Take two! field hockey photos

[SquarePeg]

PS- On your images, not taking into account any modifiers like: don't know the sport, camera is new to me, et cetera ... meh (honestly). You're not shooting tight enough, unless it shows some fantastic athletic/visual display - you gotta have the ball, puck, shuttlecock, et al in every shot, too much distracting background detail, not enough faces/facial expressions. You have 230mm, shoot at 230mm. Fill the frame. It will be harder. You'll have less keepers. But the keepers will be significantly better. Shoot from the sidelines. Remember what Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

I do agree with you here. Those shots that I liked and that the focus was better were the ones where I was at 200 to 230 mm. The problem is that I don’t know the sport yet so I can’t predict which way they’re moving, where they’re going to end up, what they’re going to do. Really hard to keep the action in the frame at 230 mm when I’m not a good judge of which way they’re going to go.

 

[Gary A.]

Thanks for posting the photos. They look good to me I hope you post back at the end of the season on what worked and what didn't for you. I would like to get schnauzer running photos. What does "pumping the shutter" mean?

Pumping the shutter. It mean's to hold down the shutter half way to focus, then at the perfect time (hopefully), depress and capture the subject successfully as intended. It takes a rhythmic feel, and cadence to get it off. It is a wonderful experience.

For me, it is to repeatedly depress the AF button, as the subject races across the field (in this case), follow the subject and repeatedly pump the AF button to reacquire focus. At a certain point (hopefully) some action worth capturing happens and then you depress the shutter release button.

 

[jcdeboever]

PS- On your images, not taking into account any modifiers like: don't know the sport, camera is new to me, et cetera ... meh (honestly). You're not shooting tight enough, unless it shows some fantastic athletic/visual display - you gotta have the ball, puck, shuttlecock, et al in every shot, too much distracting background detail, not enough faces/facial expressions. You have 230mm, shoot at 230mm. Fill the frame. It will be harder. You'll have less keepers. But the keepers will be significantly better. Shoot from the sidelines. Remember what Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

I do agree with you here. Those shots that I liked and that the focus was better were the ones where I was at 200 to 230 mm. The problem is that I don’t know the sport yet so I can’t predict which way they’re moving, where they’re going to end up, what they’re going to do. Really hard to keep the action in the frame at 230 mm when I’m not a good judge of which way they’re going to go.

Put your focus square where you want it, be patient.

 

[Gary A.]

Filling the canvas with a small subject in the middle is a no no. You can get by in some aspects of painting

To me filling the frame means that if you have a small object, you get close enough to fill the frame with that object.

 

[SquarePeg]

PS- On your images, not taking into account any modifiers like: don't know the sport, camera is new to me, et cetera ... meh (honestly). You're not shooting tight enough, unless it shows some fantastic athletic/visual display - you gotta have the ball, puck, shuttlecock, et al in every shot, too much distracting background detail, not enough faces/facial expressions. You have 230mm, shoot at 230mm. Fill the frame. It will be harder. You'll have less keepers. But the keepers will be significantly better. Shoot from the sidelines. Remember what Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

I do agree with you here. Those shots that I liked and that the focus was better were the ones where I was at 200 to 230 mm. The problem is that I don’t know the sport yet so I can’t predict which way they’re moving, where they’re going to end up, what they’re going to do. Really hard to keep the action in the frame at 230 mm when I’m not a good judge of which way they’re going to go.

Put your focus square where you want it, be patient.

I’m not sure I’m understanding you here. Am I to pick a spot on the field and focus on that and wait for somebody to run into it? I am definitely misunderstanding you.

Maybe time to give back button focus a try

 

[Gary A.]

PS- On your images, not taking into account any modifiers like: don't know the sport, camera is new to me, et cetera ... meh (honestly). You're not shooting tight enough, unless it shows some fantastic athletic/visual display - you gotta have the ball, puck, shuttlecock, et al in every shot, too much distracting background detail, not enough faces/facial expressions. You have 230mm, shoot at 230mm. Fill the frame. It will be harder. You'll have less keepers. But the keepers will be significantly better. Shoot from the sidelines. Remember what Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

I do agree with you here. Those shots that I liked and that the focus was better were the ones where I was at 200 to 230 mm. The problem is that I don’t know the sport yet so I can’t predict which way they’re moving, where they’re going to end up, what they’re going to do. Really hard to keep the action in the frame at 230 mm when I’m not a good judge of which way they’re going to go.

If you just follow the ball and adjust the zoom to accommodate the players involved in the play, you should be okay.

 

[jcdeboever]

 

[tirediron]

PS- On your images, not taking into account any modifiers like: don't know the sport, camera is new to me, et cetera ... meh (honestly). You're not shooting tight enough, unless it shows some fantastic athletic/visual display - you gotta have the ball, puck, shuttlecock, et al in every shot, too much distracting background detail, not enough faces/facial expressions. You have 230mm, shoot at 230mm. Fill the frame. It will be harder. You'll have less keepers. But the keepers will be significantly better. Shoot from the sidelines. Remember what Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

I do agree with you here. Those shots that I liked and that the focus was better were the ones where I was at 200 to 230 mm. The problem is that I don’t know the sport yet so I can’t predict which way they’re moving, where they’re going to end up, what they’re going to do. Really hard to keep the action in the frame at 230 mm when I’m not a good judge of which way they’re going to go.

If you just follow the ball and adjust the zoom to accommodate the players involved in the play, you should be okay.

To be really good at this, you need to be able to use each eye independently. Your dominant eye is glued to the viewfinder, and follows the action, your other eye is open, watching the field and guesstimating where things will go next.

 

[jcdeboever]

PS- On your images, not taking into account any modifiers like: don't know the sport, camera is new to me, et cetera ... meh (honestly). You're not shooting tight enough, unless it shows some fantastic athletic/visual display - you gotta have the ball, puck, shuttlecock, et al in every shot, too much distracting background detail, not enough faces/facial expressions. You have 230mm, shoot at 230mm. Fill the frame. It will be harder. You'll have less keepers. But the keepers will be significantly better. Shoot from the sidelines. Remember what Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

I do agree with you here. Those shots that I liked and that the focus was better were the ones where I was at 200 to 230 mm. The problem is that I don’t know the sport yet so I can’t predict which way they’re moving, where they’re going to end up, what they’re going to do. Really hard to keep the action in the frame at 230 mm when I’m not a good judge of which way they’re going to go.

Put your focus square where you want it, be patient.

I’m not sure I’m understanding you here. Am I to pick a spot on the field and focus on that and wait for somebody to run into it? I am definitely misunderstanding you.

Maybe time to give back button focus a try

The focus square is the zone, when their face gets in it, push it (shutter) you should be pumping, anticipating her arrival.

 

[jcdeboever]

I pump the shutter pert near this beat...

 

[ac12]

Good job on your first shoot.

In a "mixing" sport like field hockey, soccer, basketball, football, where the players from both team mix it up, I do NOT use zone focusing. I generally use single point AF, so that I (not the camera) selects the subject. * The reason is, in a mixing sport, with all the other players mixing it up right next to each other, the AF just cannot track your subject. The way zone/area or intelligent AF works is different for each mfg, so you must RTFM, to know how it work in YOUR camera, then use it as appropriate for the sport/event you are shooting.

• Nikon's intelligent AF uses color to track the subject, but the uniform of the team is all the same color.
  
• Canon zone/area focus uses closest subject logic, which in many/most cases is NOT your subject.

This then puts the burden on YOU to track the subject, and not rely on the camera to track the subject.

BTW, I generally do NOT use any of the intelligent or zone focusing, as it often chooses the WRONG subject to focus on. Then I loose the shot because I have to figure out how to get the focus on MY subject. Again, use the appropriate focusing method for the game/event/subject you are shooting. What works for one game/subject may not work for another.

When I shoot action sports, I do not zoom in TIGHT on the subject. I find it difficult to track a moving subject, as they move erratically, if I zoom in tight. Leaving room around the subject makes it easier for ME to track an erratically/fast moving subject. Also a tight zoom makes it harder for me to keep track of a rapidly moving ball.
I will crop as necessary in post.

The more you shoot and practice tracking, the easier it gets. So hang in there.

Tip to practice tracking:

• Go to a large park next to a road.
• Stand a few hundred feet from the road.
• Track the moving car.
• As you are able to maintain track of the car, move closer to the road.
  • The apparent speed of the car will increase as you get closer to the road.

The car is a subject moving in a straight line at a constant speed, but it is a good way to get your body used to tracking.

* On the Nikon, I use Dynamic 9 point AF (D9). It primarily uses the selected AF point, but will use the other 8 points immediately around the primary AF point, if the subject moves and I am not able to maintain tracking.

Note: Field Hockey is like lacrosse. You MUST keep track of that ball. And if it is headed your way, you NEED to get out of the way of the ball. If it connects, it could HURT or injure you. If I loose track of the ball, I lower the camera, look around to regain the ball and the play, then set up to shoot again.

 

[SquarePeg]

Good job on your first shoot.

In a "mixing" sport like field hockey, soccer, basketball, football, where the players from both team mix it up, I do NOT use zone focusing. I generally use single point AF, so that I (not the camera) selects the subject. * The reason is, in a mixing sport, with all the other players mixing it up right next to each other, the AF just cannot track your subject. The way zone/area or intelligent AF works is different for each mfg, so you must RTFM, to know how it work in YOUR camera, then use it as appropriate for the sport/event you are shooting.

• Nikon's intelligent AF uses color to track the subject, but the uniform of the team is all the same color.
  
• Canon zone/area focus uses closest subject logic, which in many/most cases is NOT your subject.

This then puts the burden on YOU to track the subject, and not rely on the camera to track the subject.

BTW, I generally do NOT use any of the intelligent or zone focusing, as it often chooses the WRONG subject to focus on. Then I loose the shot because I have to figure out how to get the focus on MY subject. Again, use the appropriate focusing method for the game/event/subject you are shooting. What works for one game/subject may not work for another.

When I shoot action sports, I do not zoom in TIGHT on the subject. I find it difficult to track a moving subject, as they move erratically, if I zoom in tight. Leaving room around the subject makes it easier for ME to track an erratically/fast moving subject. Also a tight zoom makes it harder for me to keep track of a rapidly moving ball.
I will crop as necessary in post.

The more you shoot and practice tracking, the easier it gets. So hang in there.

Tip to practice tracking:

• Go to a large park next to a road.
• Stand a few hundred feet from the road.
• Track the moving car.
• As you are able to maintain track of the car, move closer to the road.
  • The apparent speed of the car will increase as you get closer to the road.

The car is a subject moving in a straight line at a constant speed, but it is a good way to get your body used to tracking.

* On the Nikon, I use Dynamic 9 point AF (D9). It primarily uses the selected AF point, but will use the other 8 points immediately around the primary AF point, if the subject moves and I am not able to maintain tracking.

Note: Field Hockey is like lacrosse. You MUST keep track of that ball. And if it is headed your way, you NEED to get out of the way of the ball. If it connects, it could HURT or injure you. If I loose track of the ball, I lower the camera, look around to regain the ball and the play, then set up to shoot again.

Thanks for the very detailed response, much appreciated. I’m assuming RTFM = Read The Fuji Manual?

I’m going to mix it up tomorrow and try a few different methods and see if I can find something that works. I’ve had great luck with the continuous zone tracking for Softball but it’s a much more predictable sport.

I never quite got the hang Of the tracking AF modes when I had my Nikon, and it was very frustrating.

Of course I have a softball game to shoot in the morning then field hockey after. The good news is I’m not playing or coaching in either! Just a photographer for our website for one and a parent paparazzi for the other.

 

[ac12]

SP
Take notes of what you do and the results. It makes figuring things out later a lot easier. As I get older, I cannot rely on memory as much as I used to.
The problem is that there are soooo many combinations of the different configurations, that it is easy to get confused.

As for SB, I was near the left field foul line on the far side of 3rd shooting towards 1st, when a runner from 2nd to 3rd crossed in front of me. The camera changed focus onto the runner, and I lost the shot at 1st

 

[grrr8scott]

When I shoot my granddaughters’ soccer games, I sit at or near the end of the field so the action is coming toward me. The players are often bunched together, which can make getting good shots of players difficult, but the players are facing in my direction more than if I were in the middle of the field. Of course, I have to switch ends at halftime, and I may be fighting shadows or difficult lighting half of the game.

 

[SquarePeg]

At today’s game I tried a couple of things differently. First of all, after reading the special Fuji AF page again: NEW AF SYSTEM SPECIAL SITE | FUJIFILM

1-I changed my AF mode to Wide Tracking and I changed the custom AF setting to #5 - Erratically moving subjects

Then, based on advice here,

2-BBF I assigned the rear command dial as AF (press not turn) and decoupled the shutter from AF when using AF-C.

I probably should have done one or the other but what the hey! In for a penny... I had more missed focus with these changes, mostly due to my never using bbf before. BUT... the shots that were in focus were much sharper. Here are a few using the new set up. Again these are pretty heavily cropped. Other than that I sharpened in Snapseed.

I think I’m going to try the settings from the Fuji AF site with the shutter focus and see how that works. Bbf was not my favorite way to shoot.