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Forum: Photographic Technique
12-31-2018, 08:47 AM
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Nice shots! What camera/lens combo are you using?
I normally use the K3ii and DA 50 1.8, but this season I have the K-1ii and gave the DFA 24-70 a try and was pleasantly surprised. I especially like I can use the shorter end of the focal length to get things like the last one. I haven't compared, but pretty sure my keeper rate has gone up considerably. Not sure if it is the K-1ii or the 24-70 or maybe both.
 
 
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-17-2018, 06:28 AM
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Chance of rain for this week's game was 80%, but we avoided it except for a few small sprinkles.
K-1 & DFA 15-30, K-1ii & DA*200
 
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-09-2018, 02:33 PM
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Yeah, I get asked often after a game what I thought about it. I rarely have my eyes off the camera during plays with the thought I might miss a shot. At best you can see how big the holes are for the running backs.
I have not shot sports in the rain before, but I know the photos are getting a lot of attention from players, parents, studetns etc. on flickr. Most likely due to the added rain element. It was fun looking through them afterward, but I'd be lying if I said I look forward to shooting in the rain again. :) It still makes me a bit nervous.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-09-2018, 05:16 AM
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I've been using Pentax AW and WR gear for some time now. I finally had the guts to try it out the past Friday. It rained for 3 of the 4 quarters in this game and at times pretty hard. I was really nervous, but everything worked well and so far there doesn't seem to be any moisture intrusion. I did let my gear ride open air in the back seats of the car for the 2.5 hour drive home and then at home for the next day and half.
Quantity of light was decent, but I have been at better venues.The quality of the light was above average for high school football. This is my first season with the K-1 and its exactly what I wanted compared to the K-3. I can shoot is at 6400 and even 12800 and the noise levels are more than acceptable for these types of photos. I believe all the below were shot at 6400.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-03-2018, 06:10 AM
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Other than gear, I've also changed my technique to using manual mode. Usually exposing for between the shadows and highlights, but sometimes leaning to one direction or the other if i want to take advantage of a light differential. It has more than cut my post processing effort in half and I can apply the same adjustments across the board.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
08-31-2018, 11:56 AM
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the DA*300 has nonoticeable chromatic aberration as does the DA*200, that's nice to not have toadjust.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
08-31-2018, 07:36 AM
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Throwing in a bit ofwide angle action along with the tele action.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
08-31-2018, 05:47 AM
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Its been quite some time since I've posted, lots of summer and school activities and work or course. Its wearing me out.
I have a new setup this year moving from the K-3ii/DA*200 to the K-1ii/DA*300/DA*200 and K-1/DFA15-30. I'm liking it so far. The focusing on this setup took a bit of getting used to and not sure if it is the lens or camera difference. Result once getting used to it is a good keeper rate. I love this time of football season that you aren't constrained by stadium lighting. Also like the golden color the setting sun adds.
I like the giant ref and how all the other refs heads are aimed up to look at him...he was probably 6'7" or so. I also like the bearded coach pic it was probably my favorite of the set.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
04-09-2018, 06:17 AM
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I was happy when we arrived find the gym with nice lighting both quantity and quality. These are taken with the DA*200 on a K-1. I just started this combination for pre-game, half-time and crowd shots -- fun stuff!
btw My setup for the in game action is the DA50 1.8 on the K-3ii or K-5iis -- which works out pretty well. I learned late in this season to disable SR. I try to shoot at least 1/500, so it isn't needed anyway. I think I've been taking shots while SR was still trying to stabilize. Pretty sure when this is the case the pictures are a little soft. I think I've noticed better sharpness since disabling SR for in game shots, but will need to wait until next football/basketball season now to see. The below were with SR on and they seem a little soft, so looking forward to another action outing to try this out.
[edited to correct spelling]
  
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Forum: Photographic Technique
03-25-2018, 05:19 AM
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DA 50 1.8 on a K-3ii
Our boys and girls went into post season this year. The boys lost in first round and girls made it to the semi-finals. Enjoyed taking these. I usually stick with the 50 on these, but this year I got some pre-game and during game shots using DA* 200, I'll try and post a few of those later.
---------- Post added 03-25-18 at 08:09 AM ----------
Anytime you can get the eyes like that I think its great. regardless of composition. Some good scenery of the track in the background too.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
01-13-2018, 06:33 AM
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nice and great detail. seems like a great camera/lens combination. i think you can see the heat distortion from the exhaust just behind the top of his boot.
---------- Post added 01-13-18 at 07:36 AM ----------
great shots! looking forward to the first time I can try this lens out. i have this and the other new DFA zooms in my wishlist. :)
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Forum: Photographic Technique
01-12-2018, 06:42 AM
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awesome views and great pics, blast Matt. I've never ice skated before, but that really looks fun, particularly the hike to location for a day of skating. The skiing picture is phenomenal.
All your motorcross pics are great Tas! I especially like the one a couple post back where rider is coming at you over the burm with the track in the background.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
12-16-2017, 07:36 AM
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Decided to wait until end of season this year to go through and pick some of my favs...too many to post. As always when lighting is good the pictures are great and easy to get. High School Stadium quality/quantity of lighting is dismal at best most of the time.
Had a good time this year taking these. Equipment used -- K-5iis with DA*200 and K3ii with DA*50-135.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
02-18-2017, 06:22 AM
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-25-2016, 06:31 AM
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Awesome shot and stitching Tas!
I know what you mean. They aren't repetitive to me each has their own fingerprint in the details.
I like the detail in all three of these and that third one, WOW really like that.
---------- Post added 09-25-16 at 08:35 AM ----------
Middle school favorites from this week. Its always hard to pick when you have this much light to shoot with. I kinda like the warmth introduced as the sun starts to get low.
 myFlickr
---------- Post added 09-25-16 at 08:50 AM ----------
I missed two Fridays ago and this past Thursday's game. Had something come up at work that kept me off the field -- hate when that happens!
This last Friday we played on field that had not so desirable lights. Aside from the quantity of light, you can see the inconsistencies in color in the below due to the fluctuating frequencies of the lights. To compensate I adjust temp and in some cases the yellow/orange/green saturation slider. It is give and take though I hone in on the whites and get them as close as possible.
It is probably more evident if you scroll through the small icons of this album. You can see all the different shades of green/yellow/orange the grass is on these. In post I focus more on the subjects than the landscape though. Next step is to force myself into Photoshop and learn to brush up my favorites for presentation.
20160923 Wind vs Bulldogs | Flickr
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-14-2016, 04:27 PM
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I'm really likin' these motorcross images. Keep 'em coming.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-13-2016, 09:25 PM
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I think finding the sweet spot for the lens you are using is what I would aim for. The pictures you are taking are great, so I wouldn't change unless you just want to try some other things. It seems like 5.6 is a sweet spot for the DA* 200mm. I'll shoot with a smaller aperture up to 8 or 11 if I'm taking a shot of a group and want more depth of field.
It was a hard decision to make between the DA*200 and the 70-200 Tamron/Sigma. I decided on the 200 since it had weather sealing. I've already used the 200 in a hand full of rainy games and so far no problems. I will say I still don't trust it when it starts raining hard -- I chicken out and run for cover. I really thought I would have been constrained by the fixed focal length, but now I don't even remember what it was like to use the zoom that I used in the first season. I will admit that I probably miss some receiver shots when the ball is thrown towards me and the action is too close. I find that I would rather have the weather sealing than the zoom. Maybe one of these days I can afford to get the DFA 70-200, but then would have to contend with weight.
edit: Just wanted to add a comment on the DA*200mm. Its main fault is the fringing and it seems pretty difficult to correct in Light Room withought the correction causing some other anomalies in the photos. DarkTable did a great job at this correction though.
I also thought about the 300mm, but opted for 2.8 since I really rely on it when it gets dark.
When I'm taking action photos with a shallow DoF I know my it may raise the risk of missing the shot, depending on which way and how fast the action is moving. I found 5.6 worked pretty well and gave a good mix of sharpness and target subject separation and sometimes to accentuate the target subject will drop down to 3.0 or 3.5. By night time thought am forced to using 2.8. I too like the looks of photos with the shallow depth of field.
thanks for posting your pictures...they are great! We're all learning new things and this forum has been the best photography manual I could have ever found.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-13-2016, 08:59 PM
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NP. Yeah, ended up being pretty long. I never really sat and thought about all the things I did when taking sports shots. It was actually a good exercise and gives opportunity to look them over to find adjustments that can be made.
I shoot RAW to give the most opportunity for adjustment in post processing. Most of them get adjustments in shadows, highlights, whites, blacks, vibrance, sharpness and luminance noise reduction. Adding vibrance can cause the reds to blow out a little, so I may adjust the red saturation slider down if a team is wearing red. Sometimes I'll slide the green saturation slider up. I do use the lens profile correction, but the biggest problem I encounter with the DA* 200 is fringing. I miss the defringe from darktable it worked much better than the defringe in light room.
Ooops yes, I meant center point autofocus.
I choose the K5iis since it seems to be a little better at handling noise at high ISOs. I used the K3ii last year and I haven't done a real comparison between the two, but I'm leaning towards the K5iis doing a little better job in the lower light.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-11-2016, 08:05 PM
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Nice mix Tas. Great sharpness and clarity on these.
Great pics Clou! An event for real life activity!
Really like the cyclist with a great scenic background. I'm looking forward to some more.
Thanks jake14mmw!
I want to say first that I do these for the players/coaches/parents and maybe a little exposure for myself. They are free to download and do with what they want. Maybe when i retire from my day job I'll take it up a little more seriously. I know I'm no expert and learning new things every season I take these pictures. There may be better approach than what I use, but below is what i've developed into over the last three years, and I'm still finding things to change and make better. I really enjoy taking these. This ended up being longer than I thought it would be...hadn't realized i developed into using this much technique until i wrote it down.
Settings are- K-5iis shooting RAW DNG files
- DA* 200mm no uv filter...this is the first year i've shot without it and I think it has made a difference in quality and faster shutter
- Sirui monopod / leg from N-2004X tripod
- Sirui K-20x ballhead
- aperture priority usually set at 5.6 ... sometimes 8.0 if i want more DOF. by the end of 1st half i will usually be opened up to 3.5 and by end of game wide open at 2.8
- auto iso fast setting -- daytime at 200 - 21560 and evening/night time 800 - 21560. I have iso set to 1/3 stop increments.
- auto white balance
- center-weighted metering
- AFC spot auto focus tracking using single frame drive mode
- DarkTable
- Adobe Creative Cloud -- Bridge and Lightroom
I use a monopod and it helps in two ways -- preventing fatigue and holding steady. The K-5iis & 200mm isn't a real heavy outfit, but the monopod really helps. I shot without one for a season. It seems i get more keepers just adding the monopod. I should add that I do not use the battery grip when using the monopod since the extra battery isn't needed...but....If I wasn't using the monopod I would definitely have the battery grip attached for comfort. Using the monopod does make switching from landscape to portrait more inconvenient. 85% of my shots are done landscape, but I do setup for portrait for a half dozen or so each quarter. Sometimes i forget to get portrait shots though.
As the sun starts getting lower in the sky the exposure (obviously) starts to increase. When it gets to 1/500th I'll set the low end of auto iso at 800 and keep time above 1/500th as long as I can. It seems the auto iso on fast setting wants to keep it at 1/500th too. Sometimes, by the time i notice, iso will have already increased to between 800 and 3200, but time will still be at 1/500th. I opt to increase iso over opening aperture since the depth of field helps to get more action in focus. The K-5 performs well for me up to 6400 and some photos can still look decent at 12800. When it gets to 21560 though i try to be conscious of my composition to make sure there will not need to be too much cropping. This last round I had quite a few at iso 10000. Once it gets over 6400 I'll start opening the lens up to keep 6400 as long as i can.
With this 200mm lens in landscape mode I typically stay about 25-30 yards from the line of scrimmage always facing my team. Pre focus on the quarterback whether it is our team or their team and follow the ball to the action and then focus shoot when i see something. I have a pretty high keeper rate using this method -- usually only a handful of out of focus. When in portrait mode I move in a bit (maybe 10/15 yards from line of scrimmage) and usually compose just one person for each shot. I rarely rely on focus tracking and do not shoot continuous drive mode except for maybe the team running through the sign at the beginning of the game when there is plenty of light. The spray and pray technique leaves too much to the camera control. I wouldn't say it is bad, just not my style.
A couple other items in my flow. When your team is on offense and and getting near their end zone about to score I'll usually move to directly face the center quarterback and running backs. After they are in their stance i get a few of those...nice non-moving pics that a lot of folks like you can do these when it is dark. Now and then I'll get on the line of scrimmage and get some shots down the line or of the backfield. I carry the K3ii with DA* 16-50 in a holster for beginning of game, halftime and end of game shots. When i get it out i collapse the monopod and prop it under my pit and over my forearm. This is the first year I've done this and it has added another dimension to the game picture story. I think its a good addition.
Post Processing (I'm definitely not a post processing expert, still working on this each week)
For 3 years I used DarkTable on Linux Mint and it worked well, especially since there is no charge (just contributions). A few weeks ago my hard drive crashed. I thought it was time to move back to windows and start using Light Room, so i made the switch. It was fun trying to get my 12k raw files from the last 3 years off my Linux hdd recovered from a windows OS, but that is another story. I'm pleased with the performance of Light Room especially how much quicker it renders the RAW file with adjustments to jpg. I usually shoot in the neighborhood of 250 or so shots in a high school game and publish around 200. I discard out of focus, dups, blown exposure (very rare). Since these are for the players i usually try to salvage as many as I can.
High School Stadium Lights!!! Some are better than others, and some are outright atrocious. The good lighting will have the same color temp at each lamp and you will not have to adjust white balance or if you do you can make the same adjustment to all the pictures. I shot at one game where there were 4 or 5 different frequencies across the field and since the lights "flicker" they put out different frequency randomly anyway...there is no way to win this war. Two weeks ago I shot in a fairly new stadium and had very little white balance adjusting to do and the camera did well at auto white balance. The lights also provided a very well light stadium and most of my shots were iso 6400 and under. This week's game had nice even color temp, but the lighting wasn't as bright, so my iso went as high as 12800.
Anyway...that is that long/short of what I do to take football pics. I hope it helps someone. A year or so ago i reserved the domain name icansnapit.com and just recently started watermarking with ICanSnapit and haven't decided if i like that or not. I'm also open to and welcome any suggestions.
Varsity had a bye last week, so here are this weeks varsity favs. I'll mix up the middle school and varsity next week.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
09-02-2016, 07:22 PM
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Since I'm investing in DA lenses, i will definitely be apsc for a while. Not sure the buffer on the K-1 would be an issue for me. I don't employ the spray and pray in my sports photography. In football with this 200mm lens I typically stay about 30 yards from the ball always facing my team...then pre focus on the quarterback and follow the ball to the action and then focus shoot when i see something. I have a pretty high keeper rate using this method -- usually only a handful of out of focus. Most of what I discard are duplicates taken in pregame or huddle/line-up pictures. In a full game i generally get about 150 to 200 pics depending on how many plays there are. I can't imagine looking through a lot more than that during post processing. Of course having available light like in the below game is the best scenario...high school stadium lights are pretty hit/miss.
planning to post a few of my favorites each week. This week it is from my middle school son's game. He isn't in any of these, but these are my favorites from yesterday.
K5iis with DA*200...the more i use this lens, the more i like it.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
08-27-2016, 11:14 PM
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Here are my favs from Friday night's game. We lost, but the team is young and making great strides in improvement each week.
 my flickr
---------- Post added 08-28-16 at 01:19 AM ----------
Nice motocross shots Tas! That looks like a fun venue. Kinda makes me want to give the K-1 a try, but I made a decision to get a couple DA* lenses for my K5iis and K3ii, so gonna stick with those for a while.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
08-22-2016, 12:54 PM
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