Girls HS Basketball - Sectional Semi's

[Big K]

Back to some basketball. Girls sectionals have started. Missed the first round but was able to make it tonight.

Same gym and setup as from this post.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=603550

I moved the lights about 5 feet closer to the wall tonight but otherwise the same setup.

Mk III, 70-200, 1/250, f/5 ISO 200.

[Croasdail]

Great lighting again - complete absence of shadows. That part well done. They almost look too sharp to me though. I mean, the really do pop, but almost too much if that is even possible. Overall though, love em. Cheers.

[johndevane]

They almost look too sharp to me though.

Man, that's the kind of compliment we aspire for... From a good shooter saying your shots are too sharp. Doesn't happen often.

Great work, great use of the lights. One question:

Do you have a % in your head about how many shots are "clean"; judging solely by sharpness, vs. keepers that are not so sharp? Meaning: I get 4 out of 5 that are a bit soft compared to the "clean" 1 out of 5. The 4 are still definitely keepers, but the 1 stands out. I can't figure out why 1 is tack sharp, while 4 are only satisfactory.

Every time I chimp and see a peak action shot, as I zoom in I pray that it will be "clean." Know what I mean?

I'd love to hear your thoughts,

John.

[Peter Camyre]

Very sharp and great action shots.

[namasste]

Kevin, your lighting is just fantastic and I love the clarity and sharpness. The only thing I see (and it can't be changed unless you have a much larger version) is the dead space on the left on the first one. There's no crop that will work there but its a solid image anyway, I'm just nitpicking so no one thinks I've gone soft or something! Great work Kev, really.

[Big K]

Great lighting again - complete absence of shadows. That part well done. They almost look too sharp to me though. I mean, the really do pop, but almost too much if that is even possible. Overall though, love em. Cheers.

Thanks for the feedback. I take that as a big complement. I am going to try running them without the final sharpening step in my workflow and see what happens. Between the sharpening of a pretty sharp original image and the reduction to meet the requirements of this site, they might have been processed too much. Good observation and thanks.

Man, that's the kind of compliment we aspire for... From a good shooter saying your shots are too sharp. Doesn't happen often.

Great work, great use of the lights. One question:

Do you have a % in your head about how many shots are "clean"; judging solely by sharpness, vs. keepers that are not so sharp? Meaning: I get 4 out of 5 that are a bit soft compared to the "clean" 1 out of 5. The 4 are still definitely keepers, but the 1 stands out. I can't figure out why 1 is tack sharp, while 4 are only satisfactory.

Every time I chimp and see a peak action shot, as I zoom in I pray that it will be "clean." Know what I mean?

I'd love to hear your thoughts,

John.

That is a good question. I go through the exact same reaction when shooting. I would estimate that I get maybe 3-4 out of 10 that I am really happy with and the others seem to be just a little off. I attribute it to several things but the big three are 1) Operator error 2) Ghosting and 3) Motion blur from lack of a fast enough t/0.1 flash duration to totally stop motion.

Last night, I was a moron and left my memory cards at home so was stuck working with a single 1GB card so was doing a lot of deleting as I went. My next event where I am shooting any volume of shots, I will try and do a better assessment.

Do you have any differing opinions as to the cause of the less than perfect shots?

Very sharp and great action shots.

Thanks.

[Big K]

Kevin, your lighting is just fantastic and I love the clarity and sharpness. The only thing I see (and it can't be changed unless you have a much larger version) is the dead space on the left on the first one. There's no crop that will work there but its a solid image anyway, I'm just nitpicking so no one thinks I've gone soft or something! Great work Kev, really.

Thanks Scott. Definitely don't want people to think you are going soft. :-)

The first image is uncropped as shown. I agree, the dead space is a bit much. For a final print, I would probably crop it to a nonstandard size to get rid of it.

I am off to pick up my new 5D MkII. Yeah!!! I look forward to playing with it tonight for the finals. Will probably play more with video than stills but hopefully will have a chance to get some stills to post later today.

[namasste]

size to get rid of it.

I am off to pick up my new 5D MkII. Yeah!!! I look forward to playing with it tonight for the finals. Will probably play more with video than stills but hopefully will have a chance to get some stills to post later today.congrats. I saw some vid from one recently (had a 400 2.8 on it) and it was really something special. have fun.

[Sauk]

Looks like you cropped for print on the first one which is fine by me. colors and ambient looking flash looks solid! I need to get back to that lol

[Big K]

congrats. I saw some vid from one recently (had a 400 2.8 on it) and it was really something special. have fun.

That's what I was planning to do tonight but might have just changed my mind. The coach of one of the teams is a good friend and they are a pretty big favorite to win tonight. It would be the first sectional championship for their girls program since girls bb started at the school. He has agreed to wear a wireless mic for the game so I might just use my good HD video camera that works really well with the wireless mic.

The lady who shoots for one of the local papers is also a good friend so plan to let her shoot with my strobes and then try to create a multimedia recap of the game using the stills, audio and video.

Looks like you cropped for print on the first one which is fine by me. colors and ambient looking flash looks solid! I need to get back to that lol

The first one is uncropped but does have a nice layout for adding text etc. A lucky byproduct and not by any effort on my part. The second is a 4x5 crop at full width to knock off some of the dead space at the top and bottom.

[Sauk]

Big K (do you have a first name by the way?)

It seems like you were using 11 inch reflectors by the softness of the light?

[johndevane]

Do you have any differing opinions as to the cause of the less than perfect shots?

No, I think like you, there are so many little things that might go wrong, something is bound to on most shots. It sure is strange though. I asked Dennis W. about it one time and he said, "It just happens."

[beacherz]

It is amazing what good lighting does! Your images definately jump out at me. Awesome job. I noticed that you use spot metering. Do you think it is a good idea with existing light too or only with great strobe lighting?

[namasste]

It is amazing what good lighting does! Your images definately jump out at me. Awesome job. I noticed that you use spot metering. Do you think it is a good idea with existing light too or only with great strobe lighting?
I meter in spot mode to get base settings but then flip everything to manual at which point, I care only about the histogram, not the in camera meter.

[Big K]

Big K (do you have a first name by the way?)

It seems like you were using 11 inch reflectors by the softness of the light?

The K is for Kevin. The Big is for being about 290. :-) Thats' correct on the reflectors. The big gun 11"

It is amazing what good lighting does! Your images definately jump out at me. Awesome job. I noticed that you use spot metering. Do you think it is a good idea with existing light too or only with great strobe lighting?

The spot metering was because I shot a school play a few days ago and used Av mode due to the crazy changes in lighting. I normally use a light meter if I am in a new gym but if I forgot my light meter, I will use spot metering to get a starting point and as Scott mentioned, then switch to full manual mode to do the actual shooting. The play the other night was the first time I have not shot manual in over a year.

I meter in spot mode to get base settings but then flip everything to manual at which point, I care only about the histogram, not the in camera meter.

Exactly how I use it when I do.

Well I didn't even get to try out my new 5D mkII. I was having too much fun shooting with the XH A1 video camera using the wireless mic on the coach. I am pretty excited to get something pulled together. I think it is going to be pretty cool for a first attempt. The good gals won by 20 so made it even better.

[namasste]

sweet win K, sounds like you had a great time too!

[Big K]

It was very fun. I learned that I have a lot to learn about being a videographer but sure had fun playing. Hopefully we can give it another go next week for regionals. A couple of the wrestlers I cover advanced to the state finals today so next weekend will have lots of options.