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Archive 2013 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC

  
 
twragg
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


Photo's from the GU18 National Soccer Championship on Sept 14, 2013. Great game, QC won the gold with NL taking the silver. Played in St. John's, NL King George V Soccer Field.

#1

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-2 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#2

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-3 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#3

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-1 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#4

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-6 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#5

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-8 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#6

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-12 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#7

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-14 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#8

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-16 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#9

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-22 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#10

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-25 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#11

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-26 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#12

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-29 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#13

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-31 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#14

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-33 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#15

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-36 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#16

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-42 by twragg0059, on Flickr

#17

GU18 NL vs QC National Championship Game - Sep 14-2013-44 by twragg0059, on Flickr




Edited on Oct 16, 2013 at 07:58 PM · View previous versions



Oct 16, 2013 at 06:03 PM
ian408
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


no pics.


Oct 16, 2013 at 07:33 PM
twragg
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


The numbers were links, didn't realize they weren't showing. Just fixed and pictures now show :-)


Oct 16, 2013 at 07:59 PM
twragg
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


Any C&C's? My favorites from the lot are #7, #10 and #15 for action, atlhough the last one #17 I feel really shows the sting of defeat when the gold was plucked from their grasp in a shoot out. Would love to hear which ones stick out for other folks, or constructive tips on how to improve :-)


Oct 17, 2013 at 02:07 PM
OntheRez
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


twragg wrote:
Any C&C's? My favorites from the lot are #7, #10 and #15 for action, atlhough the last one #17 I feel really shows the sting of defeat when the gold was plucked from their grasp in a shoot out. Would love to hear which ones stick out for other folks, or constructive tips on how to improve :-)



For those of us who aren't privileged enough to be Canadian identifying what NL and QC are would give us some context. I gather this is girls under 18 but don't know if it is club, school, town or whatever teams. Also, you couldn't control it, but a lot of the backgrounds are truly bad. Happens that way sometimes.

Biggest single critique - which I think would be echoed by others - is the need to crop tighter. With 17 pix I can't go thru each but consider #2 with no ref, #3 cropping way down so we don't see the empty stadium, #4 just the 2 players, same with #5. I have no clue how much experience you have shooting sports and while I do it professionally (for a very small town newspaper), I'm certainly no great expert. For sure you don't need all the context - the player, the action, the moment, the face. Learning to crop away enough of the opposing player to focus on the action is an art.

Also, if you shoot RAW I'd suggest bringing the light up. It was obviously a dark, dank day, but some exposure compensation, a bit more vibrance would really help.

#17 does have good emotion though as always it would have been nice to get more of her face. Again way to much area around her.

I pulled 17 down, did a quick crop, played with the curve a bit, did about 1/4 stop brighter and hit the vibrance a bit all in Lr. The pix is now - to my eye - a bit "hot," but it does suggest a direction you might consider. If modibying your work is offensive please let me know and I'll delete it.

You got some nice action. I think you could work on how to highlight the action in post.

Robert





An unauthorized modification




Oct 19, 2013 at 11:16 AM
twragg
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


Thanks for feedback OntheRez. This was soccer clubs for NL - Newfoundland vs QC - Quebec. It was National Championship game, Quebec won the gold Newfoundland came out with silver.

I agree with you on the cropping, I'm always afraid to crop to much as I reduce the resolution of the photo's. These were taken with a 24 megapixel, but alot of these are heavily cropped, I always fear going to much, which probably stops me from cropping exactly where I should.

As you say, the background is what it is, but I should pay more attention and walk around more, be more selective which angle I'm shooting at. I find I get comfortable in a spot and stay there, I should shake it up with more consideration of background, your comments echo that.

I don't mind at all that you tweaked one of my photo's providing another point of view on editing choices. I appreciate you taking the time to do so. Here's were opinions vary slightly, you cropped it tighter which again I agree I need to get tighter. Not sure I would increase brightness so much though, is that something you would do for sharing on web, or a product of how it will print in your newspaper?

Thanks again for taking the time to review, it was very detailed and extremely helpful!



Oct 20, 2013 at 04:50 AM
P Alesse
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


It does look like that these are heavily cropped to begin with which begs the question... what lens was used? You may have to be more patient and allow the action to come to you if you are not able to get into longer glass. The action is good, but the crops are loose and the backgrounds are in the DoF too much... this is indicative of the subjects just being too far away. Shoot at maximum focal length and allow the action to fill 3/4 of the view or more before snapping the shutter.


Oct 20, 2013 at 05:53 AM
twragg
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


Thanks for the feedback P Alesse. I took these with a 70 - 400mm F4 - 5.6 Lens. I also have the 70 - 200 F2.8, but I wanted to get as close to the action as possible. Good advice to be more patient and let the action come closer, I tend to shoot too far away, Im aware of that but it's a confidence thing. Trying to get as many "good" shots as possible within game time, I tend to start machine gun shooting at everything :-) Then when it comes time for photo selection/post processing, I have too many shots to go through, and too many that are from a distance, I have to crop heavily to isolate the subject. So your point is very well taken.


Oct 20, 2013 at 08:05 AM
OntheRez
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


TWragg,

Cropping is truly an art and a lot of it depends on how much you can crop - as Paul has noted - and equally important what is the pix trying to say. In #17 you're clearly expressing the dismay of a bitter loss. When I saw it I thought of the old saying, "Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan." By further isolating the player (and getting rid of the yellow whatever in the upper left of the original) I sensed that it expressed the isolation that loss brings.

I can't offer much useful advise on shooting soccer - which I consider to be the second hardest sport to shoot behind volleyball - simply because I don't do it much. Still it does have some similarity to American football plus it has the advantage that it is normally played in daylight - at least around here.

When shooting football I'm always on the move and since I am a credentialed reporter and our region is so small and unimportant, I have complete access to the field. So I get shots from all over.

Soccer's harder than football (or say rugby) because there isn't a defined line of scrimmage and play moves so quickly from one end to the other. It's kind of like basketball on a huge court with 2x as many players. If you have the light, the 70-400 should make a superb lens - assuming good AF acquisition. For me cropping and NR go hand in hand particularly since I shoot at abominably dark fields. You'll notice that in my modification of your pix I didn't apply any NR and the shot would need it for most any medium.

I work curves, contrast, vibrance, et. al., based upon an intuitive sense that I can't quantify nor do I think it's necessarily the "right" way to do things. Certainly for print I have to go brighter than normal because my publisher's printer just does things darker than I'd like. There are technical reasons beyond my control. Also the paper's online edition uses very small jpegs so I need to emphasize the central character to help the viewer see what the pix is about.

I'm not sure I'd agree with your take fewer shots idea, and I definitely don't agree with forgoing long shots of critical action. Yes there are many times that I have a great shot of an amazing moment but it's so far away in the dark night of the local venues that there's no way to bring it back. Still, skillful post can pull some of them particularly if they are only going to be viewed in the paper. To print anything large, one does need most of the pixels.

One last thought, over the last year I've taught myself to shoot with both eyes open. Amazing how hard it is, and also how helpful. Part of it was self-defense cause I have been nailed on the sideline More important is that it can often give you clues as to how the play is developing. Finally the thing that I think differentiates me from truly great sports photographers is I still catch my self "watching" rather than shooting. Amazing how often that happens.

LIke everything perfect practice makes perfect, so going for every shot with full intensity is the only way to improve.

Robert



Oct 20, 2013 at 11:14 AM
twragg
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · GU18 National Soccer Championship - NL vs QC


Thanks again OntheRez, appreciate the time taken to share your experience!


Oct 20, 2013 at 12:46 PM





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