40Dude6aedyk
26th of November 2008 (Wed), 17:59
OK folks, I've done quite a bit of basketball games lately with my 40D, 85 mm and 580EX II. I've experimented with various settings and parameters. Here are some conclusions to foment a discussion.
1. I don't want to shoot with camera-shoe-mounted flash pointed directly on the action. This invariably leads to red-eye, zombie-eye, whatever-unnatural eye. This means I want to either bounce off a ceiling, a wall or move the flash off camera.
2. High-speed sync does cut down on the light produced, but I can guarantee a shutter speed of 1/2000 s with HSS. Unfortunately, I won't have enough light unless I am on the court playing myself with the other players.
3. I almost always shoot in manual mode. It's pretty trivial to take a few test shots while teams are warming up. I set my shutter speed to 1/250s, then ISO plus aperture and see what I get.
4. Manual flash mode with 1/2, 1/4 flash-power will do wonders for 3-6 shots from a held-down shutter-button. The 580EX II just keeps flashing away. But it ain't enough light most of the time (see below). When tilting the 580EX II up, the zoom is set to 50mm unless you manually override it (according to the manual), so I manually override it to 105 mm (i.e. max zoom).
5. If I set my ISO and aperture to 2-stops under ambient, then my 580EX II flash bounced off the ceiling is not enough to produce a decent exposure. Shots are underexposed. If I blast directly at the players, then I am OK, but see (1) above (or I can ask the players to close their eyes when playing).
6. If I set my ISO and aperture to get a decent exposure with the flashed bounced off the ceiling, then I get ghosting in the hands/fingers and ball.
7. I think I see where the strobists are coming from: They go out and buy strobes/flash that really overwhelm ambient. Thus if they use manual or eTTL they can get a 1/10,000th or shorter flash of light that actually illuminates the players for a good exposure.
8. Back to HSS, I can actually stop motion with a 1/2000th second shutter-speed. Well, duh! So I can use HSS as fill-in flash in some of the more well-lit venues. Or don't use flash at all. Fill-in flash is helpful I think with HSS.
9. Despite the posts about high-ISO is better than ghosting and one can always use noise reduction stuff, I find that while NR (whether noiseware, DPP, noise ninja) works, it doesn't give me the pleasing effect or sharpness that I want. In particular, basketballs are supposed to have a pebbly surface and not be smooth. Players are not supposed to be plastic mannequins.
BTW, I've read most of the great threads and discussions around here to get this far. They have all been very helpful.
My conclusion is that I probably want more flash either bouncing or off-camera and direct. This means I need to get some light-stands, some more flashes, some remote triggers, and more pain-in-the-butt stuff. Or maybe the 40D ain't up to the action under low light conditions that I want to photograph.
Comments welcome!
1. I don't want to shoot with camera-shoe-mounted flash pointed directly on the action. This invariably leads to red-eye, zombie-eye, whatever-unnatural eye. This means I want to either bounce off a ceiling, a wall or move the flash off camera.
2. High-speed sync does cut down on the light produced, but I can guarantee a shutter speed of 1/2000 s with HSS. Unfortunately, I won't have enough light unless I am on the court playing myself with the other players.
3. I almost always shoot in manual mode. It's pretty trivial to take a few test shots while teams are warming up. I set my shutter speed to 1/250s, then ISO plus aperture and see what I get.
4. Manual flash mode with 1/2, 1/4 flash-power will do wonders for 3-6 shots from a held-down shutter-button. The 580EX II just keeps flashing away. But it ain't enough light most of the time (see below). When tilting the 580EX II up, the zoom is set to 50mm unless you manually override it (according to the manual), so I manually override it to 105 mm (i.e. max zoom).
5. If I set my ISO and aperture to 2-stops under ambient, then my 580EX II flash bounced off the ceiling is not enough to produce a decent exposure. Shots are underexposed. If I blast directly at the players, then I am OK, but see (1) above (or I can ask the players to close their eyes when playing).
6. If I set my ISO and aperture to get a decent exposure with the flashed bounced off the ceiling, then I get ghosting in the hands/fingers and ball.
7. I think I see where the strobists are coming from: They go out and buy strobes/flash that really overwhelm ambient. Thus if they use manual or eTTL they can get a 1/10,000th or shorter flash of light that actually illuminates the players for a good exposure.
8. Back to HSS, I can actually stop motion with a 1/2000th second shutter-speed. Well, duh! So I can use HSS as fill-in flash in some of the more well-lit venues. Or don't use flash at all. Fill-in flash is helpful I think with HSS.
9. Despite the posts about high-ISO is better than ghosting and one can always use noise reduction stuff, I find that while NR (whether noiseware, DPP, noise ninja) works, it doesn't give me the pleasing effect or sharpness that I want. In particular, basketballs are supposed to have a pebbly surface and not be smooth. Players are not supposed to be plastic mannequins.
BTW, I've read most of the great threads and discussions around here to get this far. They have all been very helpful.
My conclusion is that I probably want more flash either bouncing or off-camera and direct. This means I need to get some light-stands, some more flashes, some remote triggers, and more pain-in-the-butt stuff. Or maybe the 40D ain't up to the action under low light conditions that I want to photograph.
Comments welcome!