Womens BBALL, 1st Attempt...

Last night was my first go at Bball, and i gotta say it was sooo much harder than i expected. I was using a 40D, 70-200 f2.8, and a 580exii direct flash. The lighting was terrible as i'm sure it is in most gyms. Im new to the flash world and it seemed like almost 1/3 of the time my flash would not fire when i wanted it to..? Is this cause for concern? Anyways i was shooting most of the time with 1600 iso, 2.8 and around 320. I think it might be better for me next time to just shoot 3200 iso and just use ambient light. Or maybe bounce the flash? Anyways i'm a total noob to this and would love your criticism!

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Try some ambient at 3200 if you like but don't give up on flash.

First, remember that the maximum flash sync speed is 1/250 sec for the 40D. Set this in Manual mode. Faster shutter speeds will have problems.

Next, your flash has to dominate over the ambient light in order to avoid 'ghosting.' Strive to get your flash exposure to be 3 stops over ambient if possible (2 if you can't). So, if your camera properly exposes an image (without flash) at f/2.8, 1/250 sec, and ISO3200; you would like to set your camera on manual at f/2.8, 1/250 sec, ISO 400. Adjust your flash output to properly expose the image at these settings. That will allow you to 'freeze' the action with the flash and eliminate noise problems with the lower ISO. The ambient light will not 'blur' the image even at a slow SS of 1/250 because of the 3 stop adjustment in ISO.

The darker the gym, the better that flash will work.