Girls Varsity Basketball

Here is my 1st attempt at shooting some basketball

Canon 60d w/ 70-200 F2.8 IS II
Most shot at ISO 6400 and around 1/800 shutter
Some shot at ISO 3200 and around 1/500 shutter
Some shot in JPG others shot in RAW
Post processing in LR5, significant noise reduction required

Looking for C&C

The action is good and you appear to be shooting low which is also good.
They all appear to me to be a little soft, and the first two pics the white balance appears to be off.
I really like the B&W edit, nice job.
The last one is my favorite. Just my two cents. Keep posting.

You are shooting low. But I prefer to shoot lower. You are shooting down to player. I prefer to shoot up to the player. I don't like have the floor as the background,'and would rather see the bleachers and or open court. This provides a greater depth of field so you can separate your subject from the background. You can easily correct the white balance issue if you shoot raw. I always do a custom balance before every game to eliminate the step in post processing. You can also fix the soft photos in post by using the sharpening tool.

Thanks for the responses. I agree with shooting lower. Arrangements at the gym kept me from be able to sit on the floor to take pictures.

They don't look this soft in LR5 so I am wondering if it is happening during export.

The RAW files are very grainy and it seems to make it worse when I apply sharpening. I feel like sharpness control is virtually useless but maybe I am spending too much time zoomed in and pixel peeping instead of looking at the image at normal zoom levels.

Maybe you can help with my flow:
1. Adjust white balance
2. Adjust exposure
3. Adjust Highlights
4. Adjust white/black level (using ALT key)
5. Apply sharpening
6. Apply Noise reduction by sliding the detail almost all the way up and then adjust noise reduction amount until grain is reduced but facial details are not distorted.

Thoughts on this post process method

Also, I know that it is preferred to shoot slightly overexposed in high ISO to help with the grain. What is the preferred method of doing this with the 60d? I was shooting in Manual mode and at F2.8 and ISO6400 and then adjusting the shutter speed until the image looked slightly overexposed. Is there a better method?

Thanks in advanced for all the help.

Krottski wrote in post #16644945
Maybe you can help with my flow:
1. Adjust white balance
2. Adjust exposure
3. Adjust Highlights
4. Adjust white/black level (using ALT key)
5. Apply sharpening
6. Apply Noise reduction by sliding the detail almost all the way up and then adjust noise reduction amount until grain is reduced but facial details are not distorted.

This is my typical work flow: I start with the first pic and they sync all the setting for the rest of the pictures if there were taken in the same place.
1. white balance - I shoot everything raw.
2. exposure
3. clarity - somewhere around 10
4. vibrance - 20 to 25
5. saturation - 3 to 10
6. sharpening - on full frame 45 to 50, on crop 50 to 60
7. masking - 25 to 30
8. Noise reduction Luminance - depends on what is shot 30 to 60
9. Color noise reduction - rare I change it but around 35 if I do
10. click on profile for the lens corrections.
After I sync to all the other pics, I go back and adjust a little for each picture. Not much time spent here. LR is awesome.

Also, I shot in M. For girls basketball, you can get away with 1/640 with no issues. Adjust your ISO and aperture to make it work. I tend to shoot a little toward the right on exposure as well.

Tmalone893

I used your work flow for this one…any better? For sharpening what were your detail and radius settings? What about detail and contrast settings for Noise reduction.

Mine:
Sharpening
amount - 58
radius -3
detail - 100

Noise Reduction
Luminance - 68
Detail - 58
Contrast - 0
Color - 36
detail - 50
smoothness - 50

Krottski wrote in post #16645554
Tmalone893

I used your work flow for this one…any better? For sharpening what were your detail and radius settings? What about detail and contrast settings for Noise reduction.

Mine:
Sharpening
amount - 58
radius -3
detail - 100

Noise Reduction
Luminance - 68
Detail - 58
Contrast - 0
Color - 36
detail - 50
smoothness - 50

I really like this shot. I'd suggest 2 more edits however.

1) Straighten it out - She's actually leaning over pretty good. The bleachers are going downhill from right to left and it's really messing with my head.
2) Soften the background - Hit PhotoShop and do a selective blur over the entire background. My eye keeps going to #14 in the background and I think if the background were blurred, it might stop doing that. Might want to desaturate that green shoe while you're at it as well.

Overall, great shots. I really like the first and last shots in your initial post as well.

I don't think anyone softens backgrounds in sports shots like this. It appears that f2.8 might not have been used. I also think there is a bit too much motion blur on these, 1/500 is too slow.

Krottski wrote in post #16645554
Tmalone893

I used your work flow for this one…any better? For sharpening what were your detail and radius settings? What about detail and contrast settings for Noise reduction.

Mine:
Sharpening
amount - 58
radius -3
detail - 100

Noise Reduction
Luminance - 68
Detail - 58
Contrast - 0
Color - 36
detail - 50
smoothness - 50

I think it looks a lot better. Dave may be right in that you might have some motion blur which would cause it to be soft. Keep working at it .