lacrosse composition

[jul]

Hi, I'm new to photographing lacrosse and I'd appreciate any comments about the composition of this shot. Is the background too distracting? I used shutter priority/sports mode. I'd like to try aperature priority to get a shallow DOF.




Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 187 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

Thanks for your help.

[wamplers]

Crop closer and open the aperture up. Can't see the ball...maybe it's the small image? If it isn't there, then try to get the ball in the shot as well. Other than the loose cropping, it looks pretty good to me.

[chook]

For lacrosse I'd also recommend pushing the exposure bias by +1/3. This will let in more light (the downside is you'll have to also increase the ISO possibly to maintain a high exposure speed and may slighlty overepose). With more light you may be able to avoid the harsh shadows and maybe see the faces behind the mask.

Even then it is still hard to avoid a shadowed out face.
Here is an example


Lots of examples on my flickr account. Up till this year all taken with an Xti. AZhook's collections on Flickr

[jul]

Thanks wamplers and chook for your comments. It figures I would have to overexpose slightly as my son also plays hockey and constantly fought underexposure! :-)

I will try +1/3 during his next game. I did notice that the faces behind the masks were harder to see. Glad to see your results with an Xti also. Makes me feel better. I'll check out you flickr for more ideas!

Thanks for looking.