Paloviejo

These photos were taken at the finals of the Memorial Day Weekend 8v8 tournament at the MUSC Health Stadium on Daniels Island, Charleston, SC. There were three fields laid out cross wise to the regular field with matches being played simultaneously on all three.

The temperature that afternoon was about 95 and the humidity seemed to be 95 also which causes haze in some of the photos. It was so miserable that one of the two teams in the final of their division decided they would rather have second place than play the match and went home.

As mentioned in a previous post backgrounds are a distraction to the subject and these are extreme examples of that comment.

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dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Have you tried opening up your aperture to give you less depth of field? If you are at f8 then open up to f4 or 5.6.

Dennis

Vietnam Vet

Shoot at 2.8

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I downloaded some of the examples and looked at the EXIF noting they all seem to shot wide-open for a variable aperture 100-400L f/4.5-5.6L IS II. That pleasing isolation of the subject against a blurred background can be achieved by (a) a longer focal length, when possible or (b) a wider aperture, when possible or (c) an increased distance between the subject and the background, the more the better or (d) some combination of all three of these techniques. In post processing, you might too crop heavily into the image, removing distracting elements of the background. Or, simply "erase" the distractions in post.

If we take the 5th image from top (two players with the ball and a man in blue in the background), this image reports 1/1000 at f/5, ISO-150 and 100mm. The crop is nice. If you wanted to perform some clean-up, you should be able to clone-away the man in blue with a few clicks using a "content aware" tool. Looking at the details, alas cropping in closer shows the fine details are not as sharp where you might have had a compelling image with just the upper bodies of the two players and the ball. You might look at your action-shooting technique. The EOS details have been stripped from the processing. We'd need the original file to look at these details and discuss the camera configuration.

Not being there in the heat with you, I'm not sure you had a better option given the layout of the three fields. I'd be hesitant to shoot zoomed in as described by the suggested closer crop, preferring rather to crop in post from a larger image. Given your closeness to the action allowing for 100mm (assuming this nears 1:1 crop is much the original image), one possibility would be to step back further from the action and use the longer focal length of this zoom.

Paloviejo

Thanks for your valid comments and suggestions. I had come to the stadium from the open fields of the group play and didn't have another lens with me. From your and comments from the others I'll try a few different things next Fall when play resumes.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Excellent action shots. To amplify on what ChgCanon said, I see that the first 2 shots I checked were at 100mm f5. Since you were able to get relatively close, if you had instead used a 70-200 f2.8L wide open or a 135 F2L at f2-f2.8 you would have achieved a thinner DOF with more isolation off the subject and less distraction from the background

Paloviejo

Thanks for you suggestion. If I come into some extra cash like I did with the 400 mm lens I will splurge again.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yep, not cheap, but you will love either of those lenses. You can pick up either a lightly used 135 f2L or a 70-200 f2.8 L IS MKI in the $700-$800 range, and both are great sports (and portrait) lenses if you are close enough that you don’t need the reach of the 100-400.

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

If your concerned with getting your subjects in the right light, you might want to go with partial/spot metering & say to heck with the background.

Paloviejo

Hmmm....didn't find it on my Canon 80D

arathorn357 Loc: Sydney, Australia

[quote= Or, simply "erase" the distractions in post..[/quote]

Sorry if the answer to this is obvious, but is there a simple way to mask a background in post, and then make the background appear out of focus using the mask or layer?

Have spent ages not very successfully trying to get things in sharp focus when they were not that way when shot (only possible to a very limited extent I think).

Is there a simple way to do the opposite? (I use Lr 6.14 and Luminar 3.1)

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

These metering modes are available on the 7d's, 5d's, & 1dx's. I'm not sure about the 80d.

Paloviejo

When I looked at my 80D I found spot metering and the next up was a nine spot which I use. I guess that could be partial spot metering.

Thanks for your suggestion.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

You don’t seem to have an exposure or focusing issue - the shots look fine, you just need a narrower DOF to deemphasize the background as you originally stated. You can do it in post, but easier (although not cheaper) to address with a fast lens.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I concur. The exposure is fine for every one of these example and I confused why the discussion would drive off along this unrelated topic.