First Basketball-no flash

This my my first foray into basketball. My neice is in red, #25. She got laid out by the defender but scored. This gym was hard to shoot in as the lights cycled really funky. All adjustments made in DPP.

This was shot with 50D/85mm f/1.8 @ f/2.5, 1/500, ISO3200. I found myself struggling to get what I thought was a good composition: face, ball, hoop.

Advice and C&C welcomed!

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Tim S wrote in post #11395066
This my my first foray into basketball. I found myself struggling to get what I thought was a good composition: face, ball, hoop.

Advice and C&C welcomed!

Congrats on your first try. If there is room (6-10 foot buffer), a great place to shoot is from the baseline--especially from beyond the lane line on the player's left side as he/she faces the basket. Most younger players are right handed (opposite for your niece?) and tend to go to the right and then eventually must turn to face the basket to shoot. You will get a lot of pics of players driving to the hoop or shooting from this location--shots with the ball and the player's face.

The depth of field is really quite thin at f/1.8

Thanks Phil, I should add that I did my usual routine like volleyball: Manual, RAW, set shutter speed desired, wide open if neccessary and ISO needed to make exposure. My home gym is lit a lot better, I have been f/3.2, 1/800 at ISO 1600 for volleyball. A trend I've noticed is the contrasting school colors in gyms: dark greens, purples, black, etc. Sometimes that makes weird reflections.

nice pic

Was this shot with daylight coming through windows? That is an incredibly bright background. What was your shutter speed? The pic is a bit too bright for me. Shooting without flash for the first time can be both intimidating and liberating. Keep shooting.

Joe: no windows in this gym, night game anyway. These lights were crazy as far as color change/cycling. In some frames from this game, that bright white wall is pink.....

Not my first time without flash, I've shot volleyball ambient for four seasons. This is my first basketball photography, so I appreciate the comments. Can't wait to shoot in our gym as the lighting is pretty good.

Thanks!

good start. get under the basket more so you can get them coming at you...

superdiver wrote in post #11405054
good start. get under the basket more so you can get them coming at you...

Thanks! This gym had bleachers on the ends that were about two feet from the base line. Not much room to work as I didn't want to sit in the bleachers. I have more room at our gym on the ends(no bleachers) and we have bleachers on both sides of the court.

I will probably try the 70-200 f/2.8 for part of the game. I used my 28-70 f/2.8 Tokina for a few here but I think it is a little slow focus-wise. The 85 f/1.8 works nice. I wish back when I was started that I would have bought the 28 f/1.8 instead of the f/2.8 model that is now duplicated with the zoom. Oh, well...20 years worth of hindsight!

Nice!