Pepperdine Baseball photos

[Michael Touchette]

I took some photos at a Pepperdine University baseball game the other day, these 4 made it into the school newspaper! What do you guys think?

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[smyth]

Few things, the first one looks good, but it is small, so I can't really tell.

The second one is out of focus.

The last two don't have the ball in the frame.... I know it may be difficult to catch the ball in the air on the way to the plate, but the general rule for sports with a ball is that the ball should be in the frame.

 

[Michael Touchette]

Thanks for the reply. I wish I would've caught the ball in the last two, it was hard to time it though. It was also hard focusing through a net fence protecting the fan stands. For my first time shooting a baseball game, I was quite happy with the results, but I agree that there are definitely things to improve (focus and getting the ball in there).

 

[tsaraleksi]

As an editor, these shots would be unusable-- the focus is so out that they wouldn't look good even in newsprint. The way to deal with that if you must shoot through the fence is to focus manually-- players don't move around much and you can just focus on the area they're in, set it to f/8 so they can move around and still be in focus. At the same time, it might be worth looking for a vantage point that is not behind a fence.

Does your newspaper have pool gear of any kind?

The frustrating thing about baseball is that it is long periods of dullness punctuated by bursts of excitement. The best way to handle this is to spend the first several innings getting your standard shots (pitcher, people batting, etc) then, once that is covered, look for excitement.