A HS Girls' BSK Game - Strobed

Photos of a Friday night basketball game as I enjoy the court action and some of the energy that enhances it, whether that be; faces in the crowd, dance team, etc. C & C, as always, welcomed.

1) The Anthem.

#7 is off the scale good. Zow!

Love the faces. Got any more?

Great work... as for your question on number 4, I think you cropped it fine. One thing about girls prep basketball is there are lots of hands and arms flapping and slapping in the paint.

Thank you, Phil, glad you like it. As you requested, here are a few more from the same game.

1)

Great captures! May I ask your camera and settings? You strobes aren't overpowering the ambient light where did you place them? I say that as a compliment as I'm trying to achieve that look. Just enough light to have the images pop but not blow them out of the gym.
Again, great captures
C

Not bad. They look a tad over sharpened though.

C, Sure. 1D Mk3 with f/2.8, 70-200mm, and 1D Mk3 with f/2.8, 16-35mm, both w/PWII's. AB800's (2)(w/PWII's), w/11 in. reflectors, one each on our east side baseline, set about 8 paces off of the end lines against the east wall, on 13-foot Air-Cushioned Light Stand stands (Paul Buff)(anchored). AB's at about 10 ft high, bounced off of white raftered gym ceiling so main light falls just a bit higher than the top of the key. Most strobed shots (that were posted here) - 500 ISO, f/4. Backcourt shots - ISO 500, f/2.8 to f/3.2. Midcourt shots - ISO 500, f/3.2 to f/3.5. I shot from several angles; the baseline (endline to 3 pt. line), 12 rows up leaning against the bleachers railing, which is about flush with the baseline (There is about a 21 ft gap between the east end of the bleachers and the east wall on both sides.), behind the home team bench for Photo #5 (1st set), Photo #4 (2nd set)(this one f/4.5) and for the dance team photo (#7, 1st set), I sat on the home team chairs and set my ISO at 800, f/4. OK, that's a lot of info, hope it makes sense, I know, I know.....a photo of the set up would have been much easier to comprehend. Same gym tomorrow night, double-header, intracity rivals, boys/girls starting at 4:30 PM. Maybe I take a shot of this basic set-up for you. Hope this helps.

Chico, you have a lot of good things going on here. For starters, the exposures and action are great. Horizons leveled, check. Candids included (c'mon, its you, of course!). The only crit I really have surrounds the post work. To me, I think I'd like to see you tone down contrast just a touch on the action shots and give some thought to your sharpening process. To me, it looks like something got askew in some (#3 is a great example....especially the EC defender). Can you describe the technique you used and if USM, how it was applied, and what the USM settings were?

First of all, thank you (all) for your C & C, it is always appreciated and always opens pathways to contemplate.

Scott, I pp in CS6. (I have LR 4, and have just started "dabbling" in it, but still stay w/CS6 for now.) I use some "Actions" that I've created. For each "Action", if doesn't look reasonable to me, I go back "step by step" and pp. I do the following; (1) Auto Levels (Auto Tone/Auto Contrast/Auto Color), (2) Hue/ Saturation/Lightness (H = +1, S = +3, L = +2), (3) Sometimes will add Shadow/Highlights (Advanced) SHADOWS = Amt 33, Tonal Width 55, Radius 55, HIGHLIGHTS - Amt 9, Tonal Width 19, Radius 19, ADJUSTMENTS = Color Correction -9, Midtone Contrast +17, Black Clip 0.01%, White Clip 0.01%, (4) Unsharp Mask - Amt 75%, Radius 2.0 px, Threshold 3 levels, (5) if it's needed I might apply Noise Reduction using Noiseware (plugin, it used to be called NoisewarePro). Now, with each "Action" I insert a "layer" and always bring back the "opacity" to what I thinks looks reasonable. Also the above "Actions" were created with the intention that the photos would be printed on metallic paper, and their hi-res (300 ppi). When I processed the photos in this post, I did some of the "Actions" but probably should have "backed-off" more on the USM and the Contrast/Sat. BTW, using the "Actions" that I have created, it takes me about 7-10 secs to pp one photo.

Interesting process and I do the same in terms of using a layer for adjustments. I can't comment too much on all of the steps but in terms of sharpening, let me throw a couple things at you to think about....

I usually open my images in ACR (even jpgs using "open as" and selecting camera raw as the file type). Most of my WB, and tonal adjustments happen here including just a little sharpening (the slider is maybe at 20 or less with heavy masking). I just want a little capture sharpening. I basically have everything set as a default so I can open the image, tweak if needed at all, then open right into PS from there. I do no sharpening in camera. Obviously, this only takes a second to do since its basically open in ACR, then almost immediately open into PS with ACR applying the adjustments. IN PS, I will usually do a low opacity high pass layer (blending as soft light or overlay, take your pick to what looks better to you) and this sharpens it all up nicely. I do any local adjustments if needed, otherwise, I do one last USM pass usually around 120/.5/4 for output.

I point that out because the only time I'll use a high radius sharpen is if the image really shows softness. I've even gone to radius of 4 at times (maybe at 50-60 strength and 5-10 threshold) to help recover an image that just didn't get as sharp as I wanted but I only use those kind of USM settings as a last ditch. What I see in #3 looks much like what my output looks like when I resort to that method.

I'm not saying you are wrong in that approach but rather trying to give you some alternative approaches that might be worth trying out to see how things compare to your eye. It can never hurt to have more tools in your processing bag if you ask me so hopefully you can add this to yours bud!

Scott, I am always open to suggestions, in fact, you've piqued my interest here. I'll give it a try as soon as I have some free moments. I like the thought process. Thanks, man!

Chico,
Nice job! You nailed it!