First serious HS basketball

[sfinchler]

Okay, so I did my research on the forum and got clearance to set up some strobes at the HS basketball game. I had two 320 ws strobes on the railing of the stands, about in line with the baseline and about 7' or 8' up pointing at around the top of the key. I metered the light in the gym at ISO 800 at around 1/30 sec at f/4. Everyone said to be around 3-4 stops over ambient with my strobes so, quick math, I set my camera at 1/180 sec (fastest flash sync on my 10D) and f/5.6 so that should put me aroud 3 1/2 stops over. I played with the power on the lights until it looked about right and tweaked it throughout the game. In some shots it looked a little bright so I stopped down to f/6.7 at some point.

I'm basically happy with the results but I'd like to get some feedback. Here are some samples with very little post other than cropping and noise reduction (in LR2 only). I thought there was more noise than I would've liked but not terrible. Maybe Noise Ninja or something like it would help or maybe that's as good I'll get with a 10D. I was using a 24-105 f/4 L so I know the lens is good.

Some of the shots in the corner were a little "hot" because of the light being right there, but I guess there's nothing I can do about that.

I'm shooting the boys team this week so I'm open to pointers if there's something I can do better.

-Scott

[sfinchler]

Here are a couple more samples... -Scott

[northpointphoto]

The action is pretty good in all of them. As far as the hot spots go you should be able to reduce them in photoshop.

[snyderman]

not that I should be giving pointers to ANYBODY, but here are a couple:

1) Looks like your standing and taking pics. Try sitting on the floor or kneeling down. Shooting from a lower angle give much more 'ups' to the kids, especially on a jump shot!

2) Seems like with the strobes you should be able to up the shutter speed. I see blurry in a couple where motion is obvious. The ball almost hitting the floor could have been completely frozen in time.

3) To check my focus, I look at the ball to see if I can see the actual pebbling of the ball surface. That's a good indication of stop-action and focus. I get one shot like that a game!

Have fun and keep in mind ... the boys move a LOT faster than the girls do!

dave

[Gatorboy]

I played with the power on the lights until it looked about right and tweaked it throughout the game.

Unlike your on-camera flash, strobes have a flash duration that gets longer the lower power you go. Therefore, you would have been better off with 1/2 or more power on your strobes and lowering your ISO on your camera to get the proper exposure, rather than playing with the power levels.

I think your blurring is caused by a low-power, long-strobed duration.

[40Dude6aedyk]

OK, you have tried direct/feathered light with these. Have you tried bouncing off the ceiling?

[sfinchler]

I shot the boys games yesterday and changed to 1/250 sec shutter speed with no problem synching. Actually I like the shots better (I'll post a couple later). I had the strobes at 3/4 and full power but I think if I went with 1/2 power I'd have to open up to f/4 to get it right. I'll play with it though. I think I'm happy with the exposure (except for a little hot spots on the white jerseys that I can fix afterwards). I tried bouncing off the ceiling at one of the practices a few weeks ago, but it didn't give me a lot of light since the strobes aren't mounted that high. I can try it again. Thanks.