Fall Softball *New Lens: Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens to help me with the new challenges! Tameron 70-200 (non G2) Conditions, heavy overcast with occasional...

Uaana

Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens to help me with the new challenges!
Tameron 70-200 (non G2)
Conditions, heavy overcast with occasional drizzle.
Challenges, range restrictions compared to my 18-300.
And odd autofocus issues. I would prepare roughly where I expected the play to be IE: Home or specific base. End of the day I found many shots where the AF-C had jumped to a different focal point..
Not sure if the new lens is touchier or something else that I may have missed.

Anyways, here are some I thought turned out adequate.

Comments and suggestions always appreciated.

(Download)

tshift Loc: Overland Park, KS.

Uaana wrote:

Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens ... (show quote)

In my opinion just a tad underexposed, but these are excellent shots Uaana. Please post more when you can. Thanks

Tom

Uaana

tshift wrote:

In my opinion just a tad underexposed, but these are excellent shots Uaana. Please post more when you can. Thanks

Tom

Thank you and yes.

I'm actually surprised some came out as well as they did. Had the shutter slowed down to 1250 vs my normal 1500 plus for direct sunlight games. Aperture started at f4 but had it wide open at 2.8 by end of the second game.

jimjjc Loc: Wisconsin

Love the Flyers uniforms.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Uaana wrote:

Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens ... (show quote)

Great images. Not sure what your focus set up is but you mention the focus point is jumping so I am guessing you are using multiple points. The camera has no way of knowing which player you want to focus on it just guesses When shooting sports never let the camera decide where the focus point should be. There are too many moving parts in the scene and the camera will get easily confused. The most common sports set up is single point continuous using back button focus. That way the focus point will always be where you want it not where the camera thinks it should be.

Uaana

Quote:

The most common sports set up is single point continuous using back button focus. That way the focus point will always be where you want it not where the camera thinks it should be.

Yup, pretty sure that was it. Didnt catch it until after I posted this. Was still set for 34 focal points.
*Didnt catch it during football as it's not as big of a deal shooting a scrum of 10yr olds.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Uaana wrote:

Yup, pretty sure that was it. Didnt catch it until after I posted this. Was still set for 34 focal points.
*Didnt catch it during football as it's not as big of a deal shooting a scrum of 10yr olds.

We’ve all done it. Cant tell you how many times I have started shooting only to find out when i chimp that the images are all poorly exposed because I forgot to change the iso from the last time I shot which was maybe portraits or something other than sports or visa versa. Now I make a point of shooting during warm ups and chimp to make sure all of my settings are where I want them. I also very rarely take my camera off single point continuous and it I do I set it right back.

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

Good ones! I really like the dual swingers.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Uaana wrote:

Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens ... (show quote)

Framing is good. Next time you might try single point or group for focusing points. What camera do you have? Youtube has great tutorials for learning. Shoot in manual, and maybe auto iso, set white balance for cloudy might help too. Nice work.

Uaana

Thanks all!!
I love the green on the Flyers uniforms as well

Using a Nikon D5500.
*Nice tip on the white balance setting, forgot about that one.

I normally shoot manual/auto ISO
My starting default is 1500 @ f8 and adjust from there.

Previous lens was a Nikkor 18-300 which let me camp a bit more. The 70-200 is a great lens but I'm going to have to practice working the fence and other short range shots a bit.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Uaana wrote:

Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens ... (show quote)

Very nice work. I might suggest a tighter crop on photo #2 to rid of OF in background. A little distracting. And on your next to last sahot, what is that red dot on the fence? Maybe clone it out. Ad I might increase overall exposures a tad. Are you shooting in manual? But overall, excellent framing!

Uaana

mikeroetex wrote:

Very nice work. I might suggest a tighter crop on photo #2 to rid of OF in background. A little distracting. And on your next to last sahot, what is that red dot on the fence? Maybe clone it out. Ad I might increase overall exposures a tad. Are you shooting in manual? But overall, excellent framing!

Thank you.
Exposure noted!
*On my fist edit pass thought the Adobe Landscape profile was punching the colors enough that upping the exposure felt unnecessary.
I seem to have an eye/preference/habit of underexposing.

Never thought about cloning out the red light.
**Shame** not using LR to its fullest extent

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Uaana wrote:

Fall Softball has arrived and I've got a new lens ... (show quote)

Uaana:
What I would suggest is take your camera out and practice shooting moving cars, moving anything until you get the focus points down. Also with sports you always want to shoot wide open so that you separate the background from the players. For exposure try shooting shutter priority, then manual. Sunny day for softball try auto iso, white balance sunny or daytime. If the sun starts going down your auto iso will maintain your settings, they will not change. Practice practice and more practice, you will not be sorry.
Good luck,
Jules

Uaana

Jules Karney wrote:

Uaana:
Practice practice and more practice, you will not be sorry.
Good luck,
Jules

As with almost anything.

And as noted before, first time using the 2.8.
Just a tad nervous about being overexposed since I'd already slowed down the sp to 1250...
And were back to practice, practice!

I really should make more of an effort to warm up when the teams are warming up.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Uaana wrote:

As with almost anything.

And as noted before, first time using the 2.8.
Just a tad nervous about being overexposed since I'd already slowed down the sp to 1250...
And were back to practice, practice!

I really should make more of an effort to warm up when the teams are warming up.

The warm up is a perfect way to practice before the game. Actually I get to a game one hour before kick off to look at the field, the sun, colors of uniforms, etc.