I am new to this site and a newbie digital photographer. I took my first softball pictures and I could really use some help improving my pictures. I have a nikon D50 and used a 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens. I set the camera to 200ISO, f7.1 and 1/400. I would really like to get a sharp picture of the ball for starters. Also, I was shooting into the sun because that is the way the field is set up and I couldn't move anywhere else to take the pictures.
Thanks so much for any help you can give me.

welcome to the site

In order to frereze the ball your going to need to use a faster shutter speed. but with your lense it shouldn't be much of a problem. To start out i'd set your camera to shutter priority mode, and have it around 1/250 or faster (depends on ball speed). the lighter the better, as long as your not looking directly at the sun. you should even be able to use iso 100, since you have a quick lense (f2.8) and it was sunny out.

Welcome to the forum!
Shoot in manual mode, with bright sun set your ISO to around 200, and then adjust youe exposure so your exposure meter is one stop over center. On sunny days I typically use an aperature of f5 to f8 and shutter speed of 1000 or faster. This will stop the ball. Adjust as needed by changing your shutter speed or aperature, although I usually change aperature out of habit shooting races.

If you are going to shoot sports it's best not to use the preset modes but use your manual settings and get the most out of your gear you can, Definately don't use sports mode if your camera has that.
Personally I prefer to have at least some motion blur in photos as it shows movement and the photos don't seem so static, almost posed. Look at some of the other threads here and check out the photos as well as comments as that can help you a lot as well.

JS

depack.....welcome to the board. For starters, what JS and Dylan are telling you are dead on. And like JS says, it's better to have some motion blur with the ball. Your exposure looks good, but try to keep those horizons straight. If you don't know what I mean, take a look at the top of the fences.....those need to be straight horizontal lines, so it doesn't look like the pitcher is going downhill. Be sure to do what JS suggests and look at other threads.
John

Sheesh John....I am tired.... I totaly missed the horizon :eek: Oh well, I wonder how off mine are from today :confused:

JS

Thanks so much for all the advice. I now have a good start as to how to set my camera and will concentrate more on the horizon. I started to laugh at my picture when I now noticed the pitcher was going down hill. Any ideas on how I could improve on my color? The grass doesn't look very green and the other colors don't seem sharp. Is some of my problem that I had to shot into the sun? The diamond isn't set up so I could shot from any other location.
Thanks again, I learned more today than I did reading the books I bought!

I think your colors are fine. The sunlight at that time is going to wash out the color of the grass a little. The uniforms are good. You could selectively saturate the other colors, but you run the risk of making them look a little unnatural.

In these examples the grass is blown out, which believe it or not is OK. You metered off the pitcher and on her shadow side so that will cause the bright areas to blow out. Inless you get on her bright side this will happen.

JS

Since I've read about meters a few times and you said I metered off the pitcher could you explain what that means? I just tried to read a few things when I googled it but really got confused. As you can tell, I'm really a beginner and need step by step advice.
Thanks so much