U16 girls. My first time shooting jpg (trying to wean myself off of RAW for this type of shoot).

Thank you in advance.

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Would anyone be willing to help me learn and improve? Any C&C?



Thank you,
Aram

Aram: Looks like this was a mid-day game. Lots of sun! The whites are blown out and lots of over exposure. These are tough conditions.

I'm probably the last guy to give advice but I'll tell ya how they look to me.

#1 Horizon off slightly. Good bokeh. Good action.
#2 Keeper but nothing really grabs me.
#3 Nice Shot. Players eyes are up!
#4 Good Action but I would have gone vertical and get rid of everything on the right.
#5 Sweet shot but the overexposed areas hurt.
#6 Too shadowy and dark.
#7 Horizon off. Good action but not flattering facial expression.
#8 Sweet
#9 Not
#10 Nice
#11 Horizon off but more impurely… nothing special happening.
#12 Doesn't do anything for me.

Thanks for posting. Keep on shooting.

Ben

Aram: Good feedback from Ben. I'll add that as far as action is concerned, #s 3, 5, 7 and 8 come closest to providing something compelling. 1, 4, 10 and 12 capture what I would characterize as awkward moments that aren't all that interesting. #6 could be one of your strongest images but for the clutter, the crop and possibly the angle.

I understand that there are many things that go in to creating a strong image. You seem to be close on multiple fronts. Keep shooting and continue to look for peak moments of action captured from an angle that maximizes what is interesting about the image. Keep posting the shots you think are your best and seeking feedback. As you imply, that will be a great way to learn and improve.

can I ask what the point is of not shooting RAW? I under for a pro who needs to submit images to a paper or magazine they may not want RAW but I'm not seeing the advantage otherwise. Many of these would be better with a bit of tweaking in ACR (or other raw converter) to bring up shadow detail and tame highlights.

mbaumser wrote:
can I ask what the point is of not shooting RAW? I under for a pro who needs to submit images to a paper or magazine they may not want RAW but I'm not seeing the advantage otherwise. Many of these would be better with a bit of tweaking in ACR (or other raw converter) to bring up shadow detail and tame highlights.

I don't shoot in RAW because it fills my buffer quicker, and it takes up more memory. I know everyone says memory is cheap and all, but there just isn't a need to shoot in raw if you do minimal processing on a photo anyways. I shoot high volumes of photos when shooting sports. I don't shoot as much when I shoot portraits, so I'll shoot in raw for that type of stuff.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Will absorb and try to learn from it. (We have a bye this weekend and I'm not shooting other teams yet, so I'll probably be back in 2 weeks).

Marc, I'm shooting jpeg as a form of self-discipline. It'll force me to expose correctly. For that matter, it'll force me to pay attention to white balance. I agree there are valid uses for RAW, like highlight recovery in some cases, but I don't want the option of a crutch. So I'm taking it away from myself for a while. Tough coach, me.

Aram

awacs wrote:
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Will absorb and try to learn from it. (We have a bye this weekend and I'm not shooting other teams yet, so I'll probably be back in 2 weeks).

Marc, I'm shooting jpeg as a form of self-discipline. It'll force me to expose correctly. For that matter, it'll force me to pay attention to white balance. I agree there are valid uses for RAW, like highlight recovery in some cases, but I don't want the option of a crutch. So I'm taking it away from myself for a while. Tough coach, me.

Aram


I guess there is some merit to what you say (and I'm not looking to argue the virtue of RAW v JPG. That's been done to death), I've found shooting my daughter's soccer games that virtually every shot can be different. Reflections off uniforms or if the turf has a painted logo can throw off WB shot-to-shot. White or reflective jerseys, harsh midday sun throw off exposure or create nasty shadows. From my point of view, RAW is a tool to correct for situations the camera can't handle not for correcting my mistakes (although I make a lot of those and do use RAW to recover...it's just not my main reason).

I do appreciate the idea of pushing yourself by self imposing constraints. I look forward to future posts to see how it's going.