Freeze that baseball!

[ekstasis16]

So I've been working on trying to stop the ball right in front of the mitt or the batt. It took me about 3 games to figure out the timing and that its almost completely dependent on intuition or gut feeling. If I'm trying to stop the ball right in front of the catcher's mitt, I watch his face and his extended arm to see when he tenses up. If I can figure out when HE expects the ball to arrive, then I have a sporting chance of timing it correctly. Same thing with batters.

Has anyone else experienced this?





#4 is my current pride and joy. But of course that one's mostly luck.

[JSPhoto]

I try to get "contact" such as the following. Or with pitchers I try to get the ball just as it leaves the pitchers hand, but still barely touching the finger tips. Only one shot at the moment, gotta find the others. This top one was from 2002 I think. I just liked the timing of the hitter hitting the ball and the warmup batter swing at the same time. The other 3 are from last season.

JS

[Lava Lamp]

Nice shots. I've shot some baseball and I know what you mean about intution. I was shooting some professional golf this week and realized that in order to catch the ball coming of the club, I had to shoot as the golfer began his backswing and the second shot in the series would get the ball in the frame, using my D50, which gets something like 2.5 frames per scond if I remember right.

[JSPhoto]

I forgot to mention that I do not try and freeze the ball. I prefer to keep the ball blurred enough to give the shots some movement and a sense of action.
The two pitcher shots, I'll miss the kid in the first shot as he graduated, we always had fun at games, and he's a practicle joker. The second pitcher also graduated, but I just loved the veins popping on his neck....he had a big laugh when he saw it.

JS

[ekstasis16]

I agree that having some blur in action shots is nice and conveys a dynamic feel, and there are times when I try to achieve that. But for some reason a completely frozen shot jumps out at me more, as if I snapped my fingers and time stood still. There's something kind of odd and mysterious about it, since our brain expects to see motion.

In my last shot above, everything is still and crisp, like life is on pause, and as soon as I snap my fingers again the action will resume and I'll hear the crack of the bat. For whatever reason I feel a sense of anticipation looking at it.

Now panning on the other hand is something I haven't experimented too much with, but hopefully I'll be giving that a go at the next few games. I think its an incredible effect.

[swmdrayfan]

Four from last summer.
John

[JETA]

I forgot to mention that I do not try and freeze the ball. I prefer to keep the ball blurred enough to give the shots some movement and a sense of action.

You just make sure you have the ball in the pic JS. I've got my eye on you!

[ekstasis16]

If you want to intentionally freeze the ball, shutter speeds of at least 1/6400 are needed. If its a bright sunny day, I'll just crank it all the way up to 1/8000. For a little motion blur, speeds of 1/400 to 1/1000 have worked for me.

[JSPhoto]

If you want to intentionally freeze the ball, shutter speeds of at least 1/6400 are needed. If its a bright sunny day, I'll just crank it all the way up to 1/8000. For a little motion blur, speeds of 1/400 to 1/1000 have worked for me.

You don't need anywhere near 1/6400 to freeze a baseball, you can do it much slower.

Hoever, if you really want to freeze things, try the original version of Canon's 1D, it's shutter goes to 1/16000! That should freeze a bullet too.

JS

[swmdrayfan]

If you want to intentionally freeze the ball, shutter speeds of at least 1/6400 are needed. If its a bright sunny day, I'll just crank it all the way up to 1/8000. For a little motion blur, speeds of 1/400 to 1/1000 have worked for me.

I was able to capture the frozen ball in my shot that's second from the top at a shutter speed of 1/3200. Of course this was from behind the plate, so that may have had a lot to do with it.
John

[hatetolose]

Well this is my first post, I have been reading for a while now. Just got my camera and had a chance to use it. I took some pictures for a friend of his sons game. I was always taught to keep my eyes on the ball so much for this kid.

[splats]

Nice shots , I can understand the Blurr as showing action, but I also like the detail of a clear image of the ball, gives a sense of a "Slice of Time"

[JETA]

OMG! Those are amazing shots and the 4th one is UNREAL! My baseballs always look blurry, which I don't mind..... But seeing them frozen is such an amazing effect!