timspix Loc: Lexington, SC

Some say "no ball - no shot" ... but sometimes it seems that the emotion of the players is important. Waiting for the serve. Feedback welcomed ... should I crop this tighter? Are there strong enough leading lines to pull you into the Libero's steady gaze?

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Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

"no ball - no shot" Feedback? The venue hardwood here has what appears to be a free throw line? and three-point arcs? Therefore in minds eye the viewer may indeed assume basketball?

Your 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 is at ƒ/3.2 for a razor thin DOF on your FX D750 and is focused on the center player (in white) with the foreground player totally out of focus (a distraction). Why did you select a such short focal length of 92mm? Especially if your intent was to isolate emotion which is typically best accomplished with a tight (200mm) head shot... not a area wide vista.... Cropping after the fact? Not what professional do, they crop in their viewfinder... Learn to tell the story either with the ball in the shot or going tight on a player's face... Otherwise it is merely a snapshot... What I'm reading here is an equivocation to justify bad compositional elements and poor isolation technique... But others may find merit with your inferences... However not likely publication editors...

The wisdom of TAO
Truthful words are not beautiful...
Beautiful words are not truthful...

I wish you well on your journey timspix

timspix Loc: Lexington, SC

Thanks for the very candid feedback.

Interesting that someone might think that the girls were playing basketball in kneepads :-)

Regarding the choice of aperture ... that is pretty much dictated by the venue ... I'm already shooting at very high ISOs and cutting it pretty thin on the 1/lens length for the shutter speed. I am often shooting wide open at 2.8 and never get the chance to be as thoughtful with "stopping down" as your suggestion indicates would make it a better shot.

I guess the choice of being at the 92mm was in an attempt to give "context" to the shot while still getting the expression.

Here's another from the same gym.

Tim

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timspix Loc: Lexington, SC

And here's one where the net gives the context ...

Tim

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CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Tim - when you're at the next game, try these ideas:

1. Try for tightly framed action of 1 player at a time, preferably facing directly into the camera with the camera at or slightly below eye-level to the player. Focus on the player's face, preferably with a focus point on the player's eyes. Your final example has the second player as a distraction. Did you have others of this player close up and alone in the frame?

2. Pay attention to your background. Looking at player 10 with the ball, if you had been a bit lower shooting upward, you might have had a clean background of the wall behind her rather than spectators.

3. Have the camera in continuous focus and shoot in bursts. I wonder if this image of player 10 at the net is the best of the sequence? This image shows you were at the maximum zoom for your lens. Could you have been physically closer?

4. Look at sport images to get ideas. I grabbed an SI from the NFL playoffs as I wrote. There are some overhead scenes of the players in the stadium. But for the most part, the images are close-ups of 1 or 2 (3 at the most) players within a team sport with 22 players on the field at once. The images were shot at eye level or looking slightly upward at the player. Can you get lower in the gym such as the first row of the bleachers or even on the floor? Can you capture an image that no one else in the gym would have / could have seen?

5. Know and anticipate the players and the flow of action. If you still have to shoot from the side of the court, watch for situations where the players are sideways to the net facing directly to your position.

6. If it's easier to maintain focus and shoot in landscape, fine, but look for opportunities to crop in portrait during post processing.

7. Decide if you're there as a casual fan or a photographer. You have professional grade equipment. The color and noise control of all three images is good to wonderful. Now you need to work on your skills, both capture and editing / cropping. Most professional sport images are heavily cropped; the photographer had to be there to capture a well focused and exposed image as the starting point to a strong composition.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Lighting in HS gyms is always tough. This shot of player #10 would be excellent (imho) with tighter cropping. Try cutting out everything except the player blocking. Crop her at about the waist, just above the fingertips of opponent player on other side of net...or just below the jersey if you want some of the opposing player and vertically cut out coach and out of focus teammate and most of the negative space behind her. See if it adds more drama and how you like it.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Tim: I can always count on you for being honest at the same time being kind. Your comments are right on

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...gyms are tough, in the genre I photograph I definitely have to pick my battles. Usually I like to crop in so as to minimize distractions (also 'cuz I like the facial expressions so much, tho) but sometimes full-body is called for, so just have to put up with the stuff behind my subject even though I'm shooting wide open and get pretty good bokeh with the lens I use for this...nevertheless, subject is key and rarely will I let other "players" get into the shot, unless they're really fuzzed-out...here the net definitely gives me the story, but I wonder about the crop a bit...here's a couple of mine...

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...colors are not rendering very well...nothing like my monitor or what I have up online...hmmmmm, wonder what it is...

timspix Loc: Lexington, SC

Cool shots, thanks for sharing ... Rhythmic gymnastics and ???

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...an activity called color guard, in the old parlance...pageantry emanating from "drum and bugle corps" roughly a century in evolution...very popular amongst the marching band crowd nowdays...