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Took these at two of my housemates' soccer game. This is the first time I've tried any photography like this.

All with my 70-300 ED.



















And some Gallah's did a fly by:




Comments appreciated.

Nick, I have noticed no one has given you any feedback on these shots and I hate that so here goes.....Although most are good captures, they all seem over saturated in colour and are lacking sharpness. I'm not sure how you posted these but think that the posting may be the problem...?

Hi Nick,

The soccer pics are pretty good for your first attempt. The bird shots are interesting, especially the 2nd one.

marcus wrote:Nick, I have noticed no one has given you any feedback on these shots and I hate that so here goes.....Although most are good captures, they all seem over saturated in colour and are lacking sharpness. I'm not sure how you posted these but think that the posting may be the problem...?

I agree actually.

When I PP'd them, it was with tired eyes, and I overdid the white balance (warmed them up too much) and applied some saturation, and they've come out quite over the top.

The images arn't dead sharp to start with, but they seem to have suffered a lot from the JPG conversion process / posting.

I'll post some ones with the saturation fixed a bit up tonight.

Saturation reduced:

I didn't mind the first set that much. What camera settings did you use?

Great first attempt.......can only get better

PiroStitch wrote:I didn't mind the first set that much. What camera settings did you use?

From memory:
Aperture priority, usually at about F7.1
Continuous shooting
AF-C

Edit: Just had a thought: I'd better try without the UV filter I got with the lens to see if it's introducing some softness - I've not shot with it off.

Hi Nick
I think the reduced saturation has improved your images.

I quite often remove any filter from the front of the lens to maximise chances of better shots. Nowadays I tend to use filters only when looking for some effect, eg CPF to enhance sky to reduce reflections.

Looking at the shadows, the sun was reasonably low - early am or late pm. I am wondering whether an aperture of 7.1 may have produced a low shutter speed, resulting in the softness you have noticed. You probably need to make sure the shutter speed is at least 1/300 (I'd be looking at at least 1/500 for stopping action) with this lens.

As a general rule with actions shots, I try to select camera angles which will highlight the subject and remove distracting backgrounds like fences and trees etc. The last three shots have done this well. A wider aperture will produce a shallower depth of field (and a faster shutter speed), which will also help isolate the subject.

Good first attempt - keep shooting!

Thanks for the tips Trevor.

I found it's important to keep checking aperture and shutter speed, as when I had it at 7.1 I was getting 1/500 to 1/800, but I actually accidently bumped aperture up to F10 after those bird photos, resulting in 1/250 or 1/300 shutter speeds for a while.