My first high school basketball.

All shots at iso6400, 1/500s, f2.8. 1dmarkIII + 70-200L 2.8 IS markII. Ambient light only. Critiques are welcome of course. I do hope not all of the HS gym light is this bad.... I decided not to use my strobe since this is my first game there. Not sure if there is a market, specifically for this HS, for my works.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …6804426733/in/p​hotostream

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …6804426007/in/p​hotostream

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …6804426263/in/p​hotostream

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …6804426513/in/p​hotostream

Your white balance is pretty off, you did a great job capturing the action though. Crop tighter and try position yourself behind the basket near the corners of the court. You'll be able to get shots of their faces that way.

Yep.The lighting is generally all bad.Shot my daughters Jr High game tonight with my 20d and 85 1.8 at 1600 iso and well thanks Canon for DPP to get rid of some of the noise.Good catch on the action.

White balance will be your biggest struggle here, IMO. The amount of light, based on your settings, is pretty typical. The color will be hard to pin down.

Behind the player benches, you have a large bank of windows- First off- use them. Try to shoot with them at your back, rather than into them, at least during daylight when there is light coming in. If you get behind the end line, try to be in the corner closest to the windows. You will have to watch your backgrounds if the fans sit on the opposite side, but your light will be better.

As noted- focus, timing, etc all look great, and your gear is certainly up to this task. Whether you sell something or not, it will be a fun challenge to undertake!


The gym lights look to be the old type- sodium vapor, I think. (I am guessing based on the reflections in the windows). The issue here is that they cycle through a color spectrum every 1/60th of a second- so at any given 1/500 of a second, they are always a different color. No white balance setting will hit that accurately- even a custom. Shoot in RAW, and fix it later- but count on tweaking almost every single shot to make it look consistent.

With those windows. Next time, if it's daylight, try iso 3200 and 1/640. This will pull back some noise and get on the baseline where the 3 point line meets the baseline. Nice captures!

Thanks guys. One more question. I assume it is a good etiquette to ask for permission to roam around the court parameters for photos. Do I ask the coach or the AD? I am still trying to test the water here and so I don't want to identify myself as a "freelancer" at the moment. I also notice that most players are right handed. They tend to shoot with the face facing their left side.

Good observation about right and left handed- pick your corner accordingly.

As for permission- At a high school, to be honest- I rarely ask. There's usually a newpaper guy or 2 around, who wander anywhere they want with an on-camera strobe- I am less of a problem than they are, and if I am asked to move, of course, I will. I make sure that I am not acting like a parent or fan- no cheering, etc. and I have never been asked to move. At this point, most of the coaches, Refs, and AD's know who I am am, so issues have been rare. If I am in a new gym and wanted to be thorough about things, I may ask permission from whoever seems to be in charge- that may be a coach or an AD- although if you don't know who the AD is, it may be hard to find them, if they are there at all.

Long story short- I would act in a professional manner, go where I need to be, stay out of the way of the game, and move away if I am asked to. Asking an AD for permission makes them responsible for you if they approve it, and I suspect that few would want that if they just met you.

You should be ok to move around as long as you dont get in anybody's way.If I'm in a smaller gym I'll usually hang around the baseline and make sure I stay out of the official's way.Good luck..

One thing I've foundis that most people are Right handed, so I am usually on the side of the court where they would be facing me when doing a layup. This is so the shooter is facing me when taking a shot. Just my two sense. As far as asking permission just act you are suppose tobe there. You shouldn't have problems.

Behind the baseline is a good spot, either to the left or right side. regulations here in oregon say nobody can be directly behind the basket because that's where a lot of players tend to trip/run into.

TBH that gym looks better lighted than most of mine i've shot in. I max it out around ISO 1600.