Few Basketball Shots

[RunJZ]

Good Morning all,
I am pretty new to the forum. Fairly new to photography as well. My wife loves high school basketball and several other high school sports. I on the there hand, get a bit bored at the games. Recently I decided to try my hand at taking a few pictures of the games. It has become a good way to pass the time during the games. I don't mind going to the games to much now. Still getting the hang of things with action photography but I enjoy trying.

Here are a few shots from a game yesterday evening. C&C are more than welcome.

 

[DarkShadow]

There not bad shots but a couple things.
#1 Needs a tilt correction and there is to much real estate overhead and distracting.
#2 IMO is the better of the action shots but again to much real estate overhead. Just my 2 cents.

Personally I think #2 is a keeper with some cropping off the top but # 1 Not so much.

 

[RunJZ]

Meaning a left and right/vertical tilt correction right? You will have to forgive my ignorance as I won't kid anyone about being new to this stuff.

 

[DarkShadow]

Yes the left to right. Looking a the background wall and how the court looks like its slopped. That said, you have a leg up on me because I don't do sports or have even tried at this point. I have Only been shooting a year my self but almost all wildlife birds thus far so me new to and learn as I go.

 

[RunJZ]

I agree with he tilt once you mentioned it in the beginning. Once you mentioned it I noticed the background as well. If the background wasn't as discrete then I wouldn't be able to notice at all.

And if I didn't get so bored at ball games then I would have never thought about taking pictures. I enjoy it now that I am dabbling in it.

 

[DarkShadow]

# 2 The players are facing the same way.The ball is in motion and the face expression overall makes this the strongest of the two.Also the players are isolated from other players and there is no sneaker toes in the frame as in #1.

 

[manicmike]

I agree with everything Darkshadow said, but on the second one it looks like the white balance is a little on the blue side.

 

[imagemaker46]

Always remember that floors and fields are generally level, make sure the photos are as well. Crop your images tighter, as was mentioned. Backgrounds look pretty good, not cluttered like so many gyms, make sure you look past the subjects when you shoot and try to use the cleanest ones. The content is there on both these images.

 

[RunJZ]

Thank you for the advice Imagemaker. I appreciate it. When looking past the subjects, you are referring to clutter on and off the court correct?

Parents of the kids are just googly eyed over any pictures of their kids in action but I am interested in working on my shots to get better composition.