Shooting Major League Baseball
Yesterday I flew up to Atlanta for the day to shoot the Atlanta Braves vs. the Washington Nationals at Turner Field. Despite the sweltering heat (and the Braves loss), I had a blast shooting, and hanging out with Braves team photographer Paul Abell.
I didn’t really have time to go through all the shots, since my flight got home last night, but here are a few that caught my eye upon import in Lightroom (the shot of me above was taken by Paul with my iPhone). Click on any photo to see a larger view—I think they look much better larger, too)
I also didn’t have much time to really do anything to these except sharpen them and tweak the exposure a bit.
I was shooting my Nikon D3, with a 200-400 f/4 VR lens, mounted on a Gitzo monopod. I shot wide open at f/4 most of the day in Aperture Priority mode. I wanted to keep my shutter speed around 1250 to 1600 of a second (to freeze the action), so I had my ISO set between 200 and 320 most of the day, based on the light at the time. Most of the shots were taken from the 1st base dugout, 3rd base dugout, and behind home plate. Later in the day I went up to the first deck to set a few shots shooting down, but most were taken from field level.
Two interesting things to note:
- What a difference a year makes: The Nikons outnumbered the Canons (only by one, mind you, but come on—that’s sayin’ something).
- Turner Field recently instituted a policy which a lot of ballparks have started to enforce and that is they no longer allow fans to bring in pro cameras with lenses longer than 5″. Apparently, some fans were literally coming to game with 400mm and 600mm lenses; shooting the game from the stands, and then selling the images cheap online, so the ballparks have started cracking down across the Major League.
Thanks to Paul, and everyone at the Braves for a really great day !
You were here in Hotlanta! We haven’t made it to a game this season, and boy was it hot yesterday. I don’t see how the players handle it in long pants, shirts, and socks. Whew!
The pictures are beautiful and the colors so vivid. The red jerseys photograph well.
I love that second shot - looks like you could just reach out and grab the ball.
Scott - Thank you so much for being so generous with your knowledge and your time and for being a mentor to so many of us.
Kendy - you can right-click (CTRL-click on a Mac) on the Lightroom Folder that contains the “misplaced” pictures, and click on “Locate Missing Folder”. Next time, try moving your pictures from one drive to another within Lightroom: just drag and drop your Lightroom folders.
Chad - your shutter speed might be too high. Set it to 1/60sec and see if that solves the problem. Scott’s friend David Hobby has a bog about flash photography that you might like: http://strobist.blogspot.com.
It’s a shame that ball parks are becoming so strict on photography rules. Althought there are those out there that use it for profit there are many who enjoy the hobby. Baseball franchises are not exactly hurting for capital so surely they can afford to miss out on some of the money being made by ‘non-official’ photos.
Hey scott , your photos are great,
I read your blog everyday, your are such a inspiration
I am a photography student at college, and I learn so much from you
take care,
and have a great day,
ps : I love the photoshop guys
Just another question about those great shots and it’s about focus: how did you get those crisp images ?
Did you let the autofocus of the camera do the job ?
Do you set the focus to were the player is supposed to be ?
Tell me (us) more about this… (and thanks again for sharing and for this great blog).
Amazing photos Scott, love them. And I sure love that monstrous lens…i wish to have one of those soon.
Scott I’d like you to give me the best and the most accurate way in your opinion to remove colour casts in photos. I have tried several and I’m still not satisfied with the results. Could you please share with me a magic trick of yours on removing heavy colour casts?
Thanks
wow great photos., I also photographing some baseball games too, but in my case, it´s on night, so, what do you think ( anyone can answer) the best aperture and shutter speed for that scenario , my lens is tamron 70-200mm 2.8 for canon 10D, I´m working on manual mode.
Other thing, how much it´s a baseball game ticket, i mean, it is cheap?.
Saludos desde Baja California México.
Did you resize the images before posting to your blog? I’ve been experimenting of what’s the optimal size to display the best quality images on the web and have them look as good as they do in print. My galleries get resized for me with the website companies I currently use so I don’t have much control for now, so I’d like to optimize the look of the images without giving into sluggish viewing for my clients.
Thanks Scott
Hi Scott! Wow, you got some really great shots there! I’m also happy to hear that there were just as many Nikon cameras there as Canon. Keep up the excellent work! BRAD
Hi Scott,
Nice job on the blog post and the photos.
I guess you noticed how hard baseball can be to photograph. It’s tough to be in the right spot, get focused and react to the action and you have problems with the players or umpires getting in your way. A lot of runs can score without much really great action.
It’s nice you got the feel of Sunday baseball. Three hours in a sweltering hot photo well can be tough. You didn’t look that cool in the photo. It’s not like you get to run up in the stands and get cold beer like the fans watching the game. Night baseball is easier if you have the right gear. Your fine, you’ve got the D3.
It always funny to me to hear about all the restrictions on fan shooting pics. I can’t really imagine anyone really coming up with any good pics from the stands. You would really need some serious glass.
To show how much it’s changed, when I was in high school I used to go to Lakers games and they would let you sit on the floor if you had a camera. Nobody bothered you. Things have really changed. OK, that was a few years ago. OK, it might have been 35 years ago and Wilt Chamberlain was playing for the Lakers. Used to be the same at concerts.
It’s really too bad for the fans because they support the teams and pay the high ticket prices. It would be nice if they could bring back a few photos from the games.
Keep up the great work.
Robert
So once again it’s a few pinheads that mess it up for the legitimate folks. I think the photos Scott shot were awesome and it’s unfortunate now that the average sports fan that wants to shoot photos at a Brave’s for their own enjoyment won’t be able to. Several have mentioned that they don’t see what the big deal is about making a couple of bucks on a few decent shots but it’s really much more than that. What about the guy who takes a good quality shot of someone like Chipper Jones and works in conjunction with a really good forger to create a counterfeit autographed image? He stands to make thousands and may never be caught. Once again it’s the fans that suffer. It’s not like these sleazeoids wear a sign letting us know who they are (if they did we could beat the snot out of them) so we all get lumped together in the same pot. Too bad.
Great photo’s Scott. You definitely captured the essence of the game. Not bad for Brave’s photos. Being a St. Louis native I’m a Cardinal fan myself …
Dennis
I guess it will be just a matter of time when photographers no matter at what level will no longer be able to take there Camera gear out of there homes, maybe it will come down to you have to get a FBI Check to be able just buy a Camera and then congressional approval to use it in our own homes.
America the FREE Land of Liberty, give me a break.
Scott-
Hot pix! Almost makes me want to be sports photographer…
So, did you shoot continuous mode to catch the ball at the perfect moment or do you have the reflexes of a cat?
Awesome Shots Scott!!!
Good to hear that Nikon are making their presence felt at sporting events now, and it’s interesting what you wrote about the 5″ rule on lenses. Can’t say I’ve heard that here in the UK yet.
Keep up the great work,
All the best to you and yours,
Glyn
Scott,
Very nice stuff here. Can’t wait to see what else you find once you dig through everything. Thanks for the details about your settings during the shoot. I find this info very helpful and interesting.
Oh and another Canon vs. Nikon comment. I’m still sticking with Canon!
Miguel thanks man. I will try and let you know email me so I can let you know the results chad at sobitartphotography dot com
Hey Scott,
Great Great shots, all of them are sharp and nicely taken. Oannot wait to see what you have for us next.
I keep hearing the Canon vs. Nikon comment, but what’s the real difference between them can someone enlighten me??
Thanks Scott
Eugene from Singapore
The best sport shots I’ve ever see ! They are simply stunning!
Scott,
did you use your seven-points method here?
Regards,
Alfredo
I’ll second Janine Smith’s post - I struggle w/ the same issue in Lightroom - its great that Lightroom backs up photos to an external drive during download from the card, but frustrating that it doesn’t keep track of those backup images. Maybe we’re asking too much, but sure would be nice. Would creating a 2nd catalog pointing to the images on the backup drive work?
Great photos, by the way - I’m envious!
Timely comment Scott!
I was at the Seattle Cleveland game this past weekend.and had my 100-400 out and was shooting from the stands. The usher came down and asked me what size lens I was using. I told her and she pulled out this rule book of some sort and it said lens longer than 100-200 were not permitted. I told a white lie and said “yes…that’s what this is”. She then asked if the shots were for personal use.
This was the first time there was an issue but it looks like time are changing.
And by the way….I am not selling shots, just trying to improve my skills. Wish mine were as sharp as yous Scotts.
Nice photos, Scott. Did you have a chance to do any wide-angle shots of Turner Field? (by chance, here’’s one of my favourite shots of Turner Field which I captured: http://elbelbelb2000.blogtog.com/archives/6297_1579073640/154929).
It’s a bummer about the five inch limit for the lenses which we may bring to Turner Field. That means the security will now give me a hard time about bringing in my Canon 100mm macro lens to the game…
Hi Scott: Knowing that you don’t have the opportunity to shoot a MLB game all the time, just curious as to how many frames you fired. My guess for a 9 inning game you had at least a feature length film of frames.
Do you have an estimate?
Hey Scott. I hope you had a great time shooting the game, even with the heat.
What lens was that? 500mm?
great ones Scott, but one Q, what format you shot, RAW or JPEG?
Scott -
Awesome shots! Thanks for sharing.
I just have two questions that I hope you will be gracious enough to answer
1. In the 4th and 6th shots posted, the batter appears to be still, while there is a bit of motion blur in the bat itself. You said that you shot most of these at around 1/1250th of a second…. Was the motion blur on the bat photoshopped, or was it really being swung that fast?
2. Did you set your Nikon D3 into DX mode, so that your lens acted as a 300-600mm? Or did you use FX mode for the higher resolution and other benefits?
Kinda random questions.. but I was very curious. Thanks.
I’m glad a google search found this post again easily for me to review those shooting from the stands rules. I’ve got a date with my 7-year-old son to the Braves’ game tomorrow night. My camera is a D80 (probably not considered professional) and my 70-300mm lens is 5″ when it isn’t extended. I’m crossing my fingers that I can get by with this. I certainly wouldn’t have any intentions of selling the pictures.