Indoor sports tips

[jaol]

Hi,

I shoot basketball, junior mainly, and I'm pretty pleased of the quality I get these days. Junior basketball games are in poorly lighted gyms, so can't be too harsh.

Now I want some tips how to retouch those pictures, so I can get more attention to main player, and hide background. There is always happening so much in these pictures, that it looks messy to me. I'm open to all ideas, so please help.

Here's couple of pics to understand what I'm talking about.
Sample1
Sample2

Thanks

jaol

[skydog]

There are lots of things you can do...here is one idea...you can learn how to do all of this by reading within retouchpro...

crop tight
I liked the face of the girl on the far right so I kept her in the pic
you can gray out the background (you need to learn masking)
I blurred the background so your eye would not go to the back players

[jaol]

Originally Posted by skydog

There are lots of things you can do...here is one idea...you can learn how to do all of this by reading within retouchpro...

crop tight
I liked the face of the girl on the far right so I kept her in the pic
you can gray out the background (you need to learn masking)
I blurred the background so your eye would not go to the back players

I have read retouchpro, did not find so much about sporting...

I have used motion blur, but masked to main player only. Masking to three players works much better. Graying out is also good idea,
Thaks!

[DannyRaphael]

Nice shots to work with. I like the close crop idea...

Blurring BG more and total conversion to BW eliminates distractions from the colors. Gives it kind of a newpaper look. Using Curves adjustment layer masks to make a pseudo spotlight (but not too much) is another possibility.

If you haven't considered "sports cards" or "magazine covers," that's another avenue of approach.

[skydog]

Danny...very nice..

Another thing you can do is remove everyone else from the photo...again masking would make it quick.

Like you said, you won't find much about sports on retouch. What you will find is discussions on many many different photoshop techniques that can be applied to photographs to retouch or restore. Once you learn a technique you can then go and practice and create.

Jump in..there is so much to learn and there are many helpful people on this site.

[Photobart]

Try using Filter/Distort/Lens Correction use the vignette sliders to darken the edges. This darkens the edges and puts more of the focus on the center subjects. I may have gone a bit too far on my example but you can play with it until you find a setting you like.

This is my first time posting a sample photo, hope it works.

Photobart