Fan Reactions Caught with Nikon D5

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Last Saturday, I photographed the ESU baseball doubleheader. It was a great day for a number of reasons, which I reported in my last blog entry. I was looking through the photographs after the game and was pleasantly surprised to see some details I could not see initially.

The new Nikon D5 is an incredible camera and I continue to be amazed with the results I am getting at games. When I was cropping in on one image, to be sure I had the correct outfielder’s name, I saw the fans’ facial reactions as Left Fielder, Casey Saverio, made his acrobatic catch over the fence. Check these details out! This next photo is cropped from the original photo above.

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This is the next photo in the sequence and the details are incredible! Don’t you love those fan reactions?

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The amazing thing to me, besides the incredibly photogenic fans, is the results of such a high level of cropping in these images. The D5 has a full-frame sensor and the amount of detail it picks up is amazing! I still cannot get over how good these cropped images look!

The Nikon D5 is a winner and one I am happy to have in my sports photography arsenal!

Cropping

Pleasant Valley v. LehightonThis photograph of running back, Austyn Borre, was taken at a Friday night football game when the Bears traveled to Lehighton to take on the Indians. He is obviously running with the ball and his eyes are focused upfield. However, there is at least one distracting element in this photo–yep, the referee. His body is cut off weirdly and having him in the photograph really doesn’t add any good quality.

Cropping is a method of taking a photographing and removing unnecessary and distracting items in a photograph simply by downsizing or cutting the size of the photo. It is a tool used by many newspaper and magazine editors, and it is a tool you need to learn as well.

Cropping can be done in a variety of ways, but I prefer to maintain the proportions of the original image almost 100% of the time. Strange results can be produced when original proportions are not maintained.

Some argue that cropping should never be done no matter what. Well, this might be a good goal–to get it right in-camera, but sometimes in the heat of the moment, some distracting and competing elements are captured along with the main subject. Cropping can be very helpful when used wisely.

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The crop in this photograph removed the referee. I still do not like the two bright yellow vests appearing on both sides of this running back. They are distracting to me as well, but look at what happens when we crop even further while maintaining the same proportion.

Pleasant Valley v. LehightonNotice I switched the crop to a vertical format instead of landscape. This much tighter crop was needed to avoid cutting off limbs at improper places. The rule of thumb here is to never cut off a persons limb at a joint, like an elbow, write, shoulder, knee, or hip.

As you can see in these three images, cropping can have helpful and even sometimes dramatic effects. Used wisely, cropping can be your friend to make a good photograph even better. Learn how to crop and learn how to crop wisely!