VCMS Strobed Girls Basketball

First basketball game this year and the first time using the new 1D MKIV with strobes. The Hornets walked away with wins in both divisions tonight! C&C welcome.

1. 7th Grade A Team Girls

Good job, Mark.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, so that is what skin tones are supposed to look like.

They look nice Mark. Remember the 1D's can sync up to 1/320. From what I'm seeing I think you might need to shoot stopped down another 1/3rd or so to get your exposure under ambient a bit more. Not sure if your strobes are being bounced or direct, but maybe setting your shutter at 1/320 would have been enough to remove the motion blur.

X-sync at 1/300 sec. (with EOS-dedicated external Speedlite)

1D Mark IV owners manual page 259.


Non-EOS Speedlights and off camera flash units may have slower sync speeds but not faster.

Zivnuska wrote in post #13475653
X-sync at 1/300 sec. (with EOS-dedicated external Speedlite)

1D Mark IV owners manual page 259.


Non-EOS Speedlights and off camera flash units may have slower sync speeds but not faster.

It lies. My MkIII and MkIV sync at 1/320 day in and day out. I don't get banding until 1/400. That's using AB1600's fired remotely.

Really nice series, my only critique is to mentally try to remember to only release the shutter when the ball in in the players hands. IMO it make for a better overall image eg. like the 1st image posted.

Here is an example of the shadowing occurring at 1/320 sec. Taken with a 1D Mark III, the problem shows up here as the darker vertical banded area on the right of the image. Alien Bees (B800s) triggered with Pocket Wizard Plus IIs. If you are willing to crop off that area, the rest of the image is unaffected.

Those are really nice Mark. Some of the best flashed basketball I've seen this year. Could you tell us a little about your setup?

Bob,

I use 4 AB800's bounced off the ceiling fired by Pocket Wizards. The AB800's are placed on the north end of the gym in each corner and fired at a angle to the ceiling. I use the long throw reflectors on the AB800's which are available from Paul C. Buff.

Phil Zivnuska showed me this setup when I started shooting basketball last year. Phil is a great resource and in my opinion an authority on this forum. I am fortunate Phil and I live about 10 minutes away from each other and our kids attend the same school.

Take a look at this thread that Zivnuska posted. Picture #8 in the beginning of the thread will show how we set the strobes up for the images you see above and in Zivnuska's thread. I hope this helps and if you have have additional questions fire away.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=973609

Thanks for the kind words.

Phil and I had this same discussion last year on the sync issue. I inadvertently changed the max sync speed from 1/250th to 1/320th on the 1D MKII I was shooting with at the time. The link below is a result of selecting a higher SS then the max sync of the camera.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=969985

Not doubting Phil...but I don't have an issue with either of my bodies. Mine must be broken. And if it is banding it sure is not noticeable to me.

Both uncropped unedited (other then converting from raw to jpg) shot at 1/320, two AB1600's on each side of the court with a Mark III.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …wrphotography/6​434405271/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …wrphotography/6​434433461/

You can also get to 1/640 with the TT5's and AB800's without getting the banding. I've practiced with this last week during derby practice.

Just a little configuration with the software on each of the controllers and you're good to go. Of course, 1/640 might overpower your ambient a little too much.