Advice needed for beginner

[TuxBrothers]

Hello forum members

Two weeks ago i bought a Nikon D3200 with a 18-55mm lens, this is my first camera.
Did read the manual and i watched some online tutorials.
Im very interested in sports photography like field hockey and soccer.
Maybe you guys can look at some of the pictures and give tips to make them better

Thanks in advance!
Cheers Gerard

Leonidas vs Kievitten 01-02-2015 - an album on Flickr

 

[rottroll]

Well, I think you have a good starting point there. You are finding your shots and composition comes naturally to you – so there's definitely talent.

The next thing for you should be to try some editing. All your images lack contrast. Also you seem to expose for the background and not the subject. This could be fixed most of the time by simply brightening up the shadows a little.

Also you need to get closer to your subjects. For now, try cropping your images. Later you should think about getting a longer lens. Something around a 300 mm or so.

 

[Kawaracer]

You clearly know the game 'cause you know to find the action, your timing is good, compositon is already said. The image content is something else, in a lot of pics there are a lot of players with there back to you, that isn't interesting, cropping to the action might help, but maybe trying an other point of view can help to avoid those backs.

 

[JoeW]

Hello forum members

Two weeks ago i bought a Nikon D3200 with a 18-55mm lens, this is my first camera.
Did read the manual and i watched some online tutorials.
Im very interested in sports photography like field hockey and soccer.
Maybe you guys can look at some of the pictures and give tips to make them better

Thanks in advance!
Cheers Gerard

Leonidas vs Kievitten 01-02-2015 - an album on Flickr

View attachment 94581

Welcome.

1. Very smart asking for C&C...that's one of the fastest ways to improve as a photographer.

2. It's going to be very hard to shoot sports with a kit lens of that size. See if you can rent or borrow a zoom lens (200mm) that is fast (f2.8). Notice how much better your photos will get. You want to be able to shoot at a fast shutter speed to avoid blur (unless you intentionally want blur in a picture to convey motion. Otherwise, the faster you shoot (when it comes to sports), the better.

3. Look to do some post-processing/editing. A lot of your pictures will improve if you crop the (so you eliminate background clutter and the focus is on the action/subject). Narrow the DoF so the background becomes a blur. Add some contrast so subject stands out a bit more.

 

[TuxBrothers]

Thank all of you guys for looking and giving me great tips
The background blur thing, as i understand you need a 70-300mm lens but they are very expensive, but a 55-200 f4-5.6 lens is in my budget (75 euro).
Yesterday when i took the pics it was strange kinda weather, one moment there was a very bright sun and 5 mins later it was raining or very dark clouds.
I will try to get other view point and crop more to get better results, i just watched a tutorial howto soft the background in Lightroom.
Thanks again!

 

[JoeW]

Thank all of you guys for looking and giving me great tips
The background blur thing, as i understand you need a 70-300mm lens but they are very expensive, but a 55-200 f4-5.6 lens is in my budget (75 euro).
Yesterday when i took the pics it was strange kinda weather, one moment there was a very bright sun and 5 mins later it was raining or very dark clouds.
I will try to get other view point and crop more to get better results, i just watched a tutorial howto soft the background in Lightroom.
Thanks again!

Nope, blur (or bokeh) is primarily a function of how narrow or wide your depth of field (DoF) is. A narrow DoF (with an aperture like f2.8 or f2.0) will have blur in the foreground and background. An aperture of f5.6 is not going to be sharp in the background but it won't really blur. It's not primarily a function of focal length...I've got a nice little 35mm f1.8 that produces lovely bokeh. And I've got a 300mm that b/c of the aperture really doesn't produce much blur.

I understand about the budget. The biggest issue is this: for sports you want to be able to shoot at a fast shutter speed. I'd argue that matters more than anything else.

 

[TuxBrothers]

Thank you for answering
I understand the DOF thing and i know that the smaller the F number how more blur you can produce
But as i have to start somewhere i think the 55-200mm is a good choice for the money (Nikon lens), and that i have todo some blur in Lightroom its not ideal i know.

Cheers Gerard