Baseball 08

[Master Mason]

It was a pretty popular thread last year, and once again baseball season is upon us, well at least in CA. So, show us your baseball pictures

 

[Mckymousefn]

My son's season hasn't begun, begun. They are still practicing.. they won't be starting games until April. Can't wait though!!

 

[Michele]

My DH and I run the neighborhood baseball league here. Our first sign-ups are tonight, if they don't get snowed out ( got about 3" here today)

We can't even start our season until the middle of May.

 

[Master Mason]

My DH and I run the neighborhood baseball league here.

Been there done that, this is the first year in the last 10 that I am not on the board. I spent 3 of those as the player agent.

 

[Promomx2]

These two I took last year. Still trying to figure out new camera at practices.

 

[handicap18]

Excellent thread. I really enjoyed last years.

DS starts T-Ball April 19th.

Hopefully I'll get to a Red Sox game once or twice this season. And then of course the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer. AndrewWG will be involved with that alot this year. I'm hoping to meet up with him for a few games.

 

[AndrewWG]

Unfortunately, I will not be able to post photos from the CCBL this year. As I am the photographer for the Wareham Gatemen this year, I believe that the photographs will all belong to the team and not so much to me. Oh well. That is a tradeoff for being able to be on the field, I suppose. I will be attending a couple games as a fan, so I will share those shots. How's that? Of course, this is still 10 weeks away. I just now got home from one of the winter meetings, actually.

 

[bostran1]

Last year's thread was great! Here's to a lot of great shots this summer!

 

[PoohJen]

Welcome Back, Baseball Fans!

Our 11U season opened last weekend with a double header (3 way). Beautiful day for pictures...er...baseball! We won both games, off to a great start!

Unfortunately, looks like we'll be rained out this weekend...still holding out hope...

Good luck this season, Everyone!

 

[Merrywheather]

Can anyone share any shooting tips for getting good quality baseball photos? This will be my first baseball season with a DSLR, and I would appreciate any hints, tips, or suggestions...Our season starts in 2 weeks already !

 

[Mckymousefn]

Can anyone share any shooting tips for getting good quality baseball photos? This will be my first baseball season with a DSLR, and I would appreciate any hints, tips, or suggestions...Our season starts in 2 weeks already !

Since this past summer was my first summer with a DSLR also... most of the time i set it to sports mode... and i have to say i got some cool shots. Just have to be down and ready to snap at any moment!

 

[PoohJen]

Hi Merryweather,

I too get great shots on sports mode with my Rebel XT. Here's my amateur's advice:

1. I move around alot to get the shots; both to optimize location depending on the play (or player/position) I want to get and also to get differing perspectives.

For instance, our team was on the first base side last weekend. I walked around to the third base side to get better pics of the pitchers and the action from 1st to 2d base, steals at 3d, plays in left field. (don't know about your league, but walking around to the other team's side almost feels like trespassing here! But, it also gives me an opportunity to extend a friendly smile to the other side. oops, whole other issue there, never mind! )

- don't be afraid to get dirty. I'm not opposed to laying on the ground to get a great base sliding shot!


2. Anticipate plays. I know when our team is going to steal second. I hope I'm not giving anything away to the other side when I train my camera on 2d base, before the play even happens!

- even if you don't know what's going to happen, have the camera ready. If there's a runner on base, be ready to catch the play at the NEXT base.

3. Take candid shots too (as opposed to action shots!). I have great shots of my son's team in the dugout, cheering teammates, coach's pep talk, etc.

4. Take LOTS of shots. and then LOTS more.

5. If your camera can take several shots in a row, take advantage of that. Works great with pitching, shagging fly balls, etc.

6. I primarily use my zoom lens (75-300), but I use a wide range of that, er, range. In other words, sometimes you want the wider shot to get the whole play in the picture.


7. Try a monopod. This has helped to steady some of my action shots. On the other hand, sometimes you need to be able to move more deftly/quickly and so want to hand hold. Like when you are getting down in the dirt for pick off at first!

8. HAVE FUN!!! I already love going to my son's ball games, but now photographing those games has really added to my enjoyment!

 

[Master Mason]

I'll add a few.
1. Make sure your shutter speed is fast enough, it needs to be at least 1/125 and preferably faster sto stop the action, otherwise your going to get motion blur. Up the ISO or open the apetuere accordingly.

2. If you have a wide apeture lens, you can stand behind the screen and open the apetuer and just shoot though it, the picture will be slightly softer, but won't show up. See the picture of the pitcher above to see what I mean.

3. Find their faces, if you want good shots of the batters, go to the 1st base side for right handers and the 3rd base side for left handers.

4. Find the ball. If you can capture the ball in your photos, they become a lot more interesting especially batting shots.

5. Shot a little wider than you think, and then crop them afterwards. (And do crop them this makes all the difference in the world)

6. This is the hardest one. Don't be a fan. I can shoot good shots of random teams all day long, but the minute my kids team has a a close play or something, I am watching the action instead of shooting. I miss a lot of good shots that way.

7. Find different shots, take one of the kid sitting on 2nd during a pitching chage, talking to the coach, warming up the outfielder, etc.

8. Take a ton of shots and toss the bad ones.

 

[PoohJen]

I'll add a few.
6. This is the hardest one. Don't be a fan. I can shoot good shots of random teams all day long, but the minute my kids team has a a close play or something, I am watching the action instead of shooting. I miss a lot of good shots that way.

Yup. I was going to warn her that I miss "seeing" lots of great plays because I'm busy taking the picture - but at least I got it on "film"!

 

[Mckymousefn]

Could someone tell me how to go about posting a picture? I have never done it on here before and i would like to share some as well.

 

[Master Mason]

Could someone tell me how to go about posting a picture? I have never done it on here before and i would like to share some as well.

First you need your photo's online somewhere, there are free services such as photobucket, or paid services such as smugmug. Once your photos are online somewhere you simply get the url of the photo from your hosting site and then put it here as follows

[img ]http://yourphotohere.com[ /img] Removing the spaces I put in the brackets so it would show up.

 

[Merrywheather]

Wow! Thanks PoohJen and Master Mason. This is extremely helpful information...exactly what I was looking for!

Do you shoot in RAW or JPEG? I think the sports mode for my Rebel XTi shoots in JPEG. Is there an advantage to using one over the other for photographing sports?

Hopefully I'll get some keepers to post to this thread once the season starts!

 

[Master Mason]

Wow! Thanks PoohJen and Master Mason. This is extremely helpful information...exactly what I was looking for!

Do you shoot in RAW or JPEG? I think the sports mode for my Rebel XTi shoots in JPEG. Is there an advantage to using one over the other for photographing sports?

Hopefully I'll get some keepers to post to this thread once the season starts!

You are correct, any of the preset modes on the xt will only shoot in Jpeg. I shoot in Raw, mostly in AV mode.

The advantages of shooting RAW are the same in sports and in any other subject, it allows you to fix something you might have done wrong easier, because there is more information to draw from. The draw backs are also the same, you have to process all your shots if you shoot in RAW.

 

[PoohJen]

Greg,
what settings would you use for outdoor baseball action shots in AV mode?

I only shoot action shots in manual mode when I'm indoors and can't use flash (like basketball or musical); which never come out ideally for me (color, blur).

 

[Master Mason]

Greg,
what settings would you use for outdoor baseball action shots in AV mode?

I only shoot action shots in manual mode when I'm indoors and can't use flash (like basketball or musical); which never come out ideally for me (color, blur).

I tend to shoot wide open at f/2.8, I then adjust the ISO to make sure that the shutter speed stays fast enough. On a bright sunny day it is at ISO 100, as it gets darker in the evening the ISO goes up. I like to shoot at speeds faster than 1/250, if I get below that I'll get fuzzy hands on pitchers and bats etc.

Plus the advantage of the wide open apeture is I can shoot right through the backstops without getting the screen.