Some shots from the 10U Allstar State Tournament.C&C welcomed.

Some More

Hopefully, you are open for improvement. These need work.

1) You cut an arm, the image is soft and it's during warm-up.
2) Better, but all the images either have an incorrect WB, or not posted in sRGB. Colors look off and flat. Straighten the horizon.
3) I never really like this part of the pitcher motion. It's the least dynamic, and doesn't show the beauty in the movement. The windmill, when captured correctly, is beautiful... almost ballet-like. This part of the motion is flat and dead IMO. Also... poor crop.
4) You're really flexing the pixels to their max here and it shows. #2 is better.
5) Poor crop. Crop it mid hip and don't bullseye her.
6) Poor crop. Why are you cropping everything mid shin? Need to see eyes when it comes to HBP and even at best, they are mediocre shots.

Here is the first one reworked without original, if you don't mind. To me, the colors look more true. What do you think?

Looks great, I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong to not get the colors I want right out of the camera. I'm still trying to learn and I really appreciate any advice given.

nolimits wrote:
Some shots from the 10U Allstar State Tournament.C&C welcomed.

P Alesse wrote:
Here is the first one reworked without original, if you don't mind. To me, the colors look more true. What do you think?

clarence3 wrote:
[Can you provide a basic overview of what changes you made? Curves? Contrast? Color/WB? USM?


Auto Color
USM set to 60/0.4/0
Saturation +10
Noise ninja on just the BG only because I didn't have the original.

Paul this may be a dumb question but when you say the BG only what do you mean?

nolimits wrote:
Paul this may be a dumb question but when you say the BG only what do you mean?

No such thing as a dumb question. I create a duplicate layer, run Noise Ninja on that layer, set a mask on that layer and then brush back in the player from the original layer beneath it. So, only the background in the top layer gets the noise removal.

nolimits wrote:
Paul this may be a dumb question but when you say the BG only what do you mean?

Short answer: BG=background

Another shot from the same tourney is this one any better?

Would a expo disc help with setting the white balance?

nolimits wrote:
Would a expo disc help with setting the white balance?

My suggestion would be to start by setting WB off of a white towel. Much cheaper than an expo disk.

I used to shoot a lot of softball in the mid-day sun. They usually need a boost in saturation and a resetting of the black point.

What are your steps in processing the images? Take a look at Paul's adjustments and make a couple of actions you can apply to groups of shots that need it (assuming you have Photoshop).

I have photoshop but very limited knowledge of it.

John, how do you set WB off a towel?

By the way, this is typical of the best and most instructive threads on FM. My thanks to the experienced photographers who are willing to share so much of their time and expertise!

G. Todd Kalif wrote:
John, how do you set WB off a towel?

By the way, this is typical of the best and most instructive threads on FM. My thanks to the experienced photographers who are willing to share so much of their time and expertise!
I have only done it indoors and then only rarely so each time I have to consult the user manual. You'd need to check yours as each camera body is different.

In general, you have someone hold the towel or lay it on something in the light you'll see when shooting. Take a shot of it. I think you need to do this with manual focus and with the towel out of focus. Then you tell the camera to use that shot as its reference for white balance.

nolimits wrote:
I have photoshop but very limited knowledge of it.
Recording actions then batch applying them to images is one of the easiest things to do and a real time saver.

Google it and I'm sure you'll find a tutorial. I have several I finish my shots off with. Start with the steps Paul used minus the noise reduction and extra layer.