8th grade BB--Strobe Pros Step Inside Please

[Zivnuska]

Tried the (two) Alien Bee B800s for the first time last night. The Bees, PWs, and Vagabond IIs worker perfectly--my use of them left much to be desired. The first set of shots were from a very small gym. Four feet from baseline to wall, perhaps double that on the side wall. All shots taken from a doorway behind the bucket. I'm not concerned about the captures (nothing special there) but I am looking for suggestions on aiming the lights, f stops, ISO choice, etc. The small gym really made those lights effective--note I'm stopped down and still have low ISOs. This gym has a cathedral type ceiling. BTW, shooting at 1/320, 1/250 or even 1/200 seemed to make no difference because I was so far over ambient.

1. f/4.0, ISO 250
.
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1711.jpg


2. f/5.0, ISO 400
.
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1731.jpg

3. f/4.0, ISO 400
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1725.jpg

4. f/5.0, ISO 400
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1734.jpg

5. My little girl grabs a rebound--Can't see her face, or the ball, but she can jump! f/4.0, ISO 250, 1/320 Sec
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1713.jpg

The following shots were taken at the larger gym. No room behind the baseline, I had to shoot from a stage 4 feet behind the baseline and 4 feet above the floor. This gym has a flat and fairly low ceiling.


6. f/4.0, ISO 800
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1775.jpg

7. f/4.0, ISO 800 Light is stronger on one side of face. I'm not sure what to do about that. Note that lighting and exposure is the same on 6, 7, and 8. Number 6 looks evenly lit and the others don't. Why?
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1779.jpg

8. f/4.0, ISO 800 Note all the light falling on the stands and how the faces/hair are highlighted toward that side. I'm guessing that the light on this side needs to be aimed more toward the middle of the floor?
.http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q225/zivnuska/_D3E1796.jpg

In each gym, the strobes had to be placed about even with the baseline. They were aimed off the ceiling toward the free throw line. I've thought about bouncing them off the back wall/ceiling line angle instead of the way I did it. FWIW, ambient settings were f/2.2, 1/640, ISO 3200

Suggestions from all you strobists out there?

[HighPixel]

WOW! Those came out very nice! Very minimal shadowing. Good Job!
HP

[ahhhlawn]

great shots, the lighting is so even it looks like studio shots

[namasste]

very nicely done Z. I do think you correctly analyzed the issue of how you aimed the lights. I also like the looks of the f4 shots a bit better for some reason. on the third, you might need to wait until she is farther down court. One disadvantage to shooting two lights from one end is that your coverage area definitely has a sweet spot and you have to try to catch your athletes in it (or close) if you want real clean stuff. You can usually get awful close to half court and still have decent lighting. As the athletes get close, just use a little aperture shift to tone it down a bit. I think you did a very nice job bud. Oh yeah, your girl can jump for sure!

[Zivnuska]

Scott,

Thanks for the critique and tips. I will work to add that aperture shift to my repertoire.

Z.

[Big K]

I think these look very nice and agree with the advise Scott offered earlier.

If you are looking for things to test, I would suggest trying the following. Assuming the wall is flat and white across the entire end and that you have a similar bleacher setup on the opposite side of the court I would try mounting the light at point 1 and aiming in the vicinity of point 2 on each side of the court. I like the wall bounce effect as well as anything I have tried.

[Zivnuska]

If you are looking for things to test, I would suggest trying the following. Assuming the wall is flat and white across the entire end and that you have a similar bleacher setup on the opposite side of the court I would try mounting the light at point 1 and aiming in the vicinity of point 2 on each side of the court. I like the wall bounce effect as well as anything I have tried.

Thanks for that tip. I thought about bouncing off the back wall or wall/ceiling line angle but this gives me a strategy/aim point. Thanks very much Big K. I'll give it a try.

BTW, the Vagabond II power supplies are wonderful for flexibility in choosing strobe locations without any trip hazard. Recharge is fast (1.2 seconds for a B800) and plenty of power for 2 games + without any loss in recharge speed. We will see how it holds up year after year but my initial impression (admittedly only 1 night) is that they are great.

Keep the suggestions coming.

Given the strobes allow for a lot of flexibility in choosing aperture, what/how/when do you choose one versus another?

Z.

[Zivnuska]

One more thing---actually two more things.

I used two ideas taken from Adam Lewis from last year.

First, I tried shooting some shots at 1/320 seconds even though the off camera sync speed of the 1D Mark III is 1/250. It turns out that I didn't need the extra shutter speed but it works.

Second, I just went with AWB. No correction in PP. That would be a problem for my old 30D but the 1D Mark III seemed to do OK. I'm sure that I'll get custom WBs and compare with AWB later, but for now, AWB works.