Hey all I want to start off by saying this was alot of firsts for me so things may be a little shaky but I am looking for advice to improve. I coach football so I have actually never shot a game before. This was my first time shooting football and t happened to be at the Gopher game which is the first time at a college event for me. I needed to get some pictures of a player for a magazine I shoot for Weather was not ideal and I was shooting with a 400 5.6 s I needed to shoot at fairly high iso for a day game to stop action when I wasnt using the 70-200. Just letting you know so when you lay into me you may take it a little easier

Thanks

Ben

5-8

last ones thanks for looking

looks like you got some good actions shots, nice set

I don't think you need to worry about harsh criticism with this set. Great job, especially in the rain.

Some of these could be downsized sharpening issues, but these look soft in many cases, excluding 3 and 11.

Looks like a lot of these photos have high blacks as in the darker areas of your images aren't that dark. Photo 8 is a great example of what looks good.

I don't want this to seem like I'm "laying into" you but none of these look sharp enough to keep. Maybe--emphasize maybe--numbers 3, 5 and 8, but even those look over-processed; there's something that's just not right about them. Sorry.

I agree with Scott, none look sharp and surely need some proper editing. I want to show you a 30 second adjustment in Photoshop to your last photo and notice the difference. I pinched the levels and hit it with a run through noise ninja.


723913 by MattOphotog, on Flickr


Matt

Could this be an issue of condensation on the lens?

Yes... quite a few of soft to very soft images here and I'm finding the WB a bit off. The timing and action are almost there, but much needed improvement needed on the technicals.

SpreadHDGFX wrote:
Could this be an issue of condensation on the lens?
It was rainy/misty yesterday, though I was out of town at a different game (finally got to watch a game rather than shooting it). I would expect that this was this could be the reason for the blacks not being too black.

Hey guys thanks for the feedback. Picture 8 and 3 were the ones I took before it started misting/raining. It actually came down pretty decent the entire second half. i have nbever shot in rain before so I am sure I was doing things wrong. What are the typical things to do while shooting in rain? How do my shots all of a sudden become more soft again? Was I shooting at to slow of a shutter speed? some were like 1/800 and 1/640 even which is probably to slow for college football? I will be the first to admit I need work in post. I have improved a little since i started 9 months ago, but still have a ways to go. I didn't run any of these through any type of noise reduction. Should I have shot at auto white balance? Thanks for the tips keep em coming!!

Ben

sandman22 wrote:
Hey guys thanks for the feedback. Picture 8 and 3 were the ones I took before it started misting/raining. It actually came down pretty decent the entire second half. i have nbever shot in rain before so I am sure I was doing things wrong. What are the typical things to do while shooting in rain? How do my shots all of a sudden become more soft again? Was I shooting at to slow of a shutter speed? some were like 1/800 and 1/640 even which is probably to slow for college football? I will be the first to admit I need work in post. I have improved a little since i started 9 months ago, but still have a ways to go. I didn't run any of these through any type of noise reduction. Should I have shot at auto white balance? Thanks for the tips keep em coming!!
Ben
Don't worry, you weren't the only one shooting at high ISO. At the game I was at, here is the exif from one of the shots taken (this was a little later in the day, after 1).

1/1250 at ƒ/2.8; 3200; f=400 mm. This is the equivalent of 1/640th at ƒ/2.8 and ISO 1600, which for outside is pretty dim.

Also take a look at the Strib Galleries take at the same time. Probably no Exif though.
http://www.startribune.com/galleries/174050591.html
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/174043681.html

Do you guys know of any way to prevent condensation on a lens? I know for swimming, to prevent that, we would rub toothpaste on the inside of our goggles, but I'm about 90% sure you wouldn't want to attempt it with your lens.

Any suggestions?

SpreadHDGFX wrote:
Do you guys know of any way to prevent condensation on a lens? I know for swimming, to prevent that, we would rub toothpaste on the inside of our goggles, but I'm about 90% sure you wouldn't want to attempt it with your lens.

Any suggestions?
About the only thing I can think of is to not make a very abrupt transition from inside to outside.