Sistersville Alumni Golf Tournament

[Marie Hass]

The golf tournament was a part of the Sistersville Alumni weekend events. Thanks to all the input from my friends at CIC, I got some decent shots. I did not do any serious processing to these pictures other than a bit of straightening, and minimal sharpening.

Please, as always C&C. I know this was a done deal, but it will help me for other shoots in the future.











Thanks, as always, for looking. Marie

[dake]

Love the pics. Especially the ones getting the reaction to missed putts. Great capture of the woman in the bunker. You could try cropping tighter and blurring the b/g to make her stand out more. Well done.

[Donald]

I agree with Denis.

In #1 - we know he's swinging a golf club, but the club itself is not really visible. But you had to get it at that moment in order to get the ball. A dilemma.

I really like #3. It's a wonderful golf moment, but you've captures it well. Good composition - figure well-placed in the frame so that we can see back down the course behind him. But it is given just enough out-of-focus blur that the man and the golf ball are picked out and our attention is very much on them.

Like Denis, I think the lady in the bunker shot really need a wider aperture so that teh background could have been thrown out of focus.

But, well done. That practice you did paid off.

[henry17106]

I Like them..the facial expressions and postures make them interesting and really catch a moment in time.

[rpcrowe]

Hi Marie...

I agree with Donald about generally using a larger aperture so your DOF could help isolate the golfers against the background. You did it in image #3 and it was effective. Images #1 and #4 have backgrounds which tend to compete with the main subject.

I like the last shot very much but, wonder if it would not be a bit more effective in a tighter crop such as this...

[Donald]

Marie

Just by way of illustrating what the option of a shallower DoF on #4 could have looked like, I put in some blur on the background. Hope you don't mind me doing this.



You can see that it puts much more attention onto the subject.

The consequence of this (using a much wider aperture) unless you had used a filter to slow the shutter down, is that you would have had to use a much faster shutter speed and that would have frozen the ball and the club head much more than we see them in this image.

And, in fact, I think you're shutter speed on this is excellent. It gives us a great sense of movement - the ball, the club, the sand.

So, what we've got, as well as a very fine image except for the very large DoF, is the experience of being able to study that balance between Aperture Value and Shutter Speed and the effect of the settings we choose and the need to make conscious decisions as to what settings we use based on our subject and effect we want to create.

[rob marshall]

Marie

Just by way of illustrating what the option of a shallower DoF on #4 could have looked like, I put in some blur on the background. Hope you don't mind me doing this.



You can see that it puts much more attention onto the subject.

The consequence of this (using a much wider aperture) unless you had used a filter to slow the shutter down, is that you would have had to use a much faster shutter speed and that would have frozen the ball and the club head much more than we see them in this image.

And, in fact, I think you're shutter speed on this is excellent. It gives us a great sense of movement - the ball, the club, the sand.

So, what we've got, as well as a very fine image except for the very large DoF, is the experience of being able to study that balance between Aperture Value and Shutter Speed and the effect of the settings we choose and the need to make conscious decisions as to what settings we use based on our subject and effect we want to create.

I agree, Donald. But I would have also cropped and corrected the tilt on the shot (which is quite noticeable). The crop takes out that heavy layer of trees, which is distracting from the main subject, but leave enough background in to give context. I would have shot it in landscape mode, not portrait. I didn't do the background blurring, as you already demonstrated that aspect of it.

[tihsgod]

same as earlier comments regarding DoF but I would emphasise that you should be more aware of your backgrounds/composition. 1 and 4 are really killed by old bridges power lines, cars, etc. I wouldn't call those distractions.

Fact is that if you have a fine background (which you should have on a golf course) then a narrow DoF will not have to become a "go to" structure. if you have a nice background then you can also use a deep DoF. Nice to have some variety in DoF, especially if you will do a lot of shots of one event.

As a photographer I think you need to work really hard and fast before they even get to the shot to find the right place to create the framing and background. When starting it may be easier to frame large and it leave room for you to crop a composition you like afterwards.

neil

[Marie Hass]

Wow! What great input!

Rob, a tighter crop works so much better! Is this what is called a 5:4 ratio? My "tilt" is chronic, and the heavier the gear, the worse it gets. I have had surgeries on both shoulders and the right is less mobile than the left. My pictures usually need a CW adjustment of 1,2 or at worst, 3 degrees. I will be more conscious of the need to make this adjustment for the future. Also, landscape mode would have been nicer, but I also really like how you cropped it.

Neil, your comments on composition are so right. I may try to blur background to salvage some shots like #1 above. This is the first time I shot a golfing event and I have had a fast learning curve with my new lens. I was chasing shots instead of setting up for them .I was also wishing I had a person who understood the game to provide commentary. I went for the "safe" AV of f8 so I could get more of the scene in focus. I was afraid to experiment. This was an incredibly tight 18 hole course. You would have laughed. Golf carts and balls flying everywhere. Not safe, but frequent visits from the beer cart lubricated many a swing.

So, what we've got, as well as a very fine image except for the very large DoF, is the experience of being able to study that balance between Aperture Value and Shutter Speed and the effect of the settings we choose and the need to make conscious decisions as to what settings we use based on our subject and effect we want to create.

Donald, as always, you make the critique into an incredibly astute learning experience. There are so many concrete factors that require decisions., and neglecting one of them makes a picture either one for the bin or average, rather than memorable. Instead of just addressing the question, you continue to challenge the reader to generalize and apply the principles that you have set forth in the example. I have so much to learn and am grateful for the time you have spent here.

Dennis and Richard, your comments were on target. Thanks for your input. It was valuable.

Marie

[rob marshall]

Rob, a tighter crop works so much better! Is this what is called a 5:4 ratio? My "tilt" is chronic, and the heavier the gear, the worse it gets. I have had surgeries on both shoulders and the right is less mobile than the left. My pictures usually need a CW adjustment of 1,2 or at worst, 3 degrees. I will be more conscious of the need to make this adjustment for the future. Also, landscape mode would have been nicer, but I also really like how you cropped it.

Marie

It's a square crop. It was the best I could do. As I said, I would have shot it landscape and included more of the bunker on the right. She's hitting into the right, so you need to give her frame space on the right to make it look more natural. Shooting portrait mode usually results in more off-centre horizons, I find. My Panasonic G1 (with electronic viewfinder) is useful as you can switch on a rule of thirds grid when composing and use one of the lines to get it straight. You can sort of do the same with a normal DSLR by using the sensor points in the viewfinder, but it's not quite so easy.

[Marie Hass]

OK Rob, and thank you for that. I went and looked in the Canon 7D manual and was able to enable the View Finder grid. Doing this will help compensate for my limitations. Now I have straight lines to help compose my pictures. Look for straighter horizons in the future!

Marie

[Donald]

OK Rob, and thank you for that. I went and looked in the Canon 7D manual and was able to enable the View Finder grid. Doing this will help compensate for my limitations. Now I have straight lines to help compose my pictures. Look for straighter horizons in the future!

The only thing to remember is that if you're on a mountain side ... it's meant to be sloping!

Have fun.

[Marie Hass]

Donald - lol. I don't think there are any flat areas in eastern Ohio!

OK everyone, given the help from all my friends here at C&C, I worked on the picture of the woman in the bunker. I used transform and stretched the picture to the right. I straightened, and had to clone extensive areas on the right side. The picture ended up being 12X14, closer to landscape mode. I still have some rough edges to smooth out.

Please tell me what you think.



As always, thanks for taking the time to look.

Marie

[Donald]

Compare this from where you started (the original above) and this is huge step along the learning pathway. Well done.

I think we've all agreed that you gave yourself a pretty difficult challenge with the background that was. But, accepting that reality and knowing there is nothing you can now do about that, this is a really good image that you've created.

You know more than me. I don't know you do that 'stretching to the right' thing.

[Dave Humphries]

OK everyone, given the help from all my friends here at C&C, I worked on the picture of the woman in the bunker. I used transform and stretched the picture to the right. I straightened, and had to clone extensive areas on the right side. The picture ended up being 12X14, closer to landscape mode. I still have some rough edges to smooth out.

Please tell me what you think.

Hi Marie,

This is a lot better, my only observation now is that her right foot doesn't look like it is standing in the sand, it is too sharp and 'floats' above the background it should be a part of.

Everything else works well,

[gurvinder77]

Hi Marie,
I keep coming back to these five photographs...
Even when I saw them first, I liked the second one best. It has four gentlemen, standing in their distinctive poses; and quite concerned about the golf ball. The photo has a story. However, I find three elements that distract one from the main subjects:
1. The rope crossing trunk of tree (at about 8 o'clock position)
2. The golf cart in the background.
3. The wooden sign post just behind left hand of gentleman who has taken the putt.
The facial expressions, and postures of four of them are quite unique and keep the attention of viewer fixed.
I am not good at PS, otherwise, I must have tried to PP this image....
Despite all that I have written, #2 looks quite nice....
Congrats, Marie...
Gurvinder...

[gurvinder77]

Hi Marie,
I hope you would excuse me for trying to PP your photograph without asking for your permission first... I have tried to clone away those elements that I hinted about in my last post...
Please opine how does this look?
Gurvinder...

[rob marshall]

Please opine how does this look?

Gurvinder (and others) Do you think it looks better with four people, or three? The general theory is that an even number is divisive, whereas an odd number has balance. The first shot is yours, my edit is the second one. I have the horizon line (top of the grass) on the third line, and the two guys at the back on the third spots.

[Marie Hass]

Gurvinder, thank you for providing the input on the detractors. Seeing the before and after, shows the after to be much improved. A lesson here in what others see and I did not.

Rob, you, like Donald, always provide a lesson. The image cropped with 3 figures is a much more powerful composition. I did not know about the odds/evens concept but seeing both images together really brings this home.

Thank you all for providing such a lively discussion and lessons. I am learning much.

Marie

[gurvinder77]

Do you think it looks better with four people, or three?

Thanks Sir Rob,
For enlightening about this concept of odd/even...
I had, like Marie, never heard or thought about it.
No doubt, the edit you have made is much stronger in balance.
This is the beauty of this forum where novices like me have the advantage of learning so much!
It is always a pleasure to read your posts, Rob.
Gurvinder...