Challenge #33: After the decisive shootout (1st and 2nd place teams)

[joechiu]

Just shot this over the weekend. After a 0-0 game and 0-0 overtime, the girls went into a shootout. The girls were tense and holding each others hands, and then the blue team made its winning shot...

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner.jpg

Cropped from the original file. No other editing performed.

Taken 2/27/2005 4:20 PM.

Nikon D70 with 80-200mm/2.8D-AFS (rented at $30 for the weekend), at 155mm. Aperture priority, center weighted, 1/1000 F/4.5, ISO 200. Manual focus, auto whitebalance.
8-bit JPEG.

[ginger_55]

I really like that. It is a strong shot. Some people might say it should be cropped. I don't know. I do know that is good emotion in the blue team.

ginger

[joechiu]

I really like that. It is a strong shot. Some people might say it should be cropped. I don't know. I do know that is good emotion in the blue team.

ginger
Thanks. I was originally thinking that I should focus on blue team only. But the dejection shows in the losing team, and I thought the emotional contrast is enhanced from that. I'd love to get feedback...

This is the original file (resized) with the areas outside of the cropping that I did in my submission...

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner2.jpg

[ginger_55]

I would crop it on my rt where you did, and on the other side, I would crop it so that most of the ball stays in, but there is not a person cut off that is showing.

I would make the blue team as much of 2/3s of the photograph as I could, and I would be a happy person.

ginger

[Mitchell]

I love this shot. The emotion is captured beatifully. I have been watching my daughter's soccer team every weekend for the past several years waiting for a moment like this one!!:rolleyes


mitch

[ginger_55]

This is how I would crop it. Then I cloned out the shoe by soccer ball. I didn't do anything else. Just picking this out like I did, it isn't in focus, I hope yours is. If it isn't, get someone, Cletus, someone to tell you what to do to get the blue team as sharp as possible. This is going to be a favorite with lots of people. ginger

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/16796639-L.jpg

[joechiu]

Is that kind of photoshopping to remove persons/objects considered "kosher"?

[ginger_55]

uh, huh.

Unless it is a non photoshop challenge then it wouldn't be and the rules are kind of screwy. Here everything goes.

g

[lr1811]

I like this photo a lot, I like the way you cropped it from the original. I also like Ginger's crop (with the ball as the last thing on the left side).

Good submit!!

Brian

[ajgauthier]

I'm in agreement with Brian...nice sincere (as in not-staged) emotional moment caught. I too like Ginger's crop with the soccer ball being the last thing on the left. To make the blue team stand out more, you could lasso them and sharpen that area, then lasso the red team and ever so slightly blur it. While the blue is lasso'd you could also change the saturation and hue a bit (just a bit so it stays realistic) to make the blue uniforms really pop out.

nice shot!
AJ


I like this photo a lot, I like the way you cropped it from the original. I also like Ginger's crop (with the ball as the last thing on the left side).

Good submit!!

Brian

[joechiu]

Okay, how's this?

Faked the lower portion of ball to remove the intruding foot (took ball and rotated part of it and stitched it in and did some blur and burn with color) and sharpened the girls... Don't want to tinker with the uniform saturation... I think the original colors are lovely!

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner3.jpg

[adrian_k]

Okay, how's this?
Faked a ball (took ball and rotated part of it and stitched it in and did some blur and burn with color) and sharpened the girls... Don't want to tinker with the uniform saturation, I think...


good shot, it shows great emotions.

I may be in a minority of one, but I like the first one.
The way you have half a loser in the shot shows to me that you're not paying attention to them and couldn't care if they were in the shot or not.

[joechiu]

good shot, it shows great emotions.

I may be in a minority of one, but I like the first one.
The way you have half a loser in the shot shows to me that you're not paying attention to them and couldn't care if they were in the shot or not.
Hmm, that makes me feel much better about my original decision of slicing where I did... I still like the suggestion to sharpen the team, so I think I'll put the original foot back in, and keep the sharpening of the winner. Yeow. I'm all very new at this...

[Shakey]

All in all it is a great shot emotions are so self evident here.
Fix the photo to what you like color , sharpness et al.
Either way it is an excellent shot/capture

Tim

[joechiu]

recropped like original, but sharpness enhanced

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner4.jpg

and then color tweaked...

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner5.jpg

Okay. I better stop now! I can spend all night!!!

[ginger_55]

Beautiful, congratulations! You did it your way, and I love it! I saw it on the challenge.

ginger

[lr1811]

All in all it is a great shot emotions are so self evident here.
Fix the photo to what you like color , sharpness et al.
Either way it is an excellent shot/capture

Tim
Nicely said, and again great shot!!!

[canonguy]

Nicely said, and again great shot!!!
I second that... Way to make the shot!

[mslammers]

Just shot this over the weekend. After a 0-0 game and 0-0 overtime, the girls went into a shootout. The girls were tense and holding each others hands, and then the blue team made its winning shot...

Cropped from the original file. No other editing performed.

Taken 2/27/2005 4:20 PM.

Nikon D70 with 80-200mm/2.8D-AFS, at 155mm. Aperture priority, center weighted, 1/1000 F/4.5, ISO 200. Manual focus, auto whitebalance.
8-bit JPEG.
Except I am an Ohio State fan. OOPS, off thread.

I like the composition. Ginger's crop and PS mods also strengthen the shot. Maybe you could help your posted version by doing the PS stuff and then Save for Web followed by sharpening. Ginger's version looks like JPEG artifacts on the blue team.:uhoh

[digital faerie]

Just shot this over the weekend. After a 0-0 game and 0-0 overtime, the girls went into a shootout. The girls were tense and holding each others hands, and then the blue team made its winning shot...

Cropped from the original file. No other editing performed.

Taken 2/27/2005 4:20 PM.

Nikon D70 with 80-200mm/2.8D-AFS, at 155mm. Aperture priority, center weighted, 1/1000 F/4.5, ISO 200. Manual focus, auto whitebalance.
8-bit JPEG.
wow, this is very strong, and I love the contrast of the two emotions between the teams. the DOF nicely supports that too! :thumb

[joechiu]

Okay... One last change. I mean it! :)

I did edge sharpening on the winning team *after* the image was scaled down to target resolution. It does make a difference...

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner6.jpg

[lr1811]

Okay... One last change. I mean it! :)

I did edge sharpening on the winning team *after* the image was scaled down to target resolution. It does make a difference...

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner6.jpg
This has nothing to do with your wonderful photo, but I am wondering who made the goal - my guess is the girl to the left of #11 with her head down.

Brian

[joechiu]

If I am remembering correctly, it was the girl on the upper left with her hands on her cheeks with the "oh wow, I did it" look. She ran to the team members that had gotten up after the winning shot, and then the whole group then swarmed the goalie that was coming back from the goal. (You can make her goalie uniform out in the center of the bunch - you can't see her face.)

It was a beautiful moment.

[FreeUps]

I think you should go with the first crop. I'm not very fond of too much headroom unless there is something that really needs to be seen up there.

Beautiful shot!
Go with the first, its perfect.

[joechiu]

Ooops, actually, the goalie is the third girl on the right (the first one on the right that is you can see the face) -- the one that Brian thought had made the winning goal.

p.s. Thanks for all the compliments, everybody! I loved the original shot when I took it, but the improvements from the wonderful critiques here have made it so much better!

[winger]

From someone that shoots a ton of sports, this is a great photo.

I was all excited with this challenge cause I thought I could use something from the games I cover, but umass has been hurting so not much in the way of good emotion (and well boys dont cry and girls arent going to cry over a regular season game).

Anyways that being said, I think you have to keep the other team in the background, it helps paint the story. I mean if you just had the girls in the crowd celebrating, you wouldnt know what they were celebrating, was it a goal ,a birthday.

But when you see the other team (out of focus which I think totally adds to it) you see, oh this was a close game of some sort.

I mean I could tell that by looking at the photo in the submission thread, before reading hte caption.

Awesome, awesome shot.

[ginger_55]

Okay... One last change. I mean it! :)

I did edge sharpening on the winning team *after* the image was scaled down to target resolution. It does make a difference...

http://www.joechiu.com/images/shootoutwinner6.jpg
In case you come on again, could you please expand on your great job of sharpening. And what do you mean "scaled down to resolution". I just mean how to do this stuff, what sharpening techniques did you use?

Thanks, if you come on again,
ginger

[joechiu]

In case you come on again, could you please expand on your great job of sharpening. And what do you mean "scaled down to resolution". I just mean how to do this stuff, what sharpening techniques did you use?

Thanks, if you come on again,
gingerSure,

For the final image, I started with the 3000x2000 (approx.) pixel normal-resolution .jpg from the camera and did the following:

1) Use selection tools (lasso, and mask painting) to select the girls, and excluded the background. (I should have saved the mask for later reuse!)
2) Apply sharpen to the selected area.
3) Cropped the image to the framing that I wanted
4) Run adjust image size to 800 pixels
5) Re-selected the girls again (had to do the whole lasso, mask painting, etc.) (should have saved the mask here, too).
6) Apply sharpen edges.
7) Save.

I did steps 5 and 6 to improve the final image at the intended image resolution, after mslammer's suggestion.

I kept forgetting to save the masks and spent time re-doing the masks.
I'm sure I could try more aggressive work (change saturation in uniform and the grass, perhaps). But, in the end, I wanted to be close to the original image.