[don_bertone]

Taken with a Canon 350D and Canon EF 100mm f2.8. Every constructive criticism is welcome.

[skipper954]

Hey Don

Welcome to pixalo. It is a place to learn.

This image has interesting possibilities. The ping pong (table tennis) player is obviously very intent on acing his serve, and rightly is the focus of the shot. His face is really the focus and shows all of the emotion of the serve.

However, there is too much shadow under his eyes and he is a bit out of focus. I assume that he was moving a bit and that is why the focus is slightly off. Your Canon probably has a continuous focus mode which is the better option here to keep sharp.

Next regarding the composition, I think that it would work better in portrait mode to include the paddle on the left and go just past his shoulder and arm on the right, and be sure to get all of his head . In addition, here, the top of the net obstructs the ball and is very distracting. In getting the shot there was so much activity and movement that you probably didn't notice that when you snapped.

I am not sure, but it is probably not as easy to frame an action shot with a fixed focus lens as with a zoom. Anyone comment on that?

So, I hope that my c and c helps and am looking forward to seeing more shots from you.

skip

[fionaB]

cracking shot, i can see what skip is saying, but to be honest the shadowing is not as distracting as the net, if you had perhaps been a little higher and angled downwards it may have moved the net lower, thus enabling us to see the rest of his hand. still a great shot tho so well done!

fi

[Rob Barron]

It is definitely the net that is spoiling this as the rest is very strong. We can see the look of concentration as the player is about to serve. As this is fairly dark (not too dark, just not bright!) I am assuming you had the lens wide open so this was as light as you could get it using your f2.8 lens. This in turn has led to a reduced depth of field and has made the net cord extremely blurred and the net itself so blurred it has disappeared.

For me I think this image needs that net to be in focus or close to it so that it is immediately clear what it is that is cutting across the picture. Then it would all hang together and be a very good shot :o)

Cheers,
Rob