Action shots c&c please

[Crazydad]

My son's soccer club U18 boys had a friendly with the Stoke City (newly promoted to English Premier League) U18 team tonight. Although I don't have a zoom yet, I wanted to see what kind of action I could get.

These were taken with the kit 18-55mm and then cropped and zoomed in on. Let me know what you think.

And for those who think US kids can't play proper football, they won 2-1.

1.

2.

3.

Thanks

 

[RyanMillerPhoto]

Howdy Crazydad,

You submitted this thread for C&C. I would have say there are several issues to keep in mind.

First, all of your images look very warm, too warm. Looks like your white balance was off. I suggest playing with this feature. Take a shot with each white balance setting while outside and see what happens. Of course you will need to know which setting is used with each image.

Also, I suggest purchasing a longer lens. Not professional, just longer. Unless you can isolate your subject a bit, the image is kind of lost as there is too much dead space. Pretty much something we all end up getting.. longer lenses. Then wider, then macro.. yikes.. keeps going. Lol

 

[fabric]

don't look off to me, honestly. i'm viewing via a calibrated mac CRT. looks like early evening summertime in southern US. things do look more 'golden' at that time of day. i feelk they are rather vivid/saturated and contrasty. what iso was used ? i cant see any exif.

 

[Crazydad]

Howdy Crazydad,

You submitted this thread for C&C. I would have say there are several issues to keep in mind.

First, all of your images look very warm, too warm. Looks like your white balance was off. I suggest playing with this feature. Take a shot with each white balance setting while outside and see what happens. Of course you will need to know which setting is used with each image.

Also, I suggest purchasing a longer lens. Not professional, just longer. Unless you can isolate your subject a bit, the image is kind of lost as there is too much dead space. Pretty much something we all end up getting.. longer lenses. Then wider, then macro.. yikes.. keeps going. Lol

Thanks for the input. Fabric is right, that this was early evening and the light does tend to be golden this time of year. That said, I did adjust the curves a little bit, so maybe that is what is causing it.

I do have a 70-300mm on the way (and I'm sure I will eventually get a macro, wide, 50mm prime, etc.), just didn't get here before this game. Even though I knew the 55mm would not be long enough, I took the opportunity to work on techniques, camera settings and composition.

i feelk they are rather vivid/saturated and contrasty. what iso was used ? i cant see any exif.

You are correct about the sunllight, but I did mess with the curves a little. The iso on all 3 was 100. #1&2 were at f/5.6, 1/250sec, 55mm. #3 was at f/6.3, 1/200, 55mm.

I wanted to keep the iso as low as possible while maintaining at least 1/250 shutter speed. Shortly after I took #3, it was getting dark enough that I had to bump the iso to 400 to keep 1/250. But none of those shots were any good.

 

[tirediron]

Agree with the above, particularily with respect to isolating subjects. A longer lens will have a shallower DoF allowing you to have a nice, soft, unfocused and less distracting background.