Go Vandals!

I photographed a game for a semi-pro baseball team last weekend. Here is one from the day that I am happy with, but I'm no sports photographer. How did I do? (Swmdryfan - thanks for your pre-game tips. I tried my best to keep my eye on the ball!)

It gives you a good sense for what's going on and you caught the action at the right spot but I think it could benefit from a tighter crop and slightly different angle. Shooting directly behind the catcher is a fairly common photo and works well if you can shoot wide open enough to blur the background, keeping the pitcher sharp and catch the photo right when the ball is in the mid point.

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Originally Posted by berrywise

It gives you a good sense for what's going on and you caught the action at the right spot but I think it could benefit from a tighter crop and slightly different angle. Shooting directly behind the catcher is a fairly common photo and works well if you can shoot wide open enough to blur the background, keeping the pitcher sharp and catch the photo right when the ball is in the mid point.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment Berrywise. This is the only one I took from behind the plate everything else was shot from the press box, dugout or sidelines. I did think this was a common angle but that was part of why I wanted to include it. What would the team think if I had missed such a common impression of the game? I should have also stated that the team I was working for was the the team in black so I wanted to retain focus throughout on them. The lack of sharp focus on the pitcher is intentional as he's not on the team that hired me. As far as blurring the background more and the tighter crop, I was hoping to capture the whole scene. Do you mean that the trees in the furthest background distract too much? And would you suggest a crop that cuts out anything beyond the back wall or just a selective blur to obliterate any distractions?

I'm going to agree with Berry here and say this shot could be improved with a tighter crop. I'm no sports photographer so who knows if I'd be able to pull it off, but I think if the only elements in this shot were the (whole) pitcher and the batter from the waist up it would be a lot more dramatic. I do like the angle you chose to shoot from and I like the ball frozen mid-flight. This is a good start! Thanks for posting.

Thanks you for taking the time to comment MMC! I liked the original image for what it included; everyone lined up in rows, all eyes fixed on the ball the word baseball on the back wall. But I suppose I am guilty of trying to include to much. As a personal being there note, I had been doing tight shots all day long and this one was done as kind of a break from that. With uniforms it starts to feel like I am taking the same picture again and again and again even though there are different people under the hats that I have to document, compositionally my eyes got a little tired by this point.

I have tried to apply what has been suggested so far. Is this an improvement or over the top on the post processing?

Given the angle you shot at, I think the cropped image looks to be improved to the point that it's the strongest shot made from there. I like it a lot.
A new suggestion for this new shot would be to do something about the out-of-focus mask in the background. It cuts off most distinctly at the fence line and it looks totally unnatural. You could probably move the line down to just above the base path behind the second baseman and it would look much more appropriate.
Kudos on the new revision... it works very well.

OK I think the mask works much better this way. Thank you for the suggestion MMC.:cool:

Much better! A+

The second redo is great! The tight crop works wonders IMO and the colors and compositionally it's great!

Well done,

Jared

I saw your most recent update of this photo, before scrolling down to see the original and the second. I'm not a photoshop user, but I immediately noticed the artificial depth of field (don't know the right terminology). The foreground and middle are too sharp for the background to be that blurry. I like the crop, and you captured the moment very well. I just think it would be better with an authentic shallow depth of field and focus on the pitcher. Sorry if this is redundant.

Paul

If you are shooting the team in black this type of photo probably best works if they are pitching. Don't get me wrong, shooting safe shots is half of what baseball is all about. The action in baseball is usually pretty routine for most of the game.

I'd suggest shooting a few more of this shot if you only took one. Move farther over to your left and get right behind the catcher. See if you can catch a pitcher throwing a nice breaking ball where the ball is moving fairly slow and gets hung up in the air in the middle.

I like your crop more than your first but it looks a bit to yellow on my screen.

CLK...I love your second revision! I liked your original, but the crop that you've done is great, and the color is much better. Again, I'm also liking the little things, like the pitcher kicking up a bit of dirt, and the position of the other guy in the outfield. :D

Emily

Thanks very much for the responses. I shall try to keep all of this advice in mind when I shoot the next game. The Vandals really like their pictures so I will be doing more of them, hopefully for other teams in the league as well.

Berrywise - Thank you for your analysis. I took 650+ images that day from a variety of angles. I'm pretty sure I covered your suggested approach in other shots. I don't regularly post "work" here but am a newbie at sports photography and I know there are several great action/sport photogs. on this board. I appreciate your input. I generally shoot concerts in low light clubs and shooting in sunlight often confuses me. [A joke. :p]

Paul - Thank you for taking the time to comment. The crops and blurring were done at the suggestion of others on the board and I always feel that it is worth while to visually pursue, where possible and appropriate, the suggestions of others. I think your opinion is valid too. Do I interpret your critique correctly in saying that you like the crop but not the selective blur?

Ultimately, this was a grab shot taken just to capture the scene and it's one of three I took for myself. I realized the batter had his back to me and this shot would work better if the Vandals had been in the field instead. It seemed they were never in the field for long this game. But, as I stated earlier, I liked the alignment of all of the players and how all 5 of those people have their gaze locked on the ball. ("Keep your eye on the ball" might have been a better title to communicate my intent.) I took three in immediate succession. This was the only one of the sequence that caught the ball in the air. The focus is on the batter because I was hired by their web designer and I thought this might make a good background type shot and since the black shirts are the ones I'm pitching to I feel it comes off better if the other team's pitcher isn't tack sharp. Know thy audience is the freelancers credo and though you can't please all of the people all of the time you can at least aim to please the client and keep the focus on them no matter what.

CL---
Well done. Nice tight crop. The thing you want to remember is, you can only get so many shots of pitchers pitching, hitters hitting etc, before they start to look redundant. You might want to experiment with focusing on one particular player for a few innings. You can get some great action shots that way. Timing is everything, and baseball is a game of anticipation. It's a little easier to shoot if you're a fan or have good knowledge of the game. It enables you to anticipate the action by knowing the count on the hitter, the type of pitcher, what he throws, and if there are runners on, how many outs...etc. You've done fine though, for your first time out.
John

:o Gosh Thanks John! I had a lot of help!