Baseball

[tayl0124]

Two boys on my Son's team missed picture day, so they asked me to take some photos for those two family members. What do you think??

[Photo-John]

I think they both look very nice and I think the player and his family should be happy. What lens and aperture did you use? You've got a great out-of-focus background. A common mistake for this kind of photo would be to use too small of an aperture and end up with a busy, distraction background.

Did you use flash on the vertical image? It has noticeably different color than the other photo. The first one feels too cool and possibly a bit dark. The second one looks like you used some flash with a warm reflector. Is that right? I'd try to tweak the white balance of the first one a bit so that it matches the second one better. I think the warmer image has a much nicer, more natural feel.

In the vertical image I really notice the grass in the background. It divides the image unnecessarily and distracts me a bit. Did you shoot standing up and pointing down a bit at the boy? For these photos I would have gotten down to the boy's eye-level and maybe even lower. That should have eliminated all that grass and made the boy appear larger and even a bit heroic.

Overall, I think these are very nice and I think the player and his family will be proud to have them. They aren't perfect, though - you still have room to grow

[Greg McCary]

On the first one I would lighten the face a little and maybe darken the background. I agree with John the white balance is a little warm. When setting the white balance for a portrait shot an 18% grey card or one of those white balance lens caps takes the guess work out of skin tones.They are very cheap investments and one of the best tools in the bag. Also clone the flower just over his head.

Amazon.com: Mennon White balance lens cap 72mm for digital SLR and digital video camera lens: Camera & Photo

[gotrocks]

Family should be happy to receive these pictures.

I would not have cut the first elbow off.

[SallyAllie]

Those are good shots.

[mattb]

Both good, but I prefer the second one for the light and color.
The first one feels a little cramped with that composition and like others have said the WB seems a little off. To fix it if you have Lightroom, you could click the WB dropper on the lettering of his bat and it should help quite a bit. You may need to adjust a little after using the dropper but that will get you close I bet.

[tayl0124]

I think they both look very nice and I think the player and his family should be happy. What lens and aperture did you use? You've got a great out-of-focus background. A common mistake for this kind of photo would be to use too small of an aperture and end up with a busy, distraction background.

Thanks Photo John. Didn't mean to be gone so long. For both shots I used the 50MM 1.8 I. I shot them both at f1.8 ISO 200, top photo at 1/400, and bottom at 1/500

Did you use flash on the vertical image? It has noticeably different color than the other photo. The first one feels too cool and possibly a bit dark. The second one looks like you used some flash with a warm reflector. Is that right? I'd try to tweak the white balance of the first one a bit so that it matches the second one better. I think the warmer image has a much nicer, more natural feel.

The second one did use the flash with a diffuser on it. No reflector.

In the vertical image I really notice the grass in the background. It divides the image unnecessarily and distracts me a bit. Did you shoot standing up and pointing down a bit at the boy? For these photos I would have gotten down to the boy's eye-level and maybe even lower. That should have eliminated all that grass and made the boy appear larger and even a bit heroic.

Overall, I think these are very nice and I think the player and his family will be proud to have them. They aren't perfect, though - you still have room to grow

I most likely was standing up, there were a lot of other boys practicing all around so I didn't have many option for the background. I could have gotten lower though. Next time I might bring a tripod also.

[tayl0124]

Thanks for the feedback guys!! Because of these two players, I may be shooting a whole football team in the near future.

[SallyAllie]

Congratulations!