My First Flashed Football Photos

Last week I tried out my first flashed football pictures. I have never used an external flash before and received the flash in the mail a couple of hours before the game. Here are my first attempts.

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Those are very good for the first try.

Here's my comments ...

They look sharp and exposure looks pretty good.
I would bump up saturation and clarity just a pinch.
Crop a lot tighter on the player with the ball.
Shadows are minimal which is good and I think proper cropping would eliminate them entirely.
(If I really like a shot I take the time to clone out the shadows in PS)
You missed the red eye on the quarterback of the last shot.

Did you have the flash mounted on camera or off camera?

Look good. I would lower exposure just a bit in pp.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The flash was off the camera. Probably about 18 inches below.

Matt

Nice shots for your first time using flash. I just started using flash about 4 weeks ago and these are much better than my first flashed shots of the Varsity Eagles.

I have found that each game is a bit different, I finally thought I had it right two weeks ago when we played Galt at home, but then I went to Consumnes Oaks last week and struggled. I don't know if it was the lighting or what, but I hard time getting decent shots. I messed around w/ my settings all night and just couldn't seem to get it right. I still ended up w/ some decent shots, but they just were not as crisp as the prior week.

Oh well, I'm going to shoot the Folsom @ Pondo game this Friday so i'll see what I come up with.

Have you tried to mount you flash above the camera? I have practiced with it both ways and found I didn't like the monster shadows I got when it was mounted below.

mmcguire wrote in post #11127337
Last week I tried out my first flashed football pictures. I have never used an external flash before and received the flash in the mail a couple of hours before the game. Here are my first attempts.

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Pretty good job. They look a touch overexposed or washed out. Did you use ETTL, FEC, or M on the flash settings?

Maybe add a touch of contrast...

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