The local high school team won the semi-final today and will play for the championship on Thursday. Nice day today, sun was a little harsh but all in all I felt it was a good shooting day. These were shot with Nikon D300 and a Sigma 120-300 /2.8. I really liike my siggy. (sometimes) C&C welcome as always. (When I grow up I wanna get headers just like Russ)

And three more

Bob: Ha ha! Very nice images--clean, sharp, great colors and some decent action. #2 is my favorite with implied competition, intensity and other elements of a good sports shot. Great action in #1 with your typical high school background mucking up the works. Might say the same for the last shot. 3, 4 and 5 are a bit too similar to one another to hold up within the series. Of those, I like #3 best.

Sounds like an exciting playoff. Good luck to the local team and to you if you shoot the championship game.

Nice ones Bob I like 3 the best, great light too....

Bob... nice effort, but the BG are less than spectacular. Also, I know you have heard this before but, shoot lower to the ground. Sorry to say that nothing is particularly standing out for me in this series.

Thanks Guys... I know about the backgrounds. At the local field there are no good backgrounds, it is surrounded by either bleachers , buildings, retaining walls and the street on the last side where car parking is at a miminum. Thursday's championship is in a stadium so maybe I'll get some better BG's

Paul, I was on my knee for these shots I don't think I'm goin to the belly soon so, I guess I'll have to live with this angle.

you need to open that lens up, way too much dof
other that that they are nice to look at

Yeah I'm not going to provide any earth shattering news here either... really nice shots spoiled a bit by some very tough BG's. Didn't check out the EXIF, is there room to open the lens up? Seems like an f2.8 lens should be able to knock down the BG a little. Regardless, some nice sharp images, and some good action too.

Unless I am reading the EXIF wrong, it appears these were shot at f3.5. Also looks like with the 120-300, the focal length was all over the place, from 190mm all the way to 300mm, with many shots being in the middle.

With all due respect, there is absoltely no way opening up from f3.5 to f2.8 is going to help his backgrounds. It might help to review this archived thread to get a broader perspective about the technical aspects of what affects BGs and bokeh.

I think Paul had a very appropriate suggestion...shoot lower. If the OP is already as low as he can go, I would suggest looking for a way to shoot higher. Sometimes I'll go up into the stands and shoot down when the BGs are just terrible. A few weeks ago I went up with a local SID on a scissor lift at the end of the field. Or, find another angle to shoot from that lessens the BG issues. Sometimes these venues just have crappy BGs from any angle. And while there are things one can try to help clean up BG issues like we're seeing here, in this case I don't believe that opening up from f3.5 to f2.8 is one of them.

Nothing really wrong with the other elements of the images. Other than #1, most of the action is rather static and stock-like, but the colors look nice and exposure is good.

Keep shooting and keep posting.

Scott,
That's a great idea! I'll have to try getting higher next time I shoot at that field. I really don't like shooting at that field because of the B/G issue but, you may have given me a whole new outlook on getting some cool shots. There are plenty of spots to get "above" the field of play Also, the turf is brand new and really clean looking.

Thanks Again,
Bob

Scott Sewell wrote:
it appears these were shot at f3.5

Well, with that being the case there's really nothing you can do settings-wise to knock them down more, so I maintain what I said earlier... some very nice shots, despite a busy BG. If you post some shots up that have the subject(s) closer to the camera, I'm sure at f3.5 you'll find the backgrounds less distracting.

I did shoot these at 3.5 in order to get the SS up a little as in the past I was getting some motion blur on the feet. I read Paul's post and I will open the AP up next time as it might help a little but also take into consideration Pauls "lesson" on the other variences involved in getting better boken.