new beginner photos for c&C

[ucddyan]

Hello Everyone, this is my second or so post of photos, I've been doing a lot of reading up and trying to work on some things. Recently my company had a volleyball game and I brought the camera. I was trying to work on composition for the day. All photos were taken with Nikon D200, 18-200mm DX/VR, 1/125, auto aperture (don't have full exif data right now), auto focus. I was wondering if you could let me know if I'm getting better and what else I can do to improve here.

#1 My favorite shot of the day, but I think it feels a little strange with her oof in the front (feels like it would make more sense if she was oof in the back)?

#2 Trying to get an action shot, I think it looks okay, might have been better if the ball were more blurred (better feeling of motion). I know his hands look awkward. Should I have tried to get more of the background in (even though it was umbrellas and cars)?

#3 Trying to get people with happy, smiling faces. Trying not to center subjects. Perhaps there's too much space over her head? Should I have zoomed in more to fill more of the frame with her (it wasn't possible at the time, but just in general)?

#4 I like this one but... i don't know, her elbow is cut off and there's a bit of space above her head. Should I have framed it more so that there's dead space to the left where she's looking? Should i have maybe pulled out a bit instead of trying to fill the frame for this shot?

There's a couple of others but I'll leave it at this for now. Thanks for any help or comments, don't be afraid to be harsh, i don't get out a lot to shoot and I consider all comments seriously. Thanks!!!

 

[TJ K]

#2 you needed a way faster shutter speed. You were apparently in the iso 125 area you can crank that up much more but 500 probably would have been more than enough and you could freeze the action and improve the quality.

 

[ucddyan]

But if I was trying to convey motion, shouldn't I have lowered the shutter speed to 1/60 or something and tried my best to keep his face in focus?

 

[KmH]

Yes, you want his face to be in focus but since any movement is explicitly implied having the rest of the body in focus works too.

Most sports shooters use Av mode (aperture priority) to control depth of field (DOF). For daytime, they set the aperture to about f/4-f/5.6 and keep an eye on the shutter speed. Above 1/500 is good. If you can get 1/1000 or more, even better.