My sports shots

They're all here for your viewing and disecting.<br>

<b><a

href="http://www.bestactionshots.com">WWW.BESTACTIONSHOTS.COM</a></b>

Fair. With lots of practice you might be good one day.

 

Show more team action not profiles of players standing around.

What kind of enlargements do you get shooting at 1600? I must say also that I don't get

Armando's comment. With that type of criticism I would hope for more tips on how to

become "good".

I use Neat Ninja to reduce noise. The largest I sold is 20x30 and it's looking okay. Noise is noticable. Anything smaller is good.

<<<<With that type of criticism I would hope for more tips on how to become "good".>>>>

 

try reading my last sentence.

 

 

one thing is to be a *sports* photographer and another thing to shoot still or portrait type photos under the guise of sports. Obviously, www.Bestactionshots.com is hyping (in my opinon) with his website rather than supplying his best work in a one/two or three images for critique. Then again, this a free forum and some people like to take advantage of it for advertising, not that www.bestactionshots.com is doing that with his thousands of images.

i think best action is a very good sports action photographer from what i've seen, AND i think in this forum this kind of post suggests a desire to hype more and seek constructive criticism less. best action should post photos for critique on photo.net if he really wants input. that's why i won't comment here, best action.

Ben is polite, but you did ask to be disected, here's a couple of gentle slices to start with ;=) The lighting seems ok in some of those gyms to enable you to use a wider aperture and blur out the background a bit in your player pics to seperate your subjects from their surroundings. For more dynamic action pics introduce competition for the ball between two players.

Best Action-

 

Perhaps You would care to submit a few of your BEST ACTION shots to this website for review purposes.

 

That way you may actually get some decent replies that might benefit you.

 

 

So - seeing as how you asked for comments - I think I have seen better pictures here from the amatuers who are trying to learn.

 

Your lighting is bad.

Your action does not communicate the excitement that may exist.

There is no picture that compels me to want to learn more about the sport/athlete or to acquire a particular image.

 

Your choice of composition is in some cases very static, which for sports shots is a death sentence.

 

So there is my critque.

 

That is my opinion- which is what you asked for.

Just to throw out a differing opinion...it seems to me there might be a difference between the *type* of sports photography presented in Best Action's website and the what most people here are discussing--granted you did ask to have your shots dissected. For one, the website is clearly to allow people (kids and mostly parents) to buy shots of the kid in action. Of course every shot is not a bona fide action shot. But what you are selling, what the kids want is a picture of themselves playing the sport. They would love to be posterizing some other kid in the process, but they'll settle for a good clean shot in uniform with or without the ball. In that regard, I would say that if you are selling a lot of pictures, you're doing a good job. If it's not that much trouble to put up ten shots of a kid running down the court and therefore, to let the kid or parent choose one or all (some parents will choose every shot a kid even remotely appears in the background of, trust me), then do that. I would think you could save some space by offering only the best shots.

 

As far as the critique of the quality and merit of your shots, some of that's been addressed. But I'd be hard-pressed to answer the comment above that referred to your lighting being "bad". Not sure how you can fix that in a high school game--you don't want to use flash, you obviously aren't going to affix ceiling lighting in the HS gym, so.....

 

Agreed that if you post a couple shots for review, you'll get a better critique.

You are off to a good start. I recommend that you buy several of the Athlon sports magazines (especially those that feature pre-season predictions) and study the techniques of the photographers. The collegiate magazines carry images made by student photographers considered good enough to be pro. The pro league magazines photos are made by pros working for magazines or newspapers. This is what the kids see, this is what they are looking for from you.

 

Lighting is what it is. Unless you have the bucks and techniques to set up strobe lighting in a gym (like sports Illustrated) you have to learn to adjust to the lighting.

 

Learn the game. Be able to see what is happening and to predict what is going to happen. Everyone can shoot a nine-foot jumper, or even a 20 foot three pointer, but few can really jam the ball. And that's the shot everyone wants.

 

Your photos have to be razor sharp.

 

Watch your backgrounds. Keep them plain or out of focus as much as possible.

 

Edit your work. You don't need to show five photos of someone dribbling a ball. One will do.

 

Only display your best photos.

 

Finally, get a thick skin if you ask to have your photos disected.

(personally I would never do that, I'm too sensitive.)

 

(I have some sports stuff on this site, but you have to search for it.)