First Images from Packer's Training Camp

[masdog]

On Monday (August 8th), my girlfriend and I visited the Green Bay Packers Training Camp. We got there late, so we couldn't get a good spot to watch the team practice. Despite the heat and the sun, we decided to stick around and made our way down to one of the endzones where we were fortunate to get a good view of the offense as they worked their 7-on-7 and full team drills.

Unfortunately, no matter where we ended up, I had to shoot through a chain-link fence. I'm lucky that my telephoto lens is only 58mm on the end, so I was able to position my camera right up next to the fence and look through without getting much of an obstruction to my field of view.

I ended up shooting about 150 images, but most of them weren't clearly focused. I shot these images using my new Digital Rebel XT and with a Canon 75-300mm IS telephoto lens and a Sigma 28-105mm telephoto lens.

These are the first four images from the morning.

[JSPhoto]

Hi Masdog,

Good action shots. Not sure if you have it or not but a bit of touchup with Photoshop would help a lot. The photos lose the players faces. Below is one of them I went over very quickly with the "dodge" tool to lighten up the faces a bit. I used PS Elements 3.0 for this one.

JS

[masdog]

Hi JSPHOTO.

Yes, I did do some touchup using photoshop, but I have never really used the dodge or burn tools. I guess I will have to read up on them so I can go back and bring the faces out of most of these images.

Besides dodging and burning, what steps can I use to bring the faces out without much editing? Is there a way that I can mess with the exposures on my camera to do this? Do I want to overexpose or underexpose by a stop or two to see if that develops the faces more?

[Photo-John]

I'm no football photographer, but these look pretty decent to me - especially if you were shooting through fence. I like the photo of the player signing an autograph best. It's partly because that bike looks like a Kmart bike. I'd expect him to be on something a lot better

The one thing I can suggest is using a larger aperture. Not having been there, I don't know exactly the challenges you had. But the main difference I notice between your images and what I've seen in SI is the depth-of-field. Your photos have almost everything in focus and pro team sports photos usually only have the subjects in focus. I don't know if your lenses allow for a shallower depth-of-field or if you were shooting at your largest aperture. But that's the main thing I noticed and if you didn't try, next time open up your lens to your second or third largest aperture. You'll probably lose some because of the shallow depth-of-field, but the ones you do get will separate your subject from the background and make the photos much stronger.

Hope that helps. Thanks for sharing those.

[opus]

Sports photography is really challenging! I agree with the DOF issue. Another issue with sports photography is the lighting. When the sun is high the shots are sharp, but the resulting photo is very "hot". When the light is better (later), then you have trouble with shutter speed. And if that wasn't enough, composition is really hard because of the speed everything is changing. What is the pinacle of action to the eye is not necessarily the best scene compositionally. You have to think differently, I've discovered.

Hang out on the sports photography board for more ideas too. These are not bad, but I agree the autograph shot is the best. It tells a more unique story.

[masdog]

Hi Masdog,

Good action shots. Not sure if you have it or not but a bit of touchup with Photoshop would help a lot. The photos lose the players faces. Below is one of them I went over very quickly with the "dodge" tool to lighten up the faces a bit. I used PS Elements 3.0 for this one.

JS

I went back and looked at my photoshop book (Photoshop CS2 for Digital Photographers). Using the book as a guide, I've started to use the dodge and burn tools to improve the faces in the image. Since this is the first time I've used this, I hope I didn't overdo it. Feedback would be great.

[masdog]

Sports photography is really challenging! I agree with the DOF issue. Another issue with sports photography is the lighting. When the sun is high the shots are sharp, but the resulting photo is very "hot". When the light is better (later), then you have trouble with shutter speed. And if that wasn't enough, composition is really hard because of the speed everything is changing. What is the pinacle of action to the eye is not necessarily the best scene compositionally. You have to think differently, I've discovered.

Hang out on the sports photography board for more ideas too. These are not bad, but I agree the autograph shot is the best. It tells a more unique story.

I agree that it is very challenging, Kelly. Composition is not only tough because the action is moving, but in most cases, you're restricted to a few areas where you can shoot.

[masdog]

I'm no football photographer, but these look pretty decent to me - especially if you were shooting through fence. I like the photo of the player signing an autograph best. It's partly because that bike looks like a Kmart bike. I'd expect him to be on something a lot better

LOL. Well, the bikes don't belong to the players. They belong to kids in the community. After practice, the players choose bikes from kids in the crowd and ride back to Lambeau Field while the kid carries the equipment.

Surprisingly, the players were very good about stopping to sign autographs or pose for pictures with the children. However, there was a staff member charged with keeping people out of the area where the players rode out. The main guy was a jerk. He would yell at players if they stopped to sign an autograph for a kid, and in one case, I think he yelled at a five year old. He even told a father that he couldn't get a picture of his son with the player who was using his bike.

The one thing I can suggest is using a larger aperture. Not having been there, I don't know exactly the challenges you had. But the main difference I notice between your images and what I've seen in SI is the depth-of-field. Your photos have almost everything in focus and pro team sports photos usually only have the subjects in focus. I don't know if your lenses allow for a shallower depth-of-field or if you were shooting at your largest aperture. But that's the main thing I noticed and if you didn't try, next time open up your lens to your second or third largest aperture. You'll probably lose some because of the shallow depth-of-field, but the ones you do get will separate your subject from the background and make the photos much stronger.

That helps a lot. When I was shooting these, I was using the automatic settings. Instead of using those, I think I will stick with Apeture priority when shooting any sport to make sure I get the best DOF and highest shutter speeds.

As for my lens, my current telephoto zoom has an apeture range from 4.0 to 5.6, and a maximum length of 300mm.

[JSPhoto]

It takes some practice to shoot sports. One of the most important things is know the sport inside out. As a sports photographer you have to know the sport as well as those playing it and anticipate whats going to happen. I did that a bit too well at a Colts game one day and almost got creamed on the sideline - but I got the shot and the paper ran it!

One thing you can try that may help is to use "Adjust Lighting" then :highlights and shadows which may be quicker but you may still need a bit of "dodge" on it.

JS