[TheSkier]

The K-5 is great for ski shots. This was taken with the 18-55WR kit lens.

[dosdan]

The K-5 is great for ski shots. This was taken with the 18-55WR kit lens.

Great handling of back-lighting. Shot in raw? What PP?

Dan.

[Frogfish]

Some great shots in this thread - love those volleyballers Ron (brings back memories of living in Amsterdam when I was young'er') !

X games in Shanghai - K5 & Sigma 50-150

[dosdan]

all ISO800, 135mm, f4, 1/500

That's the exposure setting for a Light Value of 10 LV. That must be typical of a well flood-lit event.

I'm interested in seeing what exposure combos will work in action situations (after a bad experience trying to shot aerial action at a poorly-lit circus).

The evening action shots in this English soccer stadium were taken at 9-10 LV (I followed the links to Flicker and looked under Actions for the EXIF info):

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-your-photos/151781-sports-manchester...s-warning.html

Generally with my K20D with sport, I shoot F4.5-F7.1 (with the new DA* 60-250/F4), ISO100-1600, 1/350s-1/1000s.

Assuming the light was low and using the lowest combo of 1/320s, ISO1600, f/4 = 8.3 LV

At that shutter speed, the action would not be crisp.

Here's a desperation shot taken with a K20D, on an overcast bleak day, late afternoon, with a DA 55-300/F4-F5.8:

1/320s, f/5.8, ISO2500 = 8.5 LV (approx.)




Hopefully, when I upgrade to a K-5, and using a f/4 lens, I'd be able to use in a worst-case action situation (depending in ISO performance):

1/320s, f/4, ISO3200 = 7.3 LV
1/320s, f/4, ISO4000 = 7 LV
1/320s, f/4, ISO5000 = 6.7 LV

An f/2.8 lens would theoretically handle an extra LV lower situation, if you could accept the DOF, and if the FL was enough for the shot.

Considering an f/4 lens fully open, K-5 and an 8.5 LV situation and using a 1/640 shutter speed:

1/640s, f/4, ISO3200 = 8.3 LV

An LV calculator is here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photography-articles/88197-excel-2003-lv-...alculator.html

Dan.

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Last edited by dosdan; 08-12-2011 at 12:57 PM.

[RonHendriks1966]

An f/2.8 lens would theoretically handle an extra LV lower situation, if you could accept the DOF, and if the FL was enough for the shot.

Considering an f/4 lens fully open, K-5 and an 8.5 LV situation and using a 1/640 shutter speed:

1/640s, f/4, ISO3200 = 8.3 LV

Well having some speed in the shutter is good for image quality. There is a reason why so many sports photographers use a lens like 400mm/f2.8 because distance is great and light is poor.

[TheSkier]

Great handling of back-lighting. Shot in raw? What PP?

Dan.

Thanks! The lighting was planned. raw. A little sharpening and slight WB adjustment is all.

[RonHendriks1966]

I love all those new sports inhere. Thanks for bringing them in this nice little Pentax corner.

On the x-games I like the urban background, gives it something extyra, especially the last one.

Nice skie shot, we don't have many snow oppertunity's, however we do have a olympic gold medal winner with Nicolien Sauerbreij in the snow (for The Netherlands the first olympic medal in the snow, the rest is on ice).

[epa4wd]

taken at night

[Schraubstock]

Some great shots in this thread - love those volleyballers Ron (brings back memories of living in Amsterdam when I was young'er') !

Hi
Looks like you have been low lying on you belly all day.
Your shoots freeze the action well, I like'm . Great shots. I know how difficult it can be to get a good shot of any action. It helps of course if you are at an event that promises a lot of action, like skate boarding.

I promised myself to come home with some nice action shots when I attended a baseball game a few weeks ago in Milwaukee. (business with Miller Brewing). Baseball is a sport I know nothing about. Jeeze almighty, is this game slow or what? I was hanging out all night for some action shots, ha, there where three and I got them all, sort of. Could you call these three shots action shots? (The last one I almost missed, was just about to fall asleep, not so sharp).

On a different matter, your first shot shows a fair bit of white sharpening halo. There is an excellent sharpening program I use as a plugin in PS CS (Windows) which will allow you to control black and white halos like no other program that I know of. Check it out here:

All taken with K-5 and PENTAX 60-250 DA*

Review of FocalBlade Sharpening Plugin from The Plugin Site | Shuttertalk

Greetings

[Frogfish]

Hi
Looks like you have been low lying on you belly all day.
Your shoots freeze the action well, I like'm . Great shots. I know how difficult it can be to get a good shot of any action. It helps of course if you are at an event that promises a lot of action, like skate boarding.

On a different matter, your first shot shows a fair bit of white sharpening halo. There is an excellent sharpening program I use as a plugin in PS CS (Windows) which will allow you to control black and white halos like no other program that I know of. Check it out here:

Thanks SS - glad you liked the shots, you do what you have to to get the shots right ? Luckily the set up in Shanghai was great for spectators and togs with the stages set up pretty high.

That looks like a great sharpening program, unfortunately (in this case) I use a MAC and don't use any of the programs they have versions for (I use Aperture and have used LR3 and Bibble 3). Thanks anyway - I'm sure the tip will be good for other people on here.

I really like the first shot you posted .. with the bat in mid-air !

[RonHendriks1966]

There must be more action on such a game (but I've never seen baseball). No slidings to the honk of any kind? The shotmoments are good, just your shuttertime is a little on the long side I think, but light was limited.

On your white halo sharpening: are you refurring to frogfish or my volleybal? Still using PSE.

And the nightshots are great. You could even make them look miniaturized with those things lensaby or in photoshop.

[Schraubstock]

There must be more action on such a game (but I've never seen baseball). No slidings to the honk of any kind? The shotmoments are good, just your shuttertime is a little on the long side I think, but light was limited.

On your white halo sharpening: are you refurring to frogfish or my volleybal? Still using PSE.

And the nightshots are great. You could even make them look miniaturized with those things lensaby or in photoshop.

Hi
Well, there could be but not the game I was witness to. There was any amount of ball chucking back and forth and ball catching and air swings with the bat without making contact.

As to shutter speed, I wanted to get some motion blur of some of the objects I was aiming for like as you can see with the bat handle that hangs in mid air or the foot of the running player. This is not easy as often one finishes up with everything blurred. Also as you say the light wasn't great. So I experimented with different settings on the night and came up with setting which would give me some blur of the faster moving parts without buggering up everything else. I hope this makes sense.

I was referring to frogfish's halo of his first motor bike picture.
Greetings

[Schraubstock]

I should perhaps recount the funny experience I had at the Miller Stadium where I attended the above mentioned baseball game.

In the stadium I walked up to an area where I could have a clear shot of the proceedings waiting for the elusive action shoot. From where I sat I did not have a good angle and also I was sitting behind the safety net.

Standing there, my K-5 with grip and said 60-250 mounted up front, camera cocked and up in front of my face, three people walked up to me and ask me:

First: Which magazine are you the paparazzi for? I looked at him and with a wink I said: Playboy! Oh wow, he said, can you come over to my place and shoot my girlfriend for a centre fold? (I declined)

Second: Which newspaper are you with? I said, The Australian. (Which is a national Australian daily) He just walked away with a very vacant look on his face.

Third: He was actually an official of either the stadium or the baseball clubs, I could not read his ID hanging off his neck quickly enough. But he said: Can I see your press accreditation? I replied, I haven't got one because I am not a Press guy. Yes you are he said I can see that by your camera. Oh no I said, I am not! Professional people shoot with NIKONs and CANONs this is just an ordinary PENTAX. (I can be quick like that sometimes) He had a good look at the camera and said, O.K. than but you must sit down you are not allowed to stand here. We both walked away.

I still have grin on my face when I think about this.
(My friends reckon I should have taken up the centre fold offer)

Greetings

[andre-mz5]

Baseball is a very easy sport to shoot because 90% of the actions will take place around these three spots :
home plate (batting area), first base and second base.
Depending on the angle you have at the batter you can try to get a shot of a batter making contact with the ball. It requires a fast shutterspeed (1/1000 or faster) to freeze the action. And yes, most of the times the batter will only move some air instead of making contact with that ball.
On first and second base you should get the kind of shots you show here. ction gets more dramatic if the runner is closer to the base. In your shots it's obvious those runners will be OUT.

Whenever you go to a sport event with that K5 + 60-250 combo all kinds of people will think you're a professional sports photograhper.

[volley]

Hope you don't mind if I throw in a few "non K-5" sport shots ... I still couldn't convince myself (or my wife) that I need to upgrade.

I took these with a K200 D and a manual focus Tokina AT-X 2.8/80-200 some time ago during a Polo practise and was experimenting with different speeds to get the "right" degree of motion blur to show the speed and the dynamics of the game.







... not much blur on this one (I hope) - I just like the capture of that moment