Rotten Ambient, Close Baseline, and Couldn't Use Strobes

In a little town to shoot the semis and finals of a small school tournament. The gym lighting came from old off-color bulbs plus skylights. My games started after sunset of course. The wall was very close to the baseline and nobody was permitted to stand or sit next to the wall. Strobes were not a possibility so I shot with a speed light mounted on the camera. I'd never tried that with basketball before. I'm 3 stops over ambient.

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Actually Phil these are quite good considering the circumstances..... nothing to be ashamed of. I'm curious, what were your camera settings? Nicely done. - Stu

Most of these are ISO 1600 and f/4.0 or 4.5, 1/300sec

I was happy with the skin tones. Some of the eyes look a funky after red-eye correction. It was a situation where you are trying to make the best of a situation. Shadows can be a problem. I had to project the shadows on the crowd as much as possible. You can really see them on #4 where there were empty stands in the background.

Thanks for the additional info - I see your difficulty, but pulled off well. You needed the high shutter to freeze action. If you lowered it a bit the background ambient would have come up a little and flash would have still frozen the action...but....at some point would get comet tail blurring off the players. Tricky scenario with some experimentation for best results. You done good .

A SS of 1/300 was used because that is the max sync speed of my camera body. The action was stopped by the flash. Because the gym is so dark, I was able to expose at 3 stops over ambient. That's why the background is so dark--from the light fall off.

In truth, the SS is relatively unimportant when the flash is this far above ambient.

They do look good. I never understood why strobes are not allowed but they allow on camera flash. But I've have had that happen at least a couple of times each year. When shooting flash I use a bracket that will keep the speed light above the cameras when shooting in portrait position. That seems to help hide the shadows.

A lot of people will not like the background being underexposed but personally I like it as it helps isolate the subject.

Good work as usual Phil.

I think these look great! Were these naked flash? I've never tried strobes or speedlights - always shot ambient. Might have to try it.

mrwilt wrote in post #13749366
I think these look great! Were these naked flash? I've never tried strobes or speedlights - always shot ambient. Might have to try it.

Try bouncing a pair of strobes.

and you had no complaints/issues about using on camera flash that close to players?

Man, I've gotta say that I'd have rather seen you push that Mark IV and shoot at 2.8. Honestly, noise isn't that big of an issue. These look... well, they definitely look like they used direct flash.

3 stops over ambient? Embrace it. You bought a Mark IV and a 2.8 lens. 2.8 and 6400 would give you 1/300 without a flash. Bump it up to 12,800 so you can bump up the shutter speed to freeze action, run a bit of NR, and then you can get rid of that flash.

dakana wrote in post #13751141
Man, I've gotta say that I'd have rather seen you push that Mark IV and shoot at 2.8. Honestly, noise isn't that big of an issue. These look... well, they definitely look like they used direct flash.

3 stops over ambient? Embrace it. You bought a Mark IV and a 2.8 lens. 2.8 and 6400 would give you 1/300 without a flash. Bump it up to 12,800 so you can bump up the shutter speed to freeze action, run a bit of NR, and then you can get rid of that flash.

I totally disagree. These look great. Use flash when and where it is appropriate. No use in creating a bunch of extra post for yourself.

sempaidavid wrote in post #13752820
I totally disagree. These look great. Use flash when and where it is appropriate. No use in creating a bunch of extra post for yourself.

I guess each their own, but I agree with you sempaidavid. Although it takes more work/skill to shot with flash/strobe, I like the results so much better, and less editing is a plus as well. And it seems a few publishers prefer the look as well. The added cost to strobe H.S. gyms have more then been paid for several times over. And I've read where there are people who prefer the look of high ISO images. That's fine...I just don't get it I guess.

dakana wrote in post #13751141
Man, I've gotta say that I'd have rather seen you push that Mark IV and shoot at 2.8. Honestly, noise isn't that big of an issue. These look... well, they definitely look like they used direct flash.

+1... I'm with dakana. You have one of the cleanest, noiseless camera on the market, go with it. And if you choose to reduce noise in post, it takes only about 6-7 clicks to sync it all, no more than 10 seconds.

mellofelow wrote in post #13752906
+1... I'm with dakana. You have one of the cleanest, noiseless camera on the market, go with it. And if you choose to reduce noise in post, it takes only about 6-7 clicks to sync it all, no more than 10 seconds.

Sometimes it's that easy. Other times it's not.

Below is one of the examples when it's not possible to adjust one and sync the rest:

Shot with a MkIV, 70-200 II, ISO 8000.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …wrphotography/6​713950777/

id say nicely done considering the circumstances