Don't Know What To Do?!

[Gas Man]

Yea but when the image is alittle larger or at it's original size it's quite blurry & not sharp.

[Gas Man]

Heres some more...

[kiwi]

its hard to give specific advice re sharpening as it's very software specific. I do apply sharpening to every shot I post to the web, to a lesser extent when printing

[Prang]

The Jpegs you are showing are very small less than 100kb.

Do you use RAW? If you keep editing Jpegs they degrade, but raw files keep the info and you can edit and produce large Jpegs of them.

[etherial]

Hi I think your images are quite good, and now I think I understand where you are coming from. You are looking for that competition winner, the shots that everyone says 'wow'! Am I right? They take a lot of time and experience to produce (I hope I produce one one day!) I think all you need is time and practice and you'll start seeing improvements.

Posting on here really helps as people will suggest ideas that could make the shots work better. Also getting along to meets if you can helps, you start to get a feel for what different people do with the same subject, really starts to get you thinking.

I'm certainly no expert on this, but I think these shots are a little plain, and lack some sort of context. It would add more interest to see something else in shot to show the competitiveness, something like the keeper, or the bowler in follow through. They could well be out of focus but might just add that competitive interest and tell a bit more of a story. Just an idea.

[ricktas]

Agree with the above, the photos presented are quite good and there is some great advice from members. Take the advice on board and learn from it, and use it next time you go out shooting.

Kiwi, especially has given you some great replies. One thing I noticed is that looking at the histograms for some of these, they could do with a Levels adjustment. This has the effect of giving you nice deep blacks and a good range of tones across your photo. Check out the Levels tutorial here, and it is amazing what a 20 second levels adjustment can achieve to the overall impact of a photo

[Gas Man]

Yea I do shoot in RAW, I have the mode on RAW & JPeg, I keep the RAW images & change/edit them when I'm happy with the edited image on the JPeg images that I test/experiment on.

I might start testing/editing the RAW images & see what I can come up with.

[kiwi]

Just be very subtle with any pp work, it's very easy to overdo it, too much contrast, over sharpened etc

As Rick said look at simply levels first, just squeeze each end in but be aware that it's quite ok that you sometimes blow bits of the uniform- it's the face that you want to expose for.

[kiwi]

Oh, re raw, seriously don't worry about that, if you are doing 100s of shots you aren't going to be worrying too much about fiddling with each one. Sounds glib but I only shoot raw where THE photo matters.

[Prang]

Oh, re raw, seriously don't worry about that, if you are doing 100s of shots you aren't going to be worrying too much about fiddling with each one. Sounds glib but I only shoot raw where THE photo matters.

You only use raw when the balls going to hit the wicket lol.

Shooting raw and Jpeg like you are is great as if you get a real ripper you have a lot more adjustment, but if you dont it is very hard to go back and capture that real ripper.

[MrJorge]

Some good advice in here. I too think you're on the right track with the cropping. Certainly better than your originals IMO. But agree with Darren that the 2nd recrop was perhaps a bit tight on the sides.

I also think I agree with Darren that the side on view probably won't have as much impact as say a front on view when taking shots of batsmen and bowlers. Obviously for bowlers best angle is probably from behind the keeper looking at their face.

Faces and expressions are really important to getting an emotive response from the viewer.

With the last two you've put they're more front on which is good. I'd probably still go more front on and would crop these tighter as well.

Your attempts are a ripper start mate. They seem pretty well focused, some good timing with the action and DOF looks ok. I wouldn't be too upset with these.

Levels adjustments definately look to be in order. And a pass of sharpening probably won't hurt.

I can't see your EXIF data but what mode are you shooting in? Probably best to stick with Av mode and dial in a suitable aperture. If you find shutter speeds are a bit slow you'll have to up the ISO.

Are you using a selected AF point or letting the camera decide? I'd suggest force selected the centre point and go from there. Also are you using AI Servo focus mode? If not whack that on as it'll help track focus if things move in your frame which will help you maintain good focus.

I'd also suggest continuous shooting mode if you're not using it already.

I think you've made a very good start here mate. I wouldn't be too upset. And sorry if you're already doing the things I've suggested and I'm telling you how to suck eggs but without the EXIF and a bit more info on what settings you've tried/used it's a bit hard to give specific advice.

[Gas Man]

Yea I'm shooting in M (Manual) mode, I have the following settings on Al Servo, Centre Focus & am using it on continous shooting also.