Casey at the Bat...Not Quite

[GarryB]

First post! (I hope the picture shows up.) I have loved photography since I have been 13 and bought a Canon AE1. Unfortunaltely there was no internet then to learn from great forums like this. My wife bought me a new camera in November and I am trying to learn how to shoot great looking pics of the kids. After reading some of the comments from other sports critiques my picture taking is slowly improving. This is a pic I took this afternoon. I used Gimp to scale the photo down to post on Flickr. No other editing was done.

I am mostly looking for exposure critiques for now as I am struggling with outdoor pictures taken in the sun being too bright. It is difficult to review them on the camera in the sunlight. I am open to any suggestions to making the pictures better though. Sorry for the long intro.

This picture was taken through a fence so there are some lighter areas at the bottom corners of the photo. Too me, the gray pants and catchers jersey are too light. I am using the kit 55-250mm zoom lense and I used the Tv setting on my camera and let the camera pick the F stop.


Settings taken from the details of my jpg
Canon EOS REBEL T2i
F/5.6
shutter speed 1/3200
ISO 800
Focal Length 84mm
Manual White Balance set to Sun
no flash

[sarahle]

First, welcome...it's obvious that you have some experience...not a bad shot at all...kids' ballgames in the late morning or early afternoon sun is a brutal task. ...I think if you have access to photoshop or any software that offers a way to level your photo..it's crooked and that can be for various reasons...an easy fix...also a little cropping could be useful in highlighting your subject to keep our eyes on the ball and the players. I have to ask, why is your ISO all the way up to 800? Is it cloudy, is there some reason I don't see a visible cause for in the photo? I personally think your shutter speed and depth of field is good...there's good detail of your players...and if you look at them, you can feel the intensity on the field...really, in truly, you need to keep shooting these ballgames because you obviously have a good sense of timing for the game. My thought about the jersey and the grey pants is that shooting at that time of day is harsh...would be hard to get that color exactly right. It really does not detract from the photo, in this instance. Straighten your horizon, crop your picture, if you have access to PS or some software, saturate your colors, just a little bitty bit, and you will be surprised at how much better this photo would be. Oh, and move in closer w/that zoom you're shooting with..I bet a focal length of 100mm would have helped your photo also...but still a good photo. You have a good camera and you need to keep shooting...it agrees with you.

[GarryB]

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions Sarah. I will use Gimp to straighten and crop. I think I can work on the colors in Gimp also but I need to spend some time to learn how to do that. (I am also a little color blind so that poses a whole new set of challenges.) There were intermittent clouds during the game but I still did not try any pics below below ISO 800. I will try 200 or 400 on the next sunny day and keep plugging away. I took about 150 pictures and was happy with about 5-10 of them. I need to work on my timing more. I zoomed out a bit because I was missing the ball on my close up shots. I need to find a trigger that lets me know when the batter is going to swing. Thanks again.

[sk66]

Really nothing too "wrong" with the exposure as is. You simply have a situation where the direction of light has caused a scene with too much dynamic range. You have strong highlights and strong shadows. You either give up on one or compromise on both.

I generally don't like Tv (S) mode just because the camera will trade aperture BEFORE it will change ISO. In bright sun you can use much higher ISO's than you can in dark environments with good results. For what you were doing I probably would have been in "manual mode" with my ISO set auto up to 1600/3200. Or I would use Aperture priority w/ same ISO settings if 1/1000 SS was fast enough (it might have been).

As for the swing, look for head/shoulder/foot movement (player dependent, but almost all "step into" a swing). Don't watch the bat.

[gturner]

On a similar day, I would find my exposure comp and dial it down 1/2 stop at least, just to save the highlights. Often the dark backgrounds on fields cause the camera to overexpose the bright colors light the light grey pants.

ISO at 400
Shutter to 1/2000,or 1500 min for baseball.

The best way to get the timing right is to pretend to be the batter. Keep both eyes open and watch the pitcher release. I do a lot of cricket (similar speed) and my hit rate is in the 90% range of getting the ball on bat in the image.

Here is one of an Indian batsman getting pinned by a quick one.

[johnske]

Exposure pretty good but like the others I think it would be best to crop and straighten.

Another point is that as this is an action shot you should crop to remove anything static, for instance the (is it 'umpire' in baseball?) is not involved in the action so he could be cropped out of the shot. Another option is you could also maybe consider cropping out the guy with the mitt as well, just leaving only the batter and ball in the shot.

[GarryB]

Thanks for all of the advice. It is interesting to see the different ISO setting recommendations different photographers use for similar situations. I will be sure to try them all as I work towards shooting in full manual mode.

Steve - Thanks for the suggestion of watching the batters stride. I was definitely watching the bat the entire time. I struggle taking pictures in aperture priority mode but will definitely keep trying. Will I lose some of the color by bumping up the ISO or does having a good lighting source enable me to keep the colors with the higher ISO?

gturner - I haven't learned yet how to change the exposure settings but I will keep that in mind the next time I shoot. Thanks for the keeping both eyes open idea.

John, looks like I need to learn how to crop. I like the idea of removing anything static. I think this will definitely help keep the focus on my subject.

[sk66]

If you fix your ISO at a higher setting and end up overexposing, then the image will look flat/washed out.
Aperture priority has the negative aspect of "locking" SS at 1/1000 if there is a variable ISO available (nikon).
Regardless of what mode you are in (except full manual) you would probably want -.3 to -.7 EC or use spot metering for the scene posted.

[GarryB]

Straightened and cropped. Maybe a little tight but thanks to all for the feedback!