Rugby 1st try

[ap4a]

That's a better shot to start with, the heads being up and focused instead of dropped down like the previous makes this one look like it was meant, which is good. The chopped off foot does bring it down a little, but it's not as severe as the other one. But there was the room in the frame to have corrected (chop the OOF spectators' heads off instead ) - in fact you could try cropping down to the top of the fence, removing the distracting aspect of those spectators, which would also allow the players to have greater presence as they fill the frame more. You might also want to experiment with other crops, such as a vertical crop (poss. a 4x5 aspect), removing the two left hand players.

[bsmith]

Great shots Mark, I hope you found the chalenge rewarding. It is hard to get the zoom just right while focusing and keeping an eye on where the play is going, great fun and great to get out and about with the camera

Here are a couple from my game at the weekend.





Bob

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no where near as good as your bob, but thanks for the info, have a few more shots and I now know what you mean about following the play. will post them if there worthy of your eyes.

ps let me know if you have any new photos to look at. Love the one above it looks like he's about to be crumpled

[bsmith]

Hi Mark, your doing very well, I found it took quite a few visits to the games before I was able to get my settings just right ( and I'm still tinkering ) on dull days I use a vivid picture control as colours are not so bright so on sunny days when the coulurs are much better I use a standard colour setting. I'm still trying to decide whether I should always have the tele converter fitted, when the play is right beside me its to close but when the play is at the other end of the field I can still get usable images. I have noticed most press photographers at the games have two cameras, but thats a lot of extra work, they must find it pays them though.

I usualy post the ones I like best on my flickr site, the link is bellow, I look forward to the weekend wondering what I can capture , sadly the press have their pros that they get photos from, the Scotsman news paper have agreed I can send them inages and I do every week but nothing has been used yet. The decision on what images to use depends on which game is most significant that week so having a fantastic shot is a wast of time if they are not reporting that game .

All the best for now, Bob.

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Yes bob its ironic I was there with my 100-400 wishing I had what the lady beside me had 75 -200 only to be told she wished she had my lense. We always want what we havent got

[Ed Godden]

Hey Mark,

If that was your first attempt at photographing rugby you've done a really good job!
Photographing any kind of sport is definitely a case of the more you practice the better you get.
You've captured the action well, framed them up nicely and most importantly got them sharp!
The main things to be aware of when shooting fast moving ball games like football or rugby are messy backgrounds (try to open up your aperture as much as possible to throw the background out of focus), shutter speed not being fast enough and gettting blurred shots (shooting 1/500 sec or faster to really make sure you freeze the action) and finally, choosing and sticking with a focus mode you're happy with!
I always shoot sport with the focus point set to centre, then move it around as the subject moves acorss the frame.

Like I said though... if this was your first attempt, I can't wait to see your shots after you've done a dozen or so matches!

All the best,

Ed

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Originally Posted by Ed Godden

Hey Mark,

If that was your first attempt at photographing rugby you've done a really good job!
Photographing any kind of sport is definitely a case of the more you practice the better you get.
You've captured the action well, framed them up nicely and most importantly got them sharp!
The main things to be aware of when shooting fast moving ball games like football or rugby are messy backgrounds (try to open up your aperture as much as possible to throw the background out of focus), shutter speed not being fast enough and gettting blurred shots (shooting 1/500 sec or faster to really make sure you freeze the action) and finally, choosing and sticking with a focus mode you're happy with!
I always shoot sport with the focus point set to centre, then move it around as the subject moves acorss the frame.

Like I said though... if this was your first attempt, I can't wait to see your shots after you've done a dozen or so matches!

All the best,

Ed

Thanks for your encouragment Ed and your advice. I am trying to set the shutter speed at 1/1000s and the aperture wide open but leave the iso on auto, Al servo . What white balance should i use to get better colours ?

[Ed Godden]

No worries.. I personally wouldn't set the ISO to auto. With rugby and football (and this time of the year) the light tends to be pretty low. Especially if it's a 3pm kick-off! Set the ISO up to anywhere between 400 and 1000 to begin with and open the aperture to as wide as you can go. Setting the camera to aperture priority will then hopefully give you a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action. If it doesn't... simply increase the ISO as required. A lot of people fear increasing ISO too far because of pixel noise. Cameras are getting better and better at dealing with high ISO so don't worry too much. In fact, sometime the added noise gives a nice grainy effect giving your rugby shot a gritty appearance.

Maybe think about getting a monopod too? Extra stabilisation for a long lens is always good. And means you can take the weight of you arms
With white balance I generally keep things simple and set to 'cloudy' if its dull conditions or 'sunny' if its nice bright conditions. Try to keep things like this nice and simple to leave you concentrating more on the action.

Ed

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Will try what you say ED, about the monopod I have just subscribed to DCM and hope to get a manfrotto monopod for free (if it comes!)

Another

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Originally Posted by ap4a

That's a better shot to start with, the heads being up and focused instead of dropped down like the previous makes this one look like it was meant, which is good. The chopped off foot does bring it down a little, but it's not as severe as the other one. But there was the room in the frame to have corrected (chop the OOF spectators' heads off instead ) - in fact you could try cropping down to the top of the fence, removing the distracting aspect of those spectators, which would also allow the players to have greater presence as they fill the frame more. You might also want to experiment with other crops, such as a vertical crop (poss. a 4x5 aspect), removing the two left hand players.

Thank for your advice : Did you mean like this? Its certainley looks better thanks to your guidance.