C&C On Some Little League Shots

<span style="color: #000000;"]<span style="color: #000000;"]<span style="color: #000000;"]It's
that time of year again, and I had the opportunity to shoot the same
little league baseball team as last year. This was their Ohio state
tournament and they actually ended up winning the whole thing. For the
hundreds of shots I took during the weekend's games, I took just as many
of the celebration after the championship game. Here were some of my
favorites, all taken with an XSi wearing a 70-200 f4, ISO 100-200. All were cropped and tweaked in Photoshop.



[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlriii13/4740374971/in/set-72157623450221106/]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/...47c7b803_b.jpg[/url]


[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlriii13/4740414031/in/set-72157623450221106/]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/...692075f0_b.jpg[/url]


[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlriii13/4741058950/in/set-72157623450221106/]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4121/...938a789e_b.jpg[/url]


[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlriii13/4741063044/in/set-72157623450221106/]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/...f48f96c7_b.jpg[/url]


[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlriii13/4740437951/in/set-72157623450221106]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/...f8d592dd_b.jpg[/url]


<span style="color: #000000;"]<span style="color: #000000;"]<span style="color: #000000;"]I was
quite pleased with my efforts, especially considering where I had to
shoot. The entire field was surrounded by fencing that was at least 5
feet tall. The only gap in the fence was between the doors of a chain
link gate, which was latched closed. It was about 8 inches of space. I
spent much of my time following the action in the viewfinder only to be
stopped by my lens hitting the fence. Fortunately I was still able to
give all the parents about a dozen shots of their kid.



Lesson Learned: Shoot less images. I'm still feeling out how to
get shots of everything I want during a game, and so I tend to
overshoot. The time spent sifting through the excess shots is daunting.
Efficient shooting equals more efficient editing. That's my goal for
next time. What else should I work on?

Don't worry about shooting too many shots. Take some time to pick a better software tool to help you pick. Picasa offers a great "star" tool that can get you going. BreezeBrowserPro offers a great tool for ranking 1-5, for a modest price. Lightroom (and I believe) Aperture offer all that and lots more in a nice cohesive package for $275-300.


My other suggestion would be simple: get down. Get yourself and your camera down lower - it'll change the background (almost always for the better), and it'll cause the background people to look shorter than your main subject, helping the subject look "important" in the composition. Check Bryan's review pages for the Walkstool, or just bring a folding chair of some form. In shots 2 and 3, think about what would change if you got lower. In shot 4, you'd keep at least the bottom of the fence from going right through head and shoulders.

Thanks peety! Getting lower is a good suggestion that I'll try out.
Although I didn't mention it in the first post, I was shooting on a
monopod, so all I'll need to do is set that up at a lower height.


Also,
I use Bridge to sort through files, but I still feel like I spent too
long just selecting the best shots. There were just a lot to go
through.

Those shots are quite nice. Getting the ball in the frame is always a biggie and you succeeded!


Regarding to the amount of pictures to take: I'm quite a conservative shooter myself. I tend to tryto get things right the first time and move on. When a do a photowalk with my photography friends I'm always the one who shot the least amount of frames. You say you tend to overshoot; why don't you like those pictures? Is it the composition, focus, exposure etc? If you see a common trend, work on that.


I second peety's suggestion of trying some photo workflow program. I use Aperture myself, but any program which gives you some option of sorting or rating will work. I believe there was a thread regarding this a few months back. Personally, I first get rid of the pictures which are OOF or have a bad exposure, next, I tend to rate from 3 to 5 stars (3 = slideshow if applicable, 4 = above average, 5 = Flickr-worthy). Finally I red flag pictures which need some hardcore editing in Photoshop and flag them green when done.


After each phase, all pictures can be found in a 3, 4 and 5 star folder, so I can fully concentrate on those and prioritize.


Jo&euml;l