Would Love Some Feedback On my Sports Photography

CalebFarley

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Would Love Some Feedback On my Sports Photography. I am a serious point fighter, will be trying out for the US national team this April and have won many tournaments etc. When I am not fighting thought I have been shooting. I have not really gotten any feedback on my sports work, I have heard a lot about my street work. I am wondering what you guys think of it? I know it's a bit different but for some reason I love this contrasty look. What do you guys think?


Concentration by Caleb Farley, on Flickr


Ugur OZ - Before Fight by Caleb Farley, on Flickr


David and Goliath by Caleb Farley, on Flickr


Karahan Yentur - Fight Preperation by Caleb Farley, on Flickr


Pow, Boom, Bam! by Caleb Farley, on Flickr


Train Hard... Win Easy! by Caleb Farley, on Flickr






 
Well since you are a point fighter I wont say anything but GREAT WORK, don't want my a-- kicked:lmao:

To be honest I like what I see, 2, 4 + 6 I like the best
 
Not sure if i like the vignetting, but on the jumping kick one obviously a faster shutter was needed to reduce blur, but maybe you weren't expecting him to do a jumping kick haha.
 
I would go easier on the vignetting. A lot of the time, vignetting emphasizes framing, but when you use it for every shot it loses that emphasis and effect. I do like how you captured the whole story, however. A lot of times with sports photos, I see people capturing the action, but they don't capture the story. Their photos seem very generic.

Your photos are wide enough that they let the viewer know context as well as action.

That being said, I do think that there are a few things that I would address...

I know that wrestling is and martial arts are sports that really require both people to be in the shot for the shot to make sense, but in a few of these photos your composition seems a little awkward to me, like in the 3rd photo. In a horizontal orientation, there is so much going on the the background. The focus of the photos (the competitors) does not take up much of the frame, so the viewer has the potential of losing interest....that's just my take. Sometimes I change my orientation to vertical because I'm looking for a particular image - when I shoot basketball I try to get the interaction between teams and players, and then I say to myself "ok, now I'm going to try and get photos of an individual shooting/dribbling, w/e" I think that when it comes to sports it's sometimes best to wait for the action to come to you, and try your best to predict what's going to happen next so as to plan your settings/technique accordingly....that's just my approach.

I have the same issues with the last image. I really like the emotion and the moment, but it seems awkward as well. The man's feet to chopped off, but there's still a bit of space in the frame so it seems like the feet should be in the frame....if that makes sense....

I think that either shooting this at a wider angle, or zooming in on the two individuals a bit more would have imrpoved this shot. :)
 
I really like the top 5! Good work.

Six.. could do with tighter framing. And I'm not a big fan of the fact it is shot ABOVE the action, if it was more on eye level If shot on eye level with tight framing it would be a great shot.
 
Well since you are a point fighter I wont say anything but GREAT WORK, don't want my a-- kicked:lmao:

To be honest I like what I see, 2, 4 + 6 I like the best

LOL, Thanks a lot man :D
 
Not sure if i like the vignetting, but on the jumping kick one obviously a faster shutter was needed to reduce blur, but maybe you weren't expecting him to do a jumping kick haha.

I know since I have published the photos I have gotten a lot of criticism about the vingetting, for some reason I love the way it makes it look but when I look back i got way to carried away lol :D
 
I would go easier on the vignetting. A lot of the time, vignetting emphasizes framing, but when you use it for every shot it loses that emphasis and effect. I do like how you captured the whole story, however. A lot of times with sports photos, I see people capturing the action, but they don't capture the story. Their photos seem very generic.

Your photos are wide enough that they let the viewer know context as well as action.

That being said, I do think that there are a few things that I would address...

I know that wrestling is and martial arts are sports that really require both people to be in the shot for the shot to make sense, but in a few of these photos your composition seems a little awkward to me, like in the 3rd photo. In a horizontal orientation, there is so much going on the the background. The focus of the photos (the competitors) does not take up much of the frame, so the viewer has the potential of losing interest....that's just my take. Sometimes I change my orientation to vertical because I'm looking for a particular image - when I shoot basketball I try to get the interaction between teams and players, and then I say to myself "ok, now I'm going to try and get photos of an individual shooting/dribbling, w/e" I think that when it comes to sports it's sometimes best to wait for the action to come to you, and try your best to predict what's going to happen next so as to plan your settings/technique accordingly....that's just my approach.

I have the same issues with the last image. I really like the emotion and the moment, but it seems awkward as well. The man's feet to chopped off, but there's still a bit of space in the frame so it seems like the feet should be in the frame....if that makes sense....

I think that either shooting this at a wider angle, or zooming in on the two individuals a bit more would have imrpoved this shot. :)

Thanks man :D I do have a hard time with composition some times, thought I was shooting with a 50 mm lens and could not get any closer, so looking at what I had I wanted to get a shot where a lot was going on, wanted to get from the side so we did not see the other competitors in the background but they did not let me... :D So that's the best I could get. With the last picture thought that was a true mess up lol, it is cropped because the original version was supper awkward. So with the goal of fixing it that is much as I could get. :D Thanks again :D
 
I really like the top 5! Good work.

Six.. could do with tighter framing. And I'm not a big fan of the fact it is shot ABOVE the action, if it was more on eye level If shot on eye level with tight framing it would be a great shot.

Yes I wish I could have as I just said, it was a bit mistake on my part. :D The original was even worse :D
 
I really like the contrast of colors. And good action shots as well.
 
Well since you are a point fighter I wont say anything but GREAT WORK, don't want my a-- kicked:lmao:

To be honest I like what I see, 2, 4 + 6 I like the best

Come on! Tell him how you really feel. His kicks can't reach California (from Turkey).
 
The vignetting is too strong in some of these. The fighter's portrait with the single foot in the background is bad; the framing is wrong, and the foot kills the shot [Ugur OZ - Before Fight]. Your last photo shows excellent emotion Train Hard... Win Easy!.

These photos do show more background, more location than many people like to show these days; some magazines and publications like to see sports images that HAVE MORE BACKGROUND, and more of a feel for the context of the sports action--magazines like SPorts Illustrated, for example. Same for some newspapers, like small-town weekly papers, where the "location" is considered almost as important as the tight, cropped-off, close-in, 400mm look that so many sports shooters think is the only way to make a good sports photo.

Your framing and composition need more work though...the man at the top left of Win Easy, for example...he is headless...that's distracting...the foot in the background--very poor timing...still,what I see so far is somebody who has an eye for this sport. You will get better if you continue working on it. I know it!
 

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