Originally posted by ThorSanchez Preseason scrimmages with the K-3ii and 55-300 PLM.
ThorSanchez, I'd like to offer
constructive comments on your 2 preseason shots. For 7 years, I shot stills of junior soccer and some futsal, then switching to 3 yrs of videoing. So I've got some experience in this area.
Shot 1. I can see what you trying for here, but as a general rule, I cull shots that don't include the ball in-frame in soccer or futsal shots. The presence of the ball, to me, seems vital in anchoring the dramatic situation. Perhaps because the players' distance from the ball in this chase situation directly affects the urgency of their chase.
Shot. 2. I believe the essence of sports shooting is to convey the drama of the interactions. So, while 1 player performing a beautiful kick on a ball is interesting, a shot with an intercepting player in close conflict with this player, and the look on their two faces usually makes a much better shot. This is stuff that the bystanders either don't notice or remember. There's so much going on in a game that bystanders can't concentrate on detail and it would otherwise flow past them unnoticed. But you, as the photographer, either anticipate that a dramatic interaction is likely to occur, or you've been lucky to capture it anyway.
I believe you need to crop to the players of interest. In your 2nd shot, the player "97" appears not to be directly involved in this interaction, and the large areas before and to the right of the two interacting players doesn't really convey much. So I'd crop much closer. There's not much I can do with the resized JPG compared to a full-sized raw file. So what I did was just mask the two players, including the ball, and selectively apply 1px radius Focus Magic deconvolution sharpening to them, not the grass.
Dan.