HS Basketball - 580EX II.

350D, 1/500, f/2,8, ISO 1600, 50mm 1,8, Flash Fired

royv wrote in post #4821548
What the hell is #5 doing? LOL

So, what is HSS? This is when your flash fires at a much higher speed - it actually fires a series of very high speed pulses rather than one continuous pulse. Because of this, and a few other factors, when you're in HSS mode, and running shutter speeds > 1/250s, you lose a LOT of range. See this explanation for more detail:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php​?t=208520

HSS can work OK, but I tend to avoid it. It also lengthens recycle time for the flash, which cuts down on fps, and uses up power at a far greater rate, so your batteries won't last as long.

Quote:
-Is it possible to use the flash to compliment the stadium lighting rather than replace it?
You might think this is a good idea, however it can cause more problems than it helps. The primary reason why you want your flash to be your dominant light source is that when you use flash, the duration of the flash burst is a lot shorter than the duration that the shutter is open. The flash duration of the 580EXx, at full power, is around 1/800s. As you reduce the power, the duration goes down considerably. In other words, the flash gets faster.

Why is this important? This faster duration does two things for you. One good, one not so good.

Firstly, the good: it can stop the action better than your shutter speed. You read that right - even though your shutter is set to 1/250s, you can actually get 1/800s (or faster if running at lower than full power) worth of effective action stopping.

Now the not so good: because when your flash fires when the shutter is open it exposes the sensor to its light. This is exactly what you want to happen, and why you use the flash. However, if the ambient light is close enough to the level of the flash, you run the very real risk of getting two exposures. Your sensor exposes once for the flash at, say 1/800s, and another exposure for the ambient at 1/250s. The result of this is a sharp image at 1/800s from the flash, and a slightly more blurry one at 1/250s, superimposed on each other. Not so good. You get a "ghost" image surrounding the sharp one - VERY annoying.

For this reason, I set my flash at least two stops higher than ambient, and if I see any ghosting in my images, I either up the Flash Exposure Compensation if I'm in ETTL mode, boost the power if I'm in manual, or dial down my exposure (dial down the ISO).

That's not to say you can't "finesse" mixing flash with ambient - just be aware that when you do this you might run into ghosting, and if you see it, you'll need to know how to deal with it. Again, I normally avoid this.

Another good reason for having the flash be dominant is that you can avoid the funky white balance issues that come from the lights cycling in gyms (or even in stadiums). Here's a great discussion of light cycling:

http://www.sportsshoot​er.com/message...html?​tid=20873

As for shooting manual (flash and camera), a trick I learned from another shooter is to shoot a series of images at various exposures (keep the aperture and shutter speed constant and vary the ISO) until you can JUST see the players - they'll look like shadowy ghosts. Leave the camera at this setting, and then turn your flash on at maybe 1/8 power, and move it up from there until your histogram shows some info on the right half. Shooting manual flash and camera can yield optimal results, but you'll need to adjust the level of your flash as the distance to your subject changes.

Quote:
I have been told that strobes are sometimes installed at facilities, especially basketball courts and I have been trying to figure out if there is a "poor man" solution that might be comparable.
Many pro and college arenas have strobes installed. These are VERY powerful and VERY expensive. Most of these are "permanent" and available only to team photogs, AP and Getty dudes and maybe SI, et. al. The rest of us are on our own.

Here are a few links with more info on this topic:

http://www.daveblackph​otography.com/...a-lighting.htm

http://www.gophotograp​hy.net/tips/lighting.h​tml

http://www.gophotograp​hy.net/tips/biglightin​g.html

A lot of us who shoot High School basketball and hockey will also install strobes temporarily (like White Lightnings or Alien Bees, for example) but even this isn't a "poor man's" solution, as it can cost a couple thousand bucks. I have had pretty good luck using my camera flashes mounted on flash stands, fired with Pocket Wizards (the most expensive part - these can be replaced with hard wiring, which is a LOT cheaper, but creates trip hazards) and found that this works remarkably well, and is very quick to set up and break down.

I have a battery-powered setup of 2 speedlites I use where I can't find electrical outlets and 2 Alien Bee 800's I use where electricity is available.

Check this out for a great discussion on using speedlites for lighting basketball:

http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com/2006/04...asket​ball.html

royv wrote in post #4821548
What the hell is #5 doing? LOL

As for shooting manual (flash and camera), a trick I learned from another shooter is to shoot a series of images at various exposures (keep the aperture and shutter speed constant and vary the ISO) until you can JUST see the players - they'll look like shadowy ghosts. Leave the camera at this setting, and then turn your flash on at maybe 1/8 power, and move it up from there until your histogram shows some info on the right half. Shooting manual flash and camera can yield optimal results, but you'll need to adjust the level of your flash as the distance to your subject changes.

mattograph wrote in post #4827765
Some neat stuff. Most impressed by how tack sharp these images are.

mattograph wrote in post #4827765
I am now going to find a public place to rub my nipples.