# First Time Shooting Shooting



## baturn (Feb 23, 2016)

Thoughts?

1.





2.


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## DarkShadow (Feb 23, 2016)

I like it,good timing on the ejection of the brass.He  is in the standard taught isosceles stance but his posture is not good.He should be slightly leaning forward so his shoulders are more out in front of his mid body and not leaning back.He has a good support hand grip though.


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## Gary A. (Feb 23, 2016)

A frontal shot adds a lot of drama.


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## UncleSteve (Feb 23, 2016)

A few thoughts.  The color balance seems a bit off between the two shots. If you are trying to show the shooter his stance then a portrait framing would have worked better.  Timing of the ejection of the casing is one of the hardest things to get down without a expensive setup, so when I do it I count the person down and start the series of shots just before saying "go."  If the goal is creating a shot with "drama" then get right up and personal with the gun.  Seeing the mechanics of the weapon operating with the smoke just leaving the chamber after the shot is a great way.  As Gary A. stated (though I think there was some sarcasm involved) getting a more in front angle can really add to the impact of the shot.  But make sure the range will let you, or have a remote trigger system and really make sure you trust the shooter.  If you time everything thing right you can get the initial "explosion" and catch the round coming out of the barrel.  This is best done with a muzzle focused setup.   

I am attaching a link to one of my "gun" shoots.  It is a touch different than the Sig your buddy has but you can see how the angle really changes the "feeling"  Aircraft and Aviation Theme

Finally, your buddies stance and grip are a little off.  He is doing a good job locking the wrists but the grip is wrong.  The thumb on the left hand should be along the axis of the slide.  This will help with two things; saving the skin of the top of the thumb from the slide and second preventing the grip from being too top heavy.  It looks like his trigger finger is pulling from the middle of the finger rather than the pad of the finger tip, this causes the weapon to pull just before the shot and will create a heavy left or right round grouping.  His shoulders should be slightly pressed into the target to help with balance and immediate sight alignment after each shot.  The Sig can be a bit top heavy so pressing into the weapon will help some. There are a few other small things but I think that covers the big points.


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## baturn (Feb 24, 2016)

Thanks guys. Ken is a fairly new shooter and I'm sure he'll appreciate the help with stance etc.
 As for me, thanks for the tips, especially about a more frontal view.
Maybe I should explain the condition sand camera set up. It was a fairly bright winter afternoon but we were under the shadow of the range structure.
My settings were 1/1600, f 3.5 ISO auto (3200 ) On a D7100 and Sigma 70 -200 OS. I was shooting hand held In continuous high and initiating the sequence pretty much as Steve suggested. The shots shown are two of forty or so that I wanted input on. The rest were totally uninteresting shots of Ken holding a gun with no evidence of it being fired.
Next time it will be remotely triggered camera on tripod with more interesting angle and some close ups of the weapons in action.


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## Designer (Feb 24, 2016)

The two different colors of light was the first thing I noticed, but I see someone has mentioned it before me.

The post intersecting with your model is distracting, and I see part of a car beyond, so I am wondering if you could have captured him in full profile without too much background clutter.  Full profile in portrait aspect ratio and a bit more of his face would be another approach to the shot.  

I like Uncle Steve's suggestion of an even more front-on camera position.


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## jcdeboever (Feb 24, 2016)

Good grip, nice stance. 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


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## SCraig (Feb 24, 2016)

jcdeboever said:


> Good grip, nice stance.
> 
> Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


As one who has had "Railroad Tracks" on my thumb from a slide coming backwards I can state for a fact it's not a mistake one is likely to make twice.  Putting the weak-hand thumb over the top works with a revolver but not with a semi-auto pistol.  With a semi-auto the thumb should lie across the top of the hand pointing forward as was pointed out above.


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## DarkShadow (Feb 24, 2016)

I keep my thumb parallel to the slide as well.I got caught with the slide before to shooting a 45 ACP 230 grain and ripped my skin clean off and hurt like a SOB. I also got brass ejected straight back on two occasion,one spent case binged me off the forehead and I got cut and one other time one went down my shirt sucker was hot.by the time I got it out I had a nice little red burn on my chest.


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## baturn (Feb 24, 2016)

I can't really explain the difference in the light. These shots are the 3rd and 4th of a 5 frame sequence, maybe a 5th of a second apart. the only difference in post was I did adjust the exposure about a 3rd of a stop more in the 1st. all other adjustments are exactly the same. I have gone back and corrected one to the same settings as the other but the color difference remains. Anyone?


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## JoeW (Feb 24, 2016)

Gary A. said:


> A frontal shot adds a lot of drama.



You sir, are a rascal.  And an adrenaline junkie.


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## calamityjane (Mar 6, 2016)

The WB is off because it's not balanced between the daylight outside the shelter and the tungsten (?) under it. You could try balancing the external daylight with flash under the structure. Or gelling the lights under the structure.


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