S.League - Home Utd v Albirex Niigata (22 Jun 2005)

[flash77]

First attempt shooting football. Comments/critics most welcome. :embrass:
Home United FC lost the game 0-3 to Albirex Niigata FC.

Jun Inagaki (right, in white and blue) of Albirex Niigata toe-pokes the ball away from Home United's Azhar Baksin.

Home United's Aide Iskandar out-jumps Norikazu Murakami of Albirex Niigata (left, in white and blue) to win the header.

S Subramani of Home United (in red) beats Issey Farran of Albirex to the header, as Anuruck Srikerd prepares to take the loose ball.

 

[szekiat]

i'd pick the 2nd shot as a winner of the lot.

 

[Jed]

The third one is weak, the other two are good.

 

[flash77]

Finally able to attract getting comments from the two of you. :bsmilie:

i'd pick the 2nd shot as a winner of the lot.

The 2nd shot was my favourite too, but I feel that Aide's face is under partial shadow from the ball, some people might fail it.

The third one is weak, the other two are good.

Jed, thanks for the comment.
Yeah, for the third one thought I can get by with a better caption, guess it doesn't pass the quality control as a good action shot.
Will try to shoot/post photos where faces of the players involved in the action can be seen. :embrass:

 

[Smurfie]

Maiden attempt at soccer, you say? Liar!
Okay, just kidding, really.

Your 2nd shot fills me with a lot of envy. I doubt I have more than a handful of such shots taken in my entire life.

On your 3rd shot, I would say "depends". It is not always a rule to capture the front of the face always. You can get away with side face shots, if the context serves it. In this case, it doesn't, so the shot does not really work in this manner. However, go 180 degrees behind, and this might have been an excellent shot, despite having Issey's side view.

By the way, some people like captioning, some don't. I believe the best photos tells its own caption.

 

[flash77]

Maiden attempt at soccer, you say? Liar!
Okay, just kidding, really.

Well, no joke, maiden attempt @ soccer shot, this is my 5th month into photography. Brought along a monopod (as seen on how they do on tv), but end up still use handheld to shoot with my 70-200mm.

On your 3rd shot, I would say "depends". It is not always a rule to capture the front of the face always. You can get away with side face shots, if the context serves it. In this case, it doesn't, so the shot does not really work in this manner. However, go 180 degrees behind, and this might have been an excellent shot, despite having Issey's side view.

My pre-focus point was wrong to say the least. How I hope the keeper would have kicked the ball 1 meter more, then I should get a better focus shot.

By the way, some people like captioning, some don't. I believe the best photos tells its own caption.

Yeah, some people don't like super wordy caption. Am trying to practice my captioning so that in afew years time after I sort out how to shoot better,can try to attempt to get myself accepted in sportsshooter.com. :embrass:

 

[Jed]

Actually I do have problems with the shadow on the face, otherwise I would have said that would have been a very good shot. The shadow slightly lets the shot down but as it stands I still feel it's a good image.

 

[flash77]

Actually I do have problems with the shadow on the face, otherwise I would have said that would have been a very good shot. The shadow slightly lets the shot down but as it stands I still feel it's a good image.

Thanks Jed. Am still practicing to get the right timing, as well as to understand when to actually trigger the shutter release on my D70 to catch the action I really want. The 3fps always missed the in-between shots, this photo is one which I took with single shot and got the right action.

Will keep trying for the 3 more upcoming matches I've chance to shoot, and hope that you can still provide me with your comments. :thumbsup:

 

[Jed]

Thanks Jed. Am still practicing to get the right timing, as well as to understand when to actually trigger the shutter release on my D70 to catch the action I really want. The 3fps always missed the in-between shots, this photo is one which I took with single shot and got the right action.

Will keep trying for the 3 more upcoming matches I've chance to shoot, and hope that you can still provide me with your comments. :thumbsup:

It's nice when people are able to take things constructively, and also nice when you can look at a picture and give nice comments, cause obviously nobody likes negative feedback even though it might be good in the long run.

This fps thing is often talked about. I shot about two seasons with a 3fps D1x as my main camera. From the D1 to the D1x, the main loss was not the 4.5fps to 3fps change, it was the slower shutter lag, a difference of about 20ms, but noticeable if you do shoot sport. The D2h after that was a revelation. 8fps is properly fast, and the shutter lag went back down to D1 standards, and marginally faster. Shooting the D1x side by side with that was no contest, and I only did it for about a month or two before I made sure I had two D2h bodies.

I've had them for a year and a half now, and today I tried to use a D2x. Oh what a nightmare. I don't like the shutter response, even though on paper they report the same timing, it's different. I've spent four days with two D2hs blasting Wimbledon and getting my timings with that, and then trying to work with the D2x today was, in all honesty, probably a mistake. And yes, the 8fps crop felt very different too. No doubt I will get used to it in time, but 5fps is miles away from 8fps (and I've said this for a long time, back to the days of 4.3fps F90x and the 8fps F5 - Fxx cameras? What are they!). And the focusing is different too.

Bottom line is, the first shot timing is crucial, even for 8fps cameras. You'll be surprised how often in football the ball's miles away from the head in the first shot, and miles away from the head in the second shot, with no frame in between. Same thing with tennis, unless you're shooting head on and the ball is headed in your direction; if not, even at 8fps, the ball's in the frame one shot and gone by the next, assuming you don't have two frames with no ball in them - very doable.

Remember as say a speed of 1/500 of a second, at 8fps, you only cover 8/500 of that second, or only about 1/62.5 of a second. That's 61.5/62.5 of that second you DON'T record. Sobering thought.

Just nail your first exposure, and away you go.