Living on a Prayer

Sports Photo of the Day

Here we are at day two of the NCAA Tournament. Yesterday March Madness was in full effect as you were able to see some upsets, and some near upsets. Today hopefully will be just as good to watch. I thought that I would include another photo from one of the great NCAA games that I saw in Spokane three years ago. Two days ago I showed a picture of Chris Kramer with the game winning layup. That was a great game that needed overtime to decided a winner. Just before that game though Maryland and Michigan State played a game that I thought would be hard to beat. Neither team wanted to lost, and the game seemed to go back and forth. As time expired Korie Lucious shot this three with his team down one point. It was one of those shots that was only put up because time was expiring. What I love about this picture is the expressions on the faces of the fans in the background. You can see Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo’s wife waving her hands. Behind her a little girl is almost hiding not to see the outcome. Former Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote seems like the only poised person in the stands. This was a great moment that I am glad that I preserved for myself.

Technical Data

This picture was taken without zooming in. I realized that it was going to be a great moment in the game so I picked up my camera and made two pictures. This is the second. The first picture I put up on my Facebook page which you can see here. Just like with the Chris Kramer shot you can go here to see the same view from Sports Illustrated photographer Robert Beck’s perspective. I wanted this picture to be a bit closer though so I cropped it first thing. I actually took the image and reversed it from a landscape to a portrait. In Lightroom this is easy. You simply hit the x key on your keyboard when your crop tool is open. I had a much better image here I think after the crop. From there I applied the light sports preset from Matt Kloskowski to the image. This really does a great job of bringing back some of the detail that you did not know your jpeg had in it. From there it was a simple task of tweaking a couple of sliders, and I was done. I love bringing some life back to my old photos.