First time shooting rugby.

[Barks]

As anyone who knows me on here will know, I'm usually on the pitch this time of year but I knackered my hand a few weeks ago, nothing too serious but when i've got so little grip strength in my right hand i'm dropping tins of beans i'm a couple of weeks away from throwing 18 stone second rows around so I thought i'd head along with my camera and have a crack at photographing the games. Too mahy people pitchside on the main pitch for the colts game so i headed up to the other game, Northampton BBOB 4th's V Huntingdon 3rd's (i think it was their 3rd's anyway).

Here's the better ones, all can be seen on flickr, as always C&C welcomed.


BBOB v Huntingdon 7_1 by saintsman_barks, on Flickr


BBOB v Huntingdon 16 by saintsman_barks, on Flickr


BBOB v Huntingdon 27 by saintsman_barks, on Flickr


BBOB v Huntingdon 45 by saintsman_barks, on Flickr


BBOB v Huntingdon 47 by saintsman_barks, on Flickr


BBOB v Huntingdon 49 by saintsman_barks, on Flickr

 

[rampanthamster]

not too bad, but 2 things that strike me about them is that most of them have feet cut off where they shouldn't have (1, 2, 3 and 6), and that they're a bit soft...possibly due to not having quite a fast enough shutter speed.

 

[Barks]

Thanks Rowan, I agree with you on both points.

The lens i'm using is generally a bit soft at the longer lengths anyway (ef-s 55-250 f4-5.6 IS) and what had been a really sunny day clouded over about 20 minutes before kick off. Most of those pics are taken at ISO800 to get 1/250 - 1/320sec and I didn't want to go higher than that cos in my opinion ISO1600 looks terrible on my camera. Looking at the RWC2011 photostream on flickr there's some needle sharp shots on there using 1/4000sec or similar but I think we'd need to play on the surface of the sun to get that out of my current kit.

 

[PSheffield]

Not too bad for a first attempt,I am sure the more you do it the better they will get.
the first time I did rugby the pictures were terrible but after a while you get to know the sport and where the action is likey to happen.Having the ball in the frame is a must.
I have done three matches this season and they seem to get better every time
you can see them here http://www.psd-images.co.uk/gallery/index.php/Sport/Rugby

one of the golden rules about sports photography is "know your sport"

 

[Photodiva]

Hi Paul. I'd say 1/320 is way to slow, you need at least 1/500 or faster. Up the ISO, Better a sharp shot with noise than a blurry one without. I've found rugby quite hard to get good shots of, usually ends up loads of backsides! You've probably discovered that spectating a match is not the same as trying to photo it.

 

[Velocity Studio]

Im with Rampanthampster (not like that!) on the cropping. For me its too tight. You need to keep the feet in, especially on shots like the one where the player is kicking the ball.

With it being a physical sport I think its important to show the entire player on 1, 2, 3 and 6. Its the entire body position, how the player is grounded or not etc that give the true feeling of the action.

This isnt the case for every shot you take of sports, sometime there is enough story in the face or part of the body but in these examples I think you lose something.

I also agree with the sharpness issue. I would accept noise over softness any day. If you are a touch slow and just need a bit more you can always underexpose (a little bit so you dont lose data) and then brighten a little in post production.

Hope this helps. It does take a lot of practise getting sports photography right so keep at it!

 

[Barks]

Hi Paul. I'd say 1/320 is way to slow, you need at least 1/500 or faster. Up the ISO, Better a sharp shot with noise than a blurry one without. I've found rugby quite hard to get good shots of, usually ends up loads of backsides! You've probably discovered that spectating a match is not the same as trying to photo it.

Playing is much better than both

But photographing it is much better/easier than purely spectating, i'm the kind of spectator who tends to make every tackle and hit every ruck, and that's just watching it on the TV let alone in person.

One of my first thoughts actually was that photographing tennis or darts must be much easier than rugby, you don't have all those other bodies getting inbetween you and the action all the time lol.

I've played the game for 20 years or more so i didn't find getting shots of people's faces/players "head on" too hard, once i'd engaged my brain and actually started thinking about what i was doing and trying to capture anyway.

As for the shutter speed, i now know (and knew as soon as i saw the photos on a big screen in all honesty) that 1/320 isn't fast enough and i'll take onboard your commenst about noise v sharpness, thanks for your input

 

[Barks]

Im with Rampanthampster (not like that!) on the cropping. For me its too tight. You need to keep the feet in, especially on shots like the one where the player is kicking the ball.

With it being a physical sport I think its important to show the entire player on 1, 2, 3 and 6. Its the entire body position, how the player is grounded or not etc that give the true feeling of the action.

This isnt the case for every shot you take of sports, sometime there is enough story in the face or part of the body but in these examples I think you lose something.

I also agree with the sharpness issue. I would accept noise over softness any day. If you are a touch slow and just need a bit more you can always underexpose (a little bit so you dont lose data) and then brighten a little in post production.

Hope this helps. It does take a lot of practise getting sports photography right so keep at it!

Thanks for the advice Marc and/or Nicola

I know what you mean. In photo #4 in my OP what I tried and failed to capture is what I knew was coming, which was the player throwing a dummy pass to his right and then stepping left at the same time (hope that makes sense) but thanks to the 1.4fps of my humble eos 1000D and my poor timing I got just before and just after what I was trying to capture which was the "magic moment" of player going one way with ball/dummy pass going out the other, in an even more ideal world i'd have been head on to the action not side on too. Had i captured what I was aiming for then i'd be more than happy with this close-up crop. Even though i missed the ideal capture I still thought it was one of my better shots from the day though.