St. Petersburg Bowl - Louisville Vs. Southern Miss

Shot the St.Petersburg Bowl last night. All images are SOOC.

Luke-Jim,

Well this is a quick post, since the game just happened last night. FWIW, here are my thoughts:

1: Nice shot. Would have been better with the whole ball and from a little lower perspective, and might benefit from a levels correction inside the helmet (see below).

2: OK, but it looks like the peak action has just happened, and the ball carrier is just about to hit the ground.

3: Nothing special. Standard stock shot, and not the best one, at that. If you're looking for an iso shot of the quarterback, it's preferred to not have another player in front of the QB (or crop it horizontally, thereby removing the other player, see below - but even then the player in the foreground intrudes).

4: Meh...standard stock shot. Would be better with the player coming at the camera so we could see his entire face and both eyes. Same comment about adjusting your level.

5: REALLY standard stock shot. Once more, if you're taking stock shots, it's best to have nobody else in the image, plus it's important to get both eyes.

6: No ball; no faces; no good.

7: No ball; no good.

Your timing on the last couple seems to be early. Are you shooting with both eyes open to allow you to time the shot, or shooting a burst and hoping for the best? I would also suggest shooting from behind the end zone rather than the sidelines. You'll get MUCH better faces and the action will be coming directly at you rather than across the field of view. You're shooting with a 400 so you should have enough reach. Why are you shooting Av mode, BTW? Unless I'm mistaken, this was a night game, correct?

Hope this helps.

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;;.

#2 is really great

Luke,

Good collection on the second set.

1: Average shot, and still not seeing the runner's eyes.

2: Almost a good shot - you've cut the ball in half, and the player's left hand blocks half of his face. This looks like a kick-off return? If so, these are very, very easy to time to get the entire ball in the frame. Keep both eyes open and watch the ball, and trip the shutter when the ball is just about to enter the frame. In addition, 1/400s is too slow to shoot this level of football. The ball shouldn't be blurred this much. Lose the +1 EC, bump your ISO up to 1600 and get your shutter speed up to around 1/1200s. Also, rarely are shots of guys catching the kick-off very compelling - you can sometimes get a good stock shot of the runner if he turns towards you.

3: No faces, no ball...I can't even tell what's going on in this shot. Sorry, but this shot wouldn't have even been a keeper.

4: Nice group shot - too bad the face of the guy holding the trophy is obscured by the trophy.

5: OK...good face, but the shot is way too loose. Plus number 14 is too close to the runner and blends into him. On iso shots, you want the runner to be, well, isolated.

Thanks again Dennis!