A guy wants to pay me for taking his photo.

[prodigy2k7]

Maybe crop the ball out on the second one - since it's nearly out of the fram, and somone probably caught it anyway.

Haha, ya someone did catch it :\

 

[prodigy2k7]

The dirt on the ground is in focus not the player's face.

I am trying to look at all my photos. If they aren't in focus, they are all REALLY close. Hmm, possibly a focusing issue?

 

[Kerbouchard]

here is a 100% view of a part of the first photo. It looks pretty sharp to me, especially the "E" on the bat

All I see when I look at that photo is a chain link fense in the background.

Pick a better shooting point. If you can't, maybe a 85 1.4 is in your future. Seriously, this is just bad.

 

[CCericola]

Yes it does depend who you ask. Someone who knows the definition of photography and someone who doesn't. Which one are you?

You need to be shooting at a higher shutter speed, anticipate the play, try to have the light at your back and on the player. Do not blow out the exposure on the face or miss the focus on the face. No one wants a photo of someone they can't recognize because it is too bright and blurry .

 

[prodigy2k7]

here is a 100% view of a part of the first photo. It looks pretty sharp to me, especially the "E" on the bat

All I see when I look at that photo is a chain link fense in the background.

Pick a better shooting point. If you can't, maybe a 85 1.4 is in your future. Seriously, this is just bad.

I was shooting at 200mm with some cropping. Don't think that will help...

 

[Kerbouchard]

was shooting at 200mm with some cropping. Don't think that will help...

Ouch. I am a Nikon guy, but at 200 2.8, the background pretty much melts away. Your shots certainly don't look like 200 2.8 unless you were a long ways away and heavily cropped.

At 200 2.8, the background should not be distracting. Yours happens to suck. You either need longer glass or you were mistaken about your settings.

With the gear you have, this shouldn't be that challenging of a shoot.

 

[prodigy2k7]

was shooting at 200mm with some cropping. Don't think that will help...

Ouch. I am a Nikon guy, but at 200 2.8, the background pretty much melts away. Your shots certainly don't look like 200 2.8 unless you were a long ways away and heavily cropped.

At 200 2.8, the background should not be distracting. Yours happens to suck. You either need longer glass or you were mistaken about your settings.

With the gear you have, this shouldn't be that challenging of a shoot.

The EXIF data is intact for both those images. I said earlier I used F/4.

Here is a shot from the previous night (unedited i think?) at 200mm F/2.8 ISO 800 1/250 and also UNCROPPED.

 

[KmH]

You can selectively dodge and sharpen his face in the first one, and you can clean up the background some.

#1 needs some cropping, but the ball locationpretty much limits cropping possibilites for #2.

You have My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit so no one can show you what's possible, edit wise, and your on your own with that.

Let him decide if he is willing to pay $15 - $20 for 8x10's of the shots you got. Caveat Emptor - Buyer beware.

 

[tirediron]

That is not my style. I am not there to shoot some school portraits. I want to shoot players in the field playing the game they love to play.

If you are being paid, you are there to shoot the images the customer wants. Period. If they want something you don't want to do, fine, walk away. If you accept the commission than you have to make it work. Just like any other shoot, sit down with the client before hand and ask him what he wants. Is he after a "hero shots", "PJ work" or a combination of both? In general, watch your focusing (use a single point, put it on the area of critical importance), watch your composition; subjects should be looking in to and not out of the frame. With fast-moving subjects like this, shoot a split-second before you think you should; by the time your finger presses the release and the exposure happens, you should be spot on.

 

[prodigy2k7]

That is not my style. I am not there to shoot some school portraits. I want to shoot players in the field playing the game they love to play.

If you are being paid, you are there to shoot the images the customer wants. Period. If they want something you don't want to do, fine, walk away. If you accept the commission than you have to make it work. Just like any other shoot, sit down with the client before hand and ask him what he wants. Is he after a "hero shots", "PJ work" or a combination of both? In general, watch your focusing (use a single point, put it on the area of critical importance), watch your composition; subjects should be looking in to and not out of the frame. With fast-moving subjects like this, shoot a split-second before you think you should; by the time your finger presses the release and the exposure happens, you should be spot on.

Thanks for all this info. I have plenty to practice on for next time

To clear anything up. (I don't know a lot about baseball) but there was a new inning and the teams were switching positions from batting to positions on the field. This guy came in from first base and asked if I could take photos of him batting. I said sure. He was also first up to bat. I knew I was going to shoot a photo of him for less than 3 minutes before I took the shot.

This wasn't an actual booked shoot that we discussed beforehand or anything.

Edit:

You have My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit so no one can show you what's possible, edit wise, and your on your own with that.

Fixed.

 

[Dominantly]

I would also add, it would be VERY easy to add the front half of the baseball, and the additional fence/etc that would be needed to show it.

I think your shots could be a bit sharper, use a work over in PS, and the removal of that pole behind his head.

As for selling them, if you plan on doing this often, get a Smugmug Pro account and host them there for him to buy. The account has a free trial.

 

[prodigy2k7]

I would also add, it would be VERY easy to add the front half of the baseball, and the additional fence/etc that would be needed to show it.

I think your shots could be a bit sharper, use a work over in PS, and the removal of that pole behind his head.

As for selling them, if you plan on doing this often, get a Smugmug Pro account and host them there for him to buy. The account has a free trial.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I have the skill or want-to to actually add to the image some extra pixels and fake the edge of the ball/fences etc etc. Ill try to get spot on next time

 

[Kerbouchard]

Since your photos are 'now' okay to edit, I would have cropped it like this. If it was my shot, I would spend quite a bit of time on the background. That net is a freaking nightmare. With a shallower DOF and careful framing, it would have been a non-issue. Oh, and I would probably remove that pole growing out of his head. If it was posed, I would have also asked him to bend his knees a bit more.

Edit:

You have My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit so no one can show you what's possible, edit wise, and your on your own with that.

Fixed.

 

[Tony S]

Holy crap what a harsh crowd today. These are grab shots from a game that some guy asked for... you don't have a chance during games to get prime spots for clean backgrounds. The fence is part of the game. If he were setting up for T&I images then I would hammer him for distracting backgrounds, but not with game action.

I would suggest the tighter crop. If you have one other shot with the ball in it try to clone it into a shot of him swinging the bat, but be very careful that you get the fencing lined up or it will be obviously cloned and not work well. Timing is everything when shooting a player at the plate. Trying to get the shot shooting off several shots will most often give you a big nothing, frame your shot and hold the focus, then look up from the view finder and watch the ball as it approaches and fire off a hair before when you think the bat will meet the ball. Getting bat on the ball shots is timing and a bonus, with practice you get it more often. This will get you closer than rapid fire.
Also, make sure you are focusing on the face. Yes, you may have the hands in focus and sharper, but the face is what is soft and that's the important part.

Tell him $10 for the few files you got, it'll cover a burger and McFlurry at McDonalds.

 

[imagemaker46]

These two images are simple uneventful baseball pictures. You said you don't know baseball and that's fine, the second shot is late, timing is a huge factor in baseball. This doesn't look like any type of "big league" baseball so I don't really know why you have been restricted to just two spots. It is also quite easy to shoot through the backstop fence without any concerns, you just have to play around with it and it gets you close to home plate. If this guy wants to pay you for this type of stuff, he will, like most people, they will buy photos of themselves if they've never had a better picture, and this guy probably hasn't. You can probably make a few bucks off this guy and maybe some other players, but the pictures had better start getting way better to continue, oh and when the pressure is on to give them really good, you will have to step up, easier said than done if you don't have the skills to shoot sports.