a cracking pic if you cropped nice and tight to the two players and the ball and play with the exposure levels to bring out the kids facial expressions. Thats the main action and would make a good photo a great photo. Keep it up.

+1 to advice to crop tight. It's ok to even crop off body parts of secondary player(s). For example, your first picture cropped tight to the two players would make a great image.

j.

Try this

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Thanks John and Red Dog.

Red Dog: I actually have that exact image as cropped. I just wanted to keep the original up for sake of preserving my "error" to make me remember to crop tighter in the future. It is great to see your crop though as it confirms that mine is where it needs to be. Thanks!

Same as a few others. Tighter crops are the biggest thing to work on here, anticipating the proper timing on the action will get better with time and effort.
Nice job.

polarbare wrote in post #10854330
Same as a few others. Tighter crops are the biggest thing to work on here, anticipating the proper timing on the action will get better with time and effort.
Nice job.

Thank you Brad. I have images where there is ball contact but I chose to post my "fringe" images to see where I can improve when I am not at my best. Are these better in terms of timing?

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ajaffe wrote in post #10852305
I am not sure I follow you in regards to the crop ratio comment. Are you saying that all of my images are cropped to the same ratio? I personally have no idea how I did that if so as I go through each image individually and crop from there.

Upon closer inspection , I see that your shots are not all cropped to the same ratio (as I see many times from some posters). That is, many times, why shots such as yours are cropped so loosely. They're trying to use the same ratio on all their shots. Sometimes they are processing them for print, sometimes they process them at a certain ratio in case they may print them or use them in a slide show, or sometimes to fit other output/media constraints. Sometimes they do it. . . . just because. I have no way of knowing why someone might crop the way they do.

I just know that they (we) chose to display them here, mostly to get C&C so we can improve our craft. I used to try to crop uniformly myself 'just in case'.

I still don't know why you chose to crop some of these so loosely. You do have some nicely timed action captures there and I think you could take them up a notch (IMHO) with more thoughtful cropping. However, it's your 'art' so to speak, so if that's the way you choose to display it, it's certainly your choice.

That said, I once had it put to me this way:

"If it doesn't add to the composition, it probably takes away from it."

All of those little things in the BG that are not part of the story distract the viewers from the story trying to be told. The story in your shots as I see it, are the main subjects right around the ball. If I have to see the other players in the BG (or anywhere else in the composition) and try to figure out how they relate to the 'story', it detracts from the main subject matter of the shot.

Sometimes BG elements add to the composition, such as a crowd of interested onlookers, a scoreboard, a banner that tells the viewer what event they are looking at, someone 'celebrating', etc.

Other times you find fences, poles, corners of buildings, disinterested onlookers, players not directly involved in the action, trash cans, outhouses, goals from other fields, cars in parking lots and telephone wires are all examples of BG elements that may detract from a composition.

In this case, the facial expressions and 'poses' are something many viewers of sporting photographs are wanting to see in great detail. A tighter crop allows us to make the subject larger/more prominent in the frame.

It's up to us to consider all of those things and how they affect the others view our work. If the good folks here are kind enough to take the time to view, and make suggestions for improvement, I prefer to take the time to present the work in the best way possible. If I were going to crop them in a way that they might not present well here, I would probably take the time to mention why I did so because it's something that will likely be mentioned.

Just some things to consider when post processing.

Regards,
Jeff