Critique my middle school basketball pics

OK, I went back a re-cropped, straightened, and noise reduced the entire batch. Better?

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Thanks Sibil. That really helps. Nice gym. It looks about 1-2 stops brighter than the one my kids are playing in.

I'll try 6400 next time instead of bumping the exposure in LR. The 85mm FL looks pretty good.

Sibil wrote in post #18128294
I had to go back and find the originals.
Here are 3 pairs, first, SOOC, 2nd, cropped and somewhat post processed.
I took these the first week I owned the 6D, so I am sure the settings were not the best for sports.
I am not a pro; just a dad with camera that hangs out by the court
I hope they help.

ChrisAttebery wrote in post #18128302
Thanks Sibil. That really helps.......
I'll try 6400 next time instead of bumping the exposure in LR.

You are welcome.

You can easily shoot at 6400 and higher with the 6D. Bumping the exposure in post is really not a good idea.
If you have concern with really high ISO, shoot at +1/3EV. That helps a lot in my experience.

If you don't mind me saying, 50mm on a full frame is kind of short for a lot of the captures, unless you are after a specific shot, like under the basket, etc.

Sibil wrote in post #18128317
You are welcome.

You can easily shoot at 6400 and higher with the 6D. Bumping the exposure in post is really not a good idea.
If you have concern with really high ISO, shoot at +1/3EV. That helps a lot in my experience.

If you don't mind me saying, 50mm on a full frame is kind of short for a lot of the captures, unless you are after a specific shot, like under the basket, etc.

I agree.

Shoot tight, crop tighter.

Players not directly involved in the action are spectators and take away from your image. Crop them out.

Eventually this will likely mean a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens though the 85mm f/1.8 is a good start for now. Don't obsess about noise. Shoot at the proper exposure and don't underexpose and correct in post. That will only make the noise worse.

Phil

How do you plan on using the pictures? If you'll only ever print them small...8x10 or smaller, don't worry to much about the noise at higher iso.

I've been shooting 3 grandsons BB for 17 years. The 85/1.8 is worth every penny you pay for it. Besides having a "closer" view, it's Image Quality is really good - you can easily crop 4-5x with no impact on quality. This enables you to shoot from the baseline, then move to the mid/upper seats and still get great shots.

I would suggest editing with a small bit of sharpening - it gives a small bit of "pop" to each pic.

Tonight I cropped my original pictures to 50% (100mm) and 58% (85mm) of their original widths. Most of the pictures I cropped to 50% seemed a bit too tight. I either need to use an 85mm lens or I'll have to back up a bit with the 100mm.

ChrisAttebery wrote in post #18135028
I either need to use an 85mm lens or I'll have to back up a bit with the 100mm.

From my experience, most school gyms are cramped, sometimes with lots of foot traffic and/or hardly any space around the court. IMHO, 85 would work better, since you may not have the option to shoot from further back. Consider that the team will be playing in multiple different gyms. Just pointing out that he lens decision should not be based on one gym.

I sold my 50mm and bought the 85mm f/1.8. Saturday was the first time I got a chance to shoot with it. I shot in Av mode, f/1.8, +1/3EV and ISO 6400. That yielded a 1/640 exposure time pretty consistently. Next time I'll leave it in Manual. I was pretty happy with the results. Most of the ones I trashed were due to me not keeping the focus point on the right subject. I bumped up the tracking sensitivity (1) and accel/decel tracking (2).

In post I did a little noise reduction. Most of the pictures were cropped , but not nearly as much as with the 50mm (obviously).

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A day and night improvement. Well done. Remember that your dof will be small at f/1.8.


Phil

Zivnuska wrote in post #18147126
A day and night improvement.

Agreed.

Great job.

I've taken a few hundred shots in the last couple weeks. I found that my EF 85mm f/1.8 lens was back focusing quite a bit. I had to set the MFA to -17. Since then the percentage of pictures in focus has improved.

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Two thoughts for you. White balance seems a little warm. You might want to try a custom white balance for those lights or, work on it in post. second, I think your pictures would look better if you got the camera lower. Pretty much all of the shots above look like you are looking down at the players. You can make them look more awesome if you are looking up at them.

Oh, and one more thing, dribbling shots look better when the ball is at or closer to the hand of the player.

Agreed.

As you eventually play around with your editing, try some small color contrast - it give the photo a "pop".