Up for the shot

[Crashmaster007]

Another one from Millersville Men's Basketball.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/crashmaster/2223701777/" title="Shot by crashmaster007, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2308/2223701777_6c75a58a14.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Shot" /></a>

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/2
Focal Length: 85 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

[reyjinn]

I like it. Good job on cathing the action. Especially since 4 of 5 guys are swarming in on him.
The only thing that I would change would be to crop the cut-off banner up on top. Seems to me that it would look better without it. The railing thats halding it also looks kind of blown up.
Would it have been possible for you to drop the ISO a bit, letting the picture be underexposed and lightening it up in post process? Could perhaps have gotten less noise that way.
Just a pity that he couldn't have shot the ball in a way that his face would be visible.
Just my feeble opions :)

[wulf]

Exposure and focus are great, although I agree with reyjinn that cropping out the banner would be an improvement.

The main weakness of the shot is that 22's arm is in the wrong place. That's why sports photographers love rapid fire cameras, giving more chance of catching the perfect moment - half a second or less on either side might have made for a much better result.

Wulf

[Winning Post]

I'd just PS his arm out! If he wants to put it in the way when you're shooting then thats his problem! :D

[clockdoc]

Since you are not using flash, are you using the burst mode to get a string of possible shots?

[smc1377]

I'd like to respectfully disagree with cropping out the banner. To me, the framing of this shot is technically perfect. The ball is right on one of third lines and then the players on the ground lies within one of the thirds as well leaving the shooter right in the middle third of the frame. The open air up top leaves "space" for the ball to travel into.

I think that if you were to crop this photo, the lines would get all messed up and the ball wouldn't have any space to travel into, which is something I try to convey in action shots is to have space for the action to move into.

However, I do agree that the banner is distracting. From a journalist standpoint, I might just darken that area so that the banner isn't so prevalent. There's a bright light shining right on the banner that I'd uniformly darken.

[Crashmaster007]

Since you are not using flash, are you using the burst mode to get a string of possible shots?

Yeah I use the continuous shooting mode. On my XTi it is not as fast as some of the more "pro" cameras but it works well enough for me.

Thanks for the tips about the banner. I think I would rather darken it instead of crop it.

[pbinder]

Being critical here, the photo is lacking since you can't see the shooters face. But it could work since you have 3-4 dfenders with their arms up trying to block and that is visually appealing.

I think the photo still works if you crop it (I would crop it so half of the H in home is gone). You need to darken or remove the banner as it is the brightest thing in the frame so you look at it first.

[whitemug]

as pointed out by the rest here, i'll also agree with cropping the banner at the top of the shot. there's a significant amount of light shining on it, making it more distracting to the overall photo.

since we can't do anything about the shooter's left arm, i'd also like to suggest cropping the other player's (opposing team) arm over at the right side of the shot.

because he fell behind on his defense :D , his presence in the shot is expendable - the reat of his teammates positioned in front #22 is enough to show how diificult (in terms of players he had to go up against) the shot was.

[Crashmaster007]

I did a re-crop of the image. I cant figure out what to do about the arm with no body though.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/crashmaster/2269171308/" title="Millersville Basketball Recrop by crashmaster007, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/2269171308_397fab75a4.jpg" width="274" height="500" alt="Millersville Basketball Recrop" /></a>