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Had another crack at the footy this afternoon. Lovely time in the sun taking photos of the curtain-raiser game, followed by a surprisingly competent display by the home team.

I continued my never-ending experimentation today - these shots are all 1/800, f/6.3, Auto ISO. Matrix metering, nearest subject AF, continuous AF. D200, 70-200VR + 1.7 TC. Shooting in JPEG (large fine), which is something I haven't done in a LONG time.

Some things I will change for next time... I will go back to shooting RAW if possible as I just don't feel you can tweak the final image in JPEG with as much to work with as RAW, especially highlights and shadows. Vital when shooting in harsh lighting conditions - bright sunshine, deep shadows, fast action. I think 1/800 is not quite fast enough, particularly with my mediocre handholding technique. Far too many blurred shots, blurry footballs etc.

I might also tweak the setting that determines how quickly the AF tracks objects moving through the scene - I got way too many spoilt shots too, where an umpire or trainer or other players drifted into the frame.

I think I'm getting better at anticipating the action, but it is still VERY fast. I am just not experienced enough to track the action a lot of the time Having the zoom helps in that regard - start out wide, then zoom and pan at the same time. I can't help but wonder if that is contributing to the high percentage of non-keepers though. Obviously if you are not zooming, the AF doesn't have to keep up as much.

The shots look pretty good at web sizes, but look a tad soft at 100%. Next time (errrr... next season!) I might try it without the TC. The extra length is nice, but I know I can get sharper shots and slightly faster AF without it. Maybe save for the 300/2.8 VR

Any thoughts? First shot is pretty much full frame, and the 2nd two are lightly cropped.





Rest of the gallery from today is here - http://losfp.smugmug.com/gallery/3405947

Great timing in all the shots, catching the players as they take the mark. They certainly look sharp enough for the web. The second and third shots would have been better if the players were facing the camera but obviously you can't control that as a spectator. The third one would be perfect front on. The rest of the gallery looks good too.

Yeah you did a great job. Haven't done sports before, and it looks very unpredictable..

Some top shots in your gallery also. Really like this one:



ISO Auto worked out good too, judging by all the EXIF.

I've also tried shooting JPG once, didn't much care for it. RAW all the way

I like the images you have there and can empathise with you on the ability to be in the right place at the right time for AFL. I'm off to Tassie in October to shoot a comp where 4 matches are played a day for 3 days spread over a week.

As the only photographer going that I'm aware of, I don't really have the luxury of shooting RAW as I just don't have the file storage capabilities.

At last year's comp, I shot almost 20,000 images for the week and that was only with 3 games a day!!!

Cheers