Frozen baseball

Special-effects photos can be fun to shoot. I tried this one out after reading a post on the Canon Digital Photographers forum where several sports photographers shared their attempts at freezing a baseball pitch in mid-flight. One key is using a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action of the ball. Manual focus is also needed – the idea is to set the focus on a point about two-thirds of the way to the plate, frame the shot, and hit the shutter release when the ball gets to that point.

This was my best shot of about two dozen attempts. At f/2.8 and 200mm, the depth of field is quite shallow, so it's no easy trick to catch the ball at the correct point. One could narrow the aperture to increase the depth of field, but part of the goal is to have the background very soft, which helps frame the ball.

Tech info: Canon XTi with Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L lens, at 200mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 second, ISO 100.

I think it turned out OK, but I know I can do better – I think I'll try it again next spring. The only change I'll make will be to bump up the shutter speed to better freeze the ball, and take a few dozen more shots to increase my odds of catching the ball in the sweet spot.