My First Pic Post

[titantonic]

Nothing exception, just a high school softball pitcher I shot last evening. Liz was kind enough to give me instructions on how to post a pic here, so I want to see if I can make it work. Any critique will be very welcome.

[flowremix]

Its a cool picture. i like how you captured her facial expression and how the ball is midflight. however, it is out of focus and the picture is grainy. Another thing, everything seems to be frozen, next time, try to use a slower shutter speed. What kind of Camera did you use?

[titantonic]

Thanks, flowremix. I shot it with a Nikon d70 with an 80-200 lens and a 1.4 converter. I was shooting through a pretty tight back screen, and the pic is also cropped pretty tight which might explain some of the grain issue. The ball was very sharp in the original, but a big ole umpire leaned over and took up half the shot with his head...lol...I was mainly interested in her facial expression and the way she throws her head to the side. I have a long way to go to master the kind of color and skin tones I see in some of the pics posted here.

[Liz]

I think you did good for all the "obstacles" you encountered, especially the screen - and of course the motion. Nice composition - and I love the expression. Keep posting the pics - you have a nice camera and lens combo.

Liz

Nothing exception, just a high school softball pitcher I shot last evening. Liz was kind enough to give me instructions on how to post a pic here, so I want to see if I can make it work. Any critique will be very welcome.

[livin4lax09]

the very tight crop which led to low image quality takes away from the photo a bit. It also looks like it was compressed a lot when saving. It's good timing, just slow the shutter speed a bit to get movement in the arm. and your horizon is crooked. See the top of the field? It should be totally horizontal across the photo.

[Homer]

I disagree with a couple of posters saying slow the shutter speed down for some blur. I personally like the stop action in the arm and ball. I do feel that the shot could have been a little better by stepping to the right a bit to avoid the umpire, unless of course there was no place to move to.

Also I'd have to ask why the tight crop. With the lens and tele converter you said you were using that should have gotten you more than close enough to frame the picture naturally.

Either way, nice action.

Jim

[swmdrayfan]

Motion blur in sports, especially baseball/softball is a subjective thing. Everyone is going to either like it or not. Personally, I think there are times when the sense of motion is important to the shot, and other times when freezing the action/ball/bat is better. It boils down to one's preferances.
John

[Old Timer]

Motion blur in sports, especially baseball/softball is a subjective thing. Everyone is going to either like it or not. Personally, I think there are times when the sense of motion is important to the shot, and other times when freezing the action/ball/bat is better. It boils down to one's preferances.
John

Totally agree with you on this John. I like to stop the action and get as much detail in most of my sports action pictures as I can. On the other hand there are time when a slight motion blur can really enhance the image.

Nice overall image here, but it does suffer a little from compression. Must of us here on PR shoot sports in high school or smaller venues and we can sypathize with the conditions you are forces to shot under. Just keep shooting and keep looking for the best positions and locations you can find on your local field.

[Ultra Magnus]

She definately has a "unique" form...

As far as the compression goes, I checked and your image is at 62k, which is pretty small. I try to stay in the 150k to 180k range, or take it all the way to the limit, don't know off the top of my head, 190-something. Or you could use an image hosting site like photobucket. I recently started doign that and you can do larger higher (image)
quality pictures and just link them to the site. Real easy and nice.

BM

[titantonic]

Thanks to all for your input. Good info. Just out of curiosity, do any of you find the following image to be an improvement? It's the full shot of the same pic, and I also played around with the saturation a bit on PS. I 'm really wanting to learn more about color and skin tones, and it's something I struggle with a bit. I have a sports website where I cover all sports in my little town, and I'm afraid I've become much more of a picture taker than a true photographer these days. I mainly concentrate on getting as many pics of as many kids as possible to post on my website. The moms, dads and kids aren't too conerned about how a pic is composed, contrast, color etc. But, I still would like to find ways to improve. This pic was taken while I was at a game taking pictures of the other team. I happend to sit down behind the back stop to talk to someone, and just lifted the camera, found a hole in the screen and snapped it with little thought or preparation, and I guess it shows. I think having a forum such as this to post pics and get input from so many phographers who are obviously serious about their craft will spur me to put a little more effort into getting good pics instead of just getting a lot of them.

[Old Timer]

I think the overall quality of this image is better than your first post of the picture. The heads are a little distracting, but they let you know itis a game situation and not just a pictures of someone throwing a ball.

[titantonic]

Thanks OT. I know you like the little guys, so in your honor I'm posting a pic of my favorite Little Leaguer. This kid is full of it as you can tell from the pic---red fruit drink lingering on the upper lip, red clay stain on the right hand and bill of the cap turned up while in the dug out. I only wish you had taken it so we could see the great color and skins tones you always seem to capture.

[Old Timer]

Hey that's a great expression and capture of a real character. There is always one on every team, that's one of the reasons I like the little guys so much.