First attempt HS basketball, ambient light

[Back288]

I've been practicing shooting basketball at local small college games, but haven't tried hs until last night. I have an assignment for the local newspaper in a couple weeks at this same court so I thought I'd shoot a few first to get a feel for the lighting. C & C always welcome and appreciated, thanks for looking!

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9342esc.jpg

I know, it's a little soft, but I liked the effort from the players...
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9365esc.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9393esc2.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9415esc.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9416esc.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9422esc.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/Lincoln%20Boys%20Basketball%202009/IMG_9462esc.jpg

[rosshudgins]

i think you did a fine job. very nice job not totally underexposing the dark uniforms while not blowing out the white uniforms. also, nice job capturing expressions.

[snyderman]

Really good action shots that have all the right elements. Yours look about the same in terms of 'darkness' as mine. I'm shooting with a 30D, ISO 1600 and with both a 2.8 and a 1.8 lens and about 1/500 SS. Still hard to get enough light on the shots and 'stop-action' compared to those shooting with flash/strobe rigs.

Did you experience a noticeable difference in lighting from the small college games to the high school venue?

dave

[40Dude6aedyk]

I love 'em all! What kind of post-processing did you end up doing on them?

[HighPixel]

Nice action! Excellent job with ambient...WB in #3 might have been better, other than that, very nice!
HP

[Back288]

i think you did a fine job. very nice job not totally underexposing the dark uniforms while not blowing out the white uniforms. also, nice job capturing expressions.

Thank you Ross! I think that was the trickiest part; white uniforms on one team, black on the other. The team in white was the home team so I shot mostly to get their exposure right, but fortunately the dark uniforms kept some detail too.

Really good action shots that have all the right elements. Yours look about the same in terms of 'darkness' as mine. I'm shooting with a 30D, ISO 1600 and with both a 2.8 and a 1.8 lens and about 1/500 SS. Still hard to get enough light on the shots and 'stop-action' compared to those shooting with flash/strobe rigs.

Did you experience a noticeable difference in lighting from the small college games to the high school venue?

dave

Thank you Dave! The lighting must actually be fairly similar over the courts (the same settings worked for both games). The college gym is much smaller than the hs one, and overall much brighter. During the hs game they only have the lights on over the court, all the others are off, and the lighting is stronger center-court and kind of fades as you get to the baskets. I like the image quality with the 80-200 f2.8L, but I really like using a lower ISO with the 85 f1.8 so I've been using that one mostly at f2.0 or f2.2.

I love 'em all! What kind of post-processing did you end up doing on them?

Thanks! Glad you like them! Since I was practicing for a newspaper assignment, there's very little pp with these, just cropping, some minor level adjusting, and a minor shot of unsharp mask. When I shoot for the paper, the deadlines are so tight I can only shoot jpeg and don't really have time to do a lot of post, so I shot these that way to see what the results would be. I usually shoot Raw and spend a lot of time in post processing, but for the newspaper it's jpeg and only crop and maybe a little adjustment in levels very quickly.

[Back288]

Nice action! Excellent job with ambient...WB in #3 might have been better, other than that, very nice!
HP

Thanks HP! Yeah, that one's off a bit...or actually I was trying to decide if that one was right and the rest were off, or if that one was off and the rest were right:D. If memory serves, number 3 was the only one of these shot with the 70-200 f2.8L IS (even though it was at 85mm), the others were all shot with the 85mm f1.8. I'm going to try re-processing #3 to see if I messed it up in post or if it's just the difference in the lenses.

[L.Morey]

I think those look great for a gym that is not NBA quility

[johndevane]

There's a video camera chimper in #3. That's serious chimping!

[Back288]

I think those look great for a gym that is not NBA quility

Thank you! I can only imagine how cool it would be to shoot basketball in an NBA quality (or even NCAA quality) venue. When I was shooting hs football at night last fall, I was thinking the same about how cool it would be to shoot football at an NFL quality venue too.

There's a video camera chimper in #3. That's serious chimping!

I saw her right away when I started to post process the pictures...made me chuckle a little because since this was really just for practice and my first go at this gym, I was doing the same thing after the first couple shots:D