getting the face sharp in baseball

[mary_nickels]

<p>Strictly amatuer here.<br>

I am shooting lots of high school baseball for my son's team. Primarily infield, as it seems the best my lens can get. I am struggling to get the faces sharp. I see so many posted shots here where the face is tack sharp. What can I do to improve the sharpness in the face? Expression is great in sports and I hate to lose that.<br>

Shooting Canon 30D. Promaster 18-200 lens is the best I've got for baseball. I shoot in manual, AI servo, and I try to use my middle focal point on upper chest area as it is a larger area to focus on but often try to use the upper one and keep it on the face, though the target is smaller. Generally keeping the ISO about 400 or so and the SS at least 1250, faster depending on the light. Try to keep aperture as wide as possible, but I know that changes when I zoom in and out. Spot metering.<br>

Also, in the bright light, I find it difficult to get the right light on the faces. If I try to get the faces lighter, it blows the uniform whites out too much. Any advice?<br>

Thanks folks.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>If you're at the long end of the lens, try stopping down for more sharpness. That lens won't produce must sharpness at 200mm until you stop down to f/8 or so. You may have to raise ISO a bit more, or lower your shutter speed (or both), but it will make a difference.</p>

[richardsnow]

<p>Mary,</p>

<p>I'm not familiar with the lens you are using, but I'm guessing it's a re-badged Tamron. If it is, then your max aperture at 200mm is f/6.3 This means your lens should be sharpest between f/8 and f/11. If you don't need to stop motion, you can shoot at 1/125s or 1/250s to accommodate the smaller aperture.</p>

<p>Next, focus on the face, not the upper chest. DOF is determined by focal length, aperture, and distance to subject. It could be that you are close enough to have the face visibly out of focus by focusing on the upper chest. Depends on how close you are.</p>

<p>Finally, to get the light right without blowing out the uniforms, meter the uniforms, use your AE-L button to lock exposure and re-frame/re-focus for the faces. Shooting under direct sunlight is not ideal due to the harsh shadows, but lighting is difficult or impossible to control while shooting sports. </p>

<p>Hope this helps. <br>

RS</p>

[seragram]

<p>Shoot using a fast shutter speed as possible use AF to focus and shutter button to take picture. If you stop down you can get bigger area in focus so it makes it easyer to get in focus image but boke soffers. Attached shot wide open at 1/800 sec, center ponint around chest area 200mm 2.8 L. I know your camera is ok your problem might be the lens.</p><div></div>

[mary_nickels]

<p>Thanks for the response everyone. Sorry I haven't been able to follow up with my question.<br>

Sergio, I do use AF (as opposed to MF) if that is what you mean. I have tried to do both, keeping my focal point at both the chest and also trying to keep it on the face. Obviously keeping it on the larger area of the chest is easier than keeping it on the smaller face. I have a hard time following a pitcher's entire motion for instance, with the focal point remaining on his face the entire time. I may get one out of several of the series to really have his face in focus. Is there a trick in the motion of following with the camera to keep the focal point on the face?<br>

Richard and Matt, it sounds like I should be shooting at least f/8 or more (larger number). At 200mm, I do tend to leave it at 6.3, it's max aperture so I can stop action at a faster shutter speed. Does full zoom generally not work well with it's max aperture? Is that a general rule I may not be aware of?<br>

Richard, you mention metering on the uniforms and using AE-L, lock exposure and re-frame/re-focus for the face. Can you explain that? Unfortunately I don't know what you mean by the AE-L. Is that a setting I need to change? I generally take some test shots, look to see how much is blown (as it is generally strong sunlight) adjust settings, focus on chest or face, press shutter half way and try to follow that part of the body through any motion.<br>

Thanks for taking the time.</p>

[dave_mccoll]

<p>When I shoot baseball I try to only shoot if the sun is low in the sky. My ideal shots are of the pitcher, shot from behind the back stop just off to the side of the Umpire through a hole in the chain link fence. Its a lot to hope for light wise but at least the pitcher's face is in good sun with little to no shadow. I shoot with a Nikon D3, Nikor 70 - 200 f2.8, on Aperture priority, focus point on the face and ISO 400 (adjusted if necessary). Try to experiment with various settings. With the sun high in the air its a pain. Cheers.</p>