Soccer photo, autofocus

[William W]

There's no 'disagreement' from me. Nor is there ‘disagreement’ with what I wrote or suggested.

Panning is yet one other technique for Sports work and it is more suited to some sports than others.

That stated: Panning is useful for some images of field sports, like hockey or football, but, it is usually more often used for sports like cycling (nice shot frame #1) - car racing; go carting and skiing . . . etc.

Panning brings into play another critical criterion of Shutter Speed selection, which becomes the predominate factor and is based, primarily upon, the speed and direction of travel of the Subject and the framing of the Subject.

Just as in post #5 there is the list of criteria for the Shutter Speed to STOP movement: the idea of Panning is to affect a perfect shutter speed, to stop the subject, but to blur the background.

But the ISO selection is also dependent upon many other issues, not just the type of sport and not just whether Panning is employed as a shooting technique or not.

For example, if one were shooting cycling only, but in Velodrome – then it is very likely that ISO would be above ISO100, even if the shots were panned, simply because there would (often) not be enough light in many Velodromes to allow even an F/2.8 lens to compete at ISO 100.

The same would be true for panning a shot of Road Cycling, if the day were overcast or if it were early morn or late afternoon and the light began to fade.

Opposite to panning, is another technique to convey movement and that is to purposely slow the shutter speed (but have steady camera) to create the impression of movement in a blur but still have enough of the Subject recognizable:


Also, yet another shooting technique, is to be at the same speed, as the athletes:


WW

[William W]

. . . Comments welcome! . . .ISO 1600, 155 mm, f/5.6, 1/4000 sec.

Wow! You chose a ripper of difficult shot and you made a good go at it!

Some of the main elements for consideration in that shooting scenario:

• Hard and low side light (early morning?)
• The Main Subject is dark skinned and all the face is in shadow – thus rendering the nuance of all her facial features a bit more difficult than if her skin were lighter
• On the other hand, the main Subject and the hard side lighting in which she is situated, allows maximizing the nuance of her eyes and the purposefulness of their expression.
• Also, being dark skinned allows easier (tonal) separation from the mottled and lighter OoF Background
• Both Subjects are in early, open shade - you’ll get a blue cast from the sky’s reflection.
• If you expose absolutely ‘correctly’ for the shadow area (of the key subject) - because the light is so low and so hard from camera left you will likely get a large blowout on the side of her head (larger than what you have got already).

***

I think with 20/20 hindsight that you are a tad underexposed, not much, but I would have blown a bit more of the side of the Baton Girl’s head and hair, to get a better exposure on her facial expression.

Also 1/4000s was a tad TOO fast – you could have dropped to 1/1250 for that head-on shot I reckon, and that would have allowed ISO800.

What I see as one key feature in that shot is: the expressiveness of the Baton Girl’s eyes.

Because she is running towards us – AND - it is an Half Shot anyway (no legs), therefore we DO NOT get much feel of the pace at which she is running - so the photo is really all about the exactness and the precision of the Baton Change – in which case I think we should make it ALL about the Baton Change.

Here is a rough indicative of how I see this image.

The key changes are –

• a tad more exposure
• more emphasis on her eyes
• pulled up the background for better separation from the Main Subject
• cleaned up most of the blue cast, overall
• cropped for more emphasis overall

Original is on top:


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Another idea is: I think this shot lends itself to a widescreen aspect ratio:


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Good effort in tough light and a complex shooting scenario.

WW

[Donald]

This thread captures all that, for me, CiC is about. Someone with vast knowledge and experience sharing that with all of us in order that we can learn. Thank you, Bill. I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates that we could pay a college or individual tutor a small fortune for much inferior advice and guidance than has been offered here.

In terms of the discussions ...........

Wow! You chose a ripper of difficult shot and you made a good go at it!

I think that part of the lesson is also about how we choose to set ourselves up for the shoot. In posts above, Bill has referred to what I would term, the moment'; i.e. knowing the subject well enough to know what shot to go for. Bill uses swimming as the example and writes about the moment when the head is at the top of its rise out of the water.

An extension of that is also about spending time understanding the location and how the subjects interact with that, especially in field sports. Where do particular aspects of the action happen? What are the shots I want and, therefore, where do I need to be? What then is the interaction between the light direction, me and the subject? Again, with practice I am sure we become much quicker at making that assessment.

I've just started doing some dog agility stuff. For my first couple of visits I never took the camera out of the bag. Of course I knew what dog agility was and what would be happening. But I'd never studied it from a photographer's perspective before. So I just watched for a couple of afternoons. And so far as I'm concerned, all that Bill has written above is going to be invaluable.

[William W]

Thank you for those kind words.

Cheers,
Bill

[brucehughw]

Bill and everyone else,

Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge in this thread. I've appreciated and am inspired by the feedback and examples. Can't wait for the next meet and game! I'm also going to refer this thread to other friends, particularly one who likes bike races.

thanks again, Bruce

[Glow2Me]

Love the action photo, i too practice using my kids soccer games as subjects. I use my Nikon Coolpix P520, havent had it a year yet so Im still learning. My photos havent come out as clear as yours, but Im determined to get it right I just joined today, and in hopes of some advice.

[Brev00]

Reading through this thread, it seems everyone is commenting on exposure in terms of shutter speed and iso and all. But, part of the initial query concerned focus. I am pretty sure the D7000 has af-on capability. That is, using a specific external button for focus. This can be very helpful in terms of shooting soccer. While pressing the button, the camera will keep focusing on whatever focus point has been selected--like af-c. The cool thing is that when you stop pressing the button, the focus stays exactly where it was at that point--like af-s. So, you can attain focus on a player in at least two different ways. One can track the players action and shoot at any point. One can also find a certain spot, let's say the goalie, let go and get a clear shot of the goalie no matter how many other players might get in the way. All the crossing people in soccer might normally cause oof shots but this can be lessened using af-on. I like to use it for penalty shots, too. Lock focus on the ball letting the refs and other players shift about as they wish. I don't use af-on all the time but do find it helpful shooting soccer.