Some National Youth League soccer from last weekend - Melbourne Heart v Newcastle Jet

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Here's some photos of last week's National Youth League match, Melbourne Heart 3 def Newcastle Jets 0

Thanks in advance to anybody who takes the time to CC these images - don't hold back, it's the only way I'll learn :-)

Trying to get used to incorporating Dfine and Sharpener Pro into my workflow...

Not happy with the results, tbh. Most of these shots were from fairly far away and at ISO 400-800 on my 30D. I cropped in heavily on these images, which naturally really brings up the noise and any unsharpness or slight OOF issues. From there I just can't seem to get them looking right - and I'm sure that something's happening in the transition to Flickr.

Anyway...


_MG_1923-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr
Celebrating a goal in the 1st minute of play


_MG_1963-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr


_MG_1984-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr


_MG_1985-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr


_MG_2054-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr


_MG_2052-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr

[K1W1]

There is something seriously wrong with the sharpening around the socks in #1 and #3 particularly. Its almost like you have overlaid the players onto a background. Are you applying to much sharpening?

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

I agree that it all looks kind of 'wrong'. I ran noise reduction and sharpening on these (NR with the typical softening effect on an already soft image, being a heavy crop from the original image).
Simply couldn't figure out how to get them looking right.....

Trying to find more info on how to use these programs to the best effect, the website and instruction manuals aren't particularly useful

[K1W1]

Try Youtube. there are how to videos for almost anything on Youtube.

[wacko-ocker]

in all of them the grass looks like it is over exposed,... good timing on them what was your W/B set at?

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

WB was on auto, tweaked it custom in LR - why, does the WB look off?

As for the grass, after I went through my LR tweaks the grass wound up looking almost flourescent, so I used HSL sliders to bring it back down a bit. Do you think it's still looking too light, or what?

[K1W1]

The grass looks synthetic. If it is the always shoot with the sun behind you otherwise it will totally screw your exposures even if it's cloudy.

P.S. When are you going to post the goalie shot?

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

If it is the always shoot with the sun behind you otherwise it will totally screw your exposures even if it's cloudy.

Really? How's that?

P.S. When are you going to post the goalie shot?

I've got another half dozen images from that match, I was going to have another crack at the processing and post them a bit later in the week.
In the meantime though, is this the shot you're talking about?

_MG_2183-Edit-Edit-final.jpg by CapnBloodbeard, on Flickr

[K1W1]

yes that's the one, saw it on your Flickr.
Synthetic grass is essentially plastic and it reflects any light source if you are shooting into the sun across a synthetic pitch you will always be funny colours coming at you plus reflection from any tiny bit of moisture that is trapped on or in the blades.

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

You learn something new every day, thanks :-)

[wacko-ocker]

hey that shot is excelent, balance looks good, so you have been holding out........... posting the average one's first...thats my trick

[wacko-ocker]

yes that's the one, saw it on your Flickr.
Synthetic grass is essentially plastic and it reflects any light source if you are shooting into the sun across a synthetic pitch you will always be funny colours coming at you plus reflection from any tiny bit of moisture that is trapped on or in the blades.

i was going to ask the same thing...........I don't see much synthethic here in the bush.......... we know how to grow grass

[K1W1]

i was going to ask the same thing...........I don't see much synthethic here in the bush.......... we know how to grow grass

You also probably don't have clubs with 40 teams that have to train in the same pitch and then play up to 12 games a weekend on it.