Basketball... also known as "Things that are meant to try us"...

Here's what the average basketball venue in Essex looks like on AWB

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Nice looking shots.. I like the human tripod shot

LOL, I love the irony in the first picture - where's the fury?!!

Good ones, Gavin!

Thanks bayareatuners... much appreciated!

---- Gavin

Hope you don't mind I have had a play with the white balance in your first picture and it don't come out too bad.

Nice one bodmin

It was originally shot in RAW... I didn't adjust the WB as I was just trying to illustrate the rather unusual lighting at the venue.

The problem is trying to balance the flash with the ambient lighting. Using a flash is the only way to freeze the action successfully as the ambient exposure on the court itself is 1/400s, f/1.8 at ISO3200 in the bright patches - a tadge too slow for my liking. Bizarrely the lighting is slightly better towards the team benches and seating

I could eliminate the background completely by working at a low ISO and just use the flash as the primary source of illumination - however, the team I'm shooting usually wears black shirts (luvly jubbly), so they would blend into a gloomy background. Therefore I have to show a little bit of background detail.

The players are exposed by the flash which gives them the correct colour balance... however, the background is, of course, still orange. I've ordered up some gels so that I can modify the colour temperature of the flash to be closer to the ambient light - we'll see if that works.

Despite all this waffle, I'm actually growing to like the B&W versions... but that might just be me showing my age

---- Gavin

I really love your B&W conversions,they are more pleasing to the eye having used flash....and I don't mind showing my age at all, B&W rules for timeless quality! The shots are great anyway, some top action there.
Roger.

Love those bucket shots! The conversions are quite excellent and have a film-like quality to them. Thanks for sharing!

Okay Gavin - so why are you using flash rather then strobing the place? I know setup would be a little bit more, and make it a little harder to slip out early un-noticed. I love how you keep flash balanced to the point that it is just below the point of having the highlights begin to wash -makes for some very crips images with great contrast.