Youth Basketball - Strobed

[DDCSD]

Got to break out the AB800's last weekend for a 7&8th grade basketball tourney. I was very pleased with the results.

All shot at ISO 250, f/4.5 and 1/250s.

C&C always welcomed and appreciated. I know many could be cropped tighter, but I'm always afraid of going too tight. Any help in that area would be appreciated.

1
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487484428_jTnz5-XL.jpg

2
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487484325_eh3XP-XL.jpg

3
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487484052_hzCbM-XL.jpg

4
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487485568_xNq5s-XL.jpg

5
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487485077_UGzQN-XL.jpg

6 - Last second shot, it actually went in.
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487484936_KHhiv-XL.jpg

7
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487486696_znEke-XL.jpg

8
http://derekcecil.smugmug.com/photos/487485968_DSGCk-XL.jpg

[andrepaul]

These are some really good shots, doesn't looked strobed. Nice job.

[DDCSD]

These are some really good shots, doesn't looked strobed. Nice job.

Thank you! This was bounced. I was aiming for the Big K style of strobed BBall.

[3oh6]

i find with youth basketball, cropping is difficult as there are always a lot of guys around the ball, and you don't want a bunch of odd body crops...but at the same time don't want a wide shot. it is also difficult to get the rim, ball, and player all in a tight crop when they are as far away from the rim as the ground. i think you have done well to compromise between tight and still catching enough of the action to know what is going on. perhaps a little tighter wouldn't hurt. i have a couple other suggestions as well.

watch your backgrounds, you will want to try shooting with level horizons. with a little conscious practice it seems to come naturally. if it isn't level like in 7,6,4,3 - in particular - you can level them out during cropping. natural instinct is to have the player upright but they aren't actually upright when you took the photo, show the players off at their natural angles. for example, in #6, the bench players should be pretty much level. about 5-6 degrees rotated clockwise should do the trick. this will also put the focal player at more of an angle away from the basket and really adds to the action as a bonus. same with #7, a few degrees rotated counter-clockwise and the row of fans will be level and the focal player will be angled even more towards the basket, again, adding to the action.

the other thing is that when posting to the web, perhaps limit height to around 800 pixels. not all of us are on monitors 1200 high or larger. having to scroll and piece the image together in your head to see the whole image really takes away from the composition. perhaps you just convinced me a monitor upgrade is required :)

the lighting is super nice though, as mentioned, can't really tell they are heavily strobed aside from the dark backgrounds...looks real good.

[DDCSD]

i find with youth basketball, cropping is difficult as there are always a lot of guys around the ball, and you don't want a bunch of odd body crops...but at the same time don't want a wide shot. it is also difficult to get the rim, ball, and player all in a tight crop when they are as far away from the rim as the ground. i think you have done well to compromise between tight and still catching enough of the action to know what is going on. perhaps a little tighter wouldn't hurt. i have a couple other suggestions as well.

watch your backgrounds, you will want to try shooting with level horizons. with a little conscious practice it seems to come naturally. if it isn't level like in 7,6,4,3 - in particular - you can level them out during cropping. natural instinct is to have the player upright but they aren't actually upright when you took the photo, show the players off at their natural angles. for example, in #6, the bench players should be pretty much level. about 5-6 degrees rotated clockwise should do the trick. this will also put the focal player at more of an angle away from the basket and really adds to the action as a bonus. same with #7, a few degrees rotated counter-clockwise and the row of fans will be level and the focal player will be angled even more towards the basket, again, adding to the action.

the other thing is that when posting to the web, perhaps limit height to around 800 pixels. not all of us are on monitors 1200 high or larger. having to scroll and piece the image together in your head to see the whole image really takes away from the composition. perhaps you just convinced me a monitor upgrade is required :)

the lighting is super nice though, as mentioned, can't really tell they are heavily strobed aside from the dark backgrounds...looks real good.


Thank you for the comments. I have been rotating them prior to printing, I found it very difficult to keep the horizons straight when shooting. That is something that I need to work on, it was often tough to keep my crops decent after rotating them back.

Sorry about the heights, I got that fixed.

Thanks again!

[3oh6]

Thank you for the comments. I have been rotating them prior to printing, I found it very difficult to keep the horizons straight when shooting. That is something that I need to work on, it was often tough to keep my crops decent after rotating them back.

Sorry about the heights, I got that fixed.

Thanks again!
yeah, that is usually an issue with rotating after shooting...you lose the ideal crop. i can't remember exactly how i started getting level horizons when shooting but i think it simply happened once i was made aware of it. in gyms like you are shooting in it is tough because you have so many angles of straight lines. the bleachers, benches, banners, etc... next time out just think about it and see what happens, you will likely naturally straighten them going into the camera. again, it comes down to the mind trying to keep the focal player perfectly vertical i think, so putting it into your conscious that they don't have to be might just do the trick. i look forward to the next set.

thanks for the re-sizes, perfect now...even for us lowly 1680x1050 users 8)