From a photography point of view this had multiple challenges to tackle and would like to first give a small analysis on those before getting to the action shots. I will go over two of the main ones in a bit of detail.
First and foremost challenge was with light. Light is a key element in photography and due to the late in the evening time of the game, it proved to be a bit of a tricky situation. The amount of light was changing continuously and adjusting the exposure during a game filled with action was difficult. Then again the color cast/temperature of the light was also changing. At the beginning of the first half, it was completely golden daylight and by the start of the second half, it was completely artificial light with a blue cast. So, the mixture of light is something to look out for as auto white balancing (which I don't trust) can not keep up with it. You can always correct for white balance as post processing, but I personally do prefer to get it right (or close) in the camera itself. This approach specially pays dividend when shooting such an event where you are gonna create dozens if not more exposures.
Apart from framing the shots, the next major challenge is in focusing. All the players were constantly in motion and therefore it was a job for focus tracking. But yet again with fading light, autofocus mechanism would spend more time focus hunting back and forward rather than tracking anything in the scene. Therefore, for this shoot, I decided to go full manual in both camera settings and focus to obtain a higher percentage of usable shots. Using manual focus also helps as you can be a step ahead of the play by using your intuition to predict where the ball is gonna go. Easier said than done of course, and personally I do believe I need more training on the technique.
As for composition, most shots were action/fast moving shots, so would have a main subject and few surrounding him (attacking the ball). Having the soccer ball in the shots help to guide the viewer and make it easy to enjoy the picture... Also some complementary details can also help. For an example, a part of a goal post would aid in a shot of a goal keeper.. or a referee watching something keenly can imply a foul just about to happen etc...
All in all, an amazing experience and would like to say "Go Engineering United!" .. And would also bring you some more games in the future.
Here are some of the interesting shots... (More will be provided to team members in due time via e-mail)
Lets start off with the blue team...
Stretching up for the game.
Its pep talk time...
In action..
Sequence shots always work with action.
Undying emotional support.
Waiting for action to come his way...
Bringing out the tricks...
Kicking it hard and long.
Call it as he sees it.
No point protesting..
Its hand shakes all around in the end.
Hope you like it. Comments are welcomed and pics are copyrighted.
Thank you!
Akila Mike.
Thank you Akila...The shots are amazing!!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. Glad you liked them.
Delete