Girls Soccer (last reg season game)

Next week, playoffs...
But I got to shoot a game today. I almost shot RAW again, but went with jpg. What I discovered..is it's a lot easier in post with RAW, IMHO.
Anyway, here's a few shots.
1.

2.

3.

4.

Jeff,

These are great kids! Sports can bring out some of the best characteristic of people and here these girls really put everything into the game. It makes me optimistic in spite of the screw ups around them. How can we prolong this? If we knew the answer......

Asher

These are some of your best images yet Jeff in terms of timing and framing. But you've changed something in your processing. The image quality of your earlier shots was remarkably natural; these in comparison seem over-processed — too much sharpening on the one hand (halos, most notably in the first shot), and the appearance of heavy noise reduction ("plasticky") on the other. What's up with that?

Nill

JPG...
didn't shoot RAW this time.
I like RAW better, but am not comfortable enough (speed/time wise) to go full time RAW.
After yesterday, I may reconsider. There's so much more leeway in post processing with RAW.
As I've found out.
Appreciate your comments...I really do. I will keep working.

Jeff,

I would like to know the reaction of the players to these pictures! I'm impressed. These, as Nill remarks, are evidence of an evolution of your work and perhaps you are getting to track the players and mentally estimate peak actions better. In any case, I'd be proud either as the photographer or player! As a parent I'd be delighted. As a an elderly grandmother in a nursing home, I'd be showing off the pictures to anyone who could still see and breathe!

Are these part of a contract with the team or as a parent? How do you handle sales?

Asher

Note that you can tweak the jpg settings of your camera to get more of the look that you want. You might also try shooting RAW + jpg for a while till you decide which way to go.

Nill

EXIF data stripped and who fills up © and license fields in the IPTC code?

Hi Jeff,

I looked at the files to see the EXIF information. It's not always there or incomplete! How come? What are you doing to simple jpgs such that you lose this data? In the first picture it says 300mm lens and f2.8 but no shutter speed! With the last image, no such info at all; zero!

Also you have not added you © info and licensing statement to the IPTC code. Your pictures might one day be very valuable. It might seem a very long shot, but anyone of these players might end up as a great actress, politician or public figure and your sleeping pictures could someday make you a nice fee! Also you might catch some rich company using one of your images in their advertising or as one guy discovered on, I believe, a bottle of Nestea foods: money in the bank! As your work gets even better, the chances of being ripped off are increased. So at least stake your claim by putting your stamp inside every picture file online. That way, people can't so easily claim that yours are in the public domain!

Nill,

Do you bother to add your © info or not?

Asher

Yes, of course, both in the visible watermark and in the IPTC data.


Nill

Thanks Asher...
I'm flattered. I'm not sure I agree totally, but I'm flattered.
I'm still learning, as evidenced by my struggles with post processing.

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Jeff,
I looked at the files to see the EXIF information. It's not always there or incomplete! How come? What are you doing to simple jpgs such that you lose this data? In the first picture it says 300mm lens and f2.8 but no shutter speed! With the last image, no such info at all; zero!
Asher

Click to expand...

The photos posted here are processed in Aperture 2, and posted on pbase.
I did nothing, that I know of, to strip metadata. In fact, when I post in other forums with direct file upload from Aperture, all metadata is there. Even when on pbase.
Good point about copyrights, and I understand how to do it more (or it's easier to understand) in LR2 for me. Also Zenfolio allows watermarking, so I may have to start linking from there.
I cannot explain what happened to the data after it goes to pbase.

Nill Toulme said:

Note that you can tweak the jpg settings of your camera to get more of the look that you want. You might also try shooting RAW + jpg for a while till you decide which way to go.

Nill

Click to expand...

Nill,
RAW is the way I want to go, but I'm not confident in my processing, at least in short periods of time. I'm moving toward LR2, which seems to be easier (for RAW) to me, and once I get the workflow down, I'll probably stay there.
I'm not knocking other software, just stating what works for me.
I try to get home, process a few in time for the local paper. Tonight there is a HS FB game, and I will probably shoot jpg tonight.
I think my camera settings are fine, I'm just messing it up in post.

What are you doing to them in post?

Nill

Wonderful balletic shots. This game moves so fast you have to slow it down to see how lyrical and graceful it is. What concentration on the faces. Makes me want to go out and shoot some big aperture high shutter speed stuff.

D

Nill Toulme said:

What are you doing to them in post?

Nill

Click to expand...

Destroying them, evidently.

I'm jumping between Aperture (mainly) and LR (which I'm starting to like better..but haven't learned it yet.
Then I tried using Noise Ninja and overdoing it.
Frankly, it's hard for jpg than RAW for me, and I'm FAR from an expert in RAW.

Jeff Mims said:

Frankly, it's hard for jpg than RAW for me, and I'm FAR from an expert in RAW.

Click to expand...

Practice makes perfect ..., your timing in the shots shown is great already. Try shooting in Raw+JPEG mode, and you'll be able to recover in postprocessing.

Bart