A Little Chin Music

[CaboWabo]

Cubs batter Alfonso Soriano gets a little chin music. I am newbie on shooting sports but I think it came out pretty good but I dont know any comments would be of help

 

[imagemaker46]

Without being too critical, it's not a bad shot. It is a little loose, but as a wide shot it's ok. You missed the peak point of the ball brushing him back as it is already in the catchers glove. Timing is everything and when the ball is travelling close to a 100mph, it's tough at the best of times. I think you should be happy with this shot.

 

[ronlane]

Good critic imagemaker46. Question for you. When shooting baseball do you motor through the entire pitch from windup to catchers glove to get that shot, since timing would be incredibly hard (I would think)?

 

[imagemaker46]

I usually shoot 4-5 frames on a pitch, if shooting from the side. Shooting straight at the pitcher I will shoot only a couple of frames as the ball leaves his hand, anymore than that and the ball starts to drop out of the frame pretty quick. It takes less than half a second from pitcher to batter at 100mph. I will stay on the batter and watch the pitcher, as soon as the ball leaves his hand I shoot. Timing is a big factor, and so is luck.

 

[ronlane]

Thank you. When shooting straight at the pitcher, what are you using as a focus point? (I'm asking questions because my daughter went to a game at the end of school and said she would love to go back and I thought it would be good to take a camera.)

 

[imagemaker46]

I shoot through the backstop with a lens between 200-600mm, although a 400mm is ideal. Generally the backgrounds are pretty clean so you can get away a higher fstop, f8-11 works, but the shutter speed has to be close to 1000th sec to stop the ball as it leaves the pitchers hand. I still use a centre point focus on the chest, as the pitchers hand usually crosses his chest to his face. What you are looking for is not so much just the ball in his hand, but all of him as he releases the ball.

 

[Designer]

My cropped version:

 

[imagemaker46]

For this shot, the wider version is much better.

 

[Designer]

O.K. Thanks for that.

 

[CaboWabo]

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions I just need a better lens I believe I have a nikon d90 with 55-200 lens I know I need better I didnt really know what I was doing so i guess I will hunt for something better
These I took earlier in the season as well

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Here's one at 135mm

 

[CaboWabo]

Rontanimod can you tell me what settings you had in that shot I am just wondering where I am going wrong?

 

[imagemaker46]

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions I just need a better lens I believe I have a nikon d90 with 55-200 lens I know I need better I didnt really know what I was doing so i guess I will hunt for something better
These I took earlier in the season as well

I really like the second shot

 

[CaboWabo]

Thanks I am just trying to understand getting the right settings for sports , I have been doing alot of reading and be going to another game soon to try them out

 

[Tony S]

I think if you are trying to stop the ball in a particular spot you are going to have a better success rate working on your timing. Motoring through a pitching series is only going to get you a whole lot of shots to go through and not very many successes at catching the ball where you want it.

Consider these numbers that are involved in shooting a moving baseball...

90 mph = 132 feet per second
60.6 ÷ 132 = .459 seconds

If your camera is fast and shoots 10 frames per second you are only going to get four shots in on that pitch. That means between every shot the ball is travelling about 15 feet. If your camera shoots at a slower frame rate you will have fewer chances and the ball travels farther between those shots.

Lets see what an average varsity high school pitcher at 60mph looks like.....

60 mph = 88 feet per second
60.6 ÷ 88 = .69 seconds

So using that 10 frames per second camera again, you are only going to get at most 6 shots in, so even at that slow speed the ball is moving nearly ten feet between shots.

So timing that shot at the point you want the ball at is a better option to me.

One for fun,...

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