Freshman girls basketball- all ambient

Just a few samples from a recent shoot. As always, C&C are welcome!

Nice job, what lens/body are using

They are with a 5DII, and the 135 2.0L.

Thanks!

sfinkernagel wrote in post #11678576
They are with a 5DII, and the 135 2.0L.

Thanks!

LOL. Who'd a thunk it possible to shoot bball with a 5Dii and a 135L!

Nice job. Color is very soft but focus very nice. Not sure what camera settings you were on. Looks like shutter speed was definitely fast enough. They do look a tad dark on my monitor, but you ARE shooting in a HS gym which are usually a bit short on light.

dave

Dave-

Am I sensing some sarcasm there?

Stupid me, I guess..... trying to make it work in spite of all the focus issues I hear about, and the horrible focal length from that lens......

The truth is, That length works really well for me from the corner of the court, The 5Dii works so well in low light that it makes perfect sense to me in these caves that the kids play in. Focus issues? There are a few that miss, but I attribute that to my error.

This gym was actually not too bad to shoot in. They had florescent fixtures, which were giving light at about 3800K. The best part about them was that they were consistent- I didn't have the "wandering white balance" experience that most gyms provide. I shot these in Manual, 1/640, f 2.0, iso 3200. They were shot in RAW, and for the most part, I was able to bring them down about 1/3 stop in LR. That, by the way, is the brightest gym I have been in all winter.

As for dark- I get reluctant to push the exposure much higher. The highlights are close to the right side of my histogram, so especially when I am shooting the white team, I don't want to lose that detail. I could boost saturation and vibrance to give the colors more oomph, but then the skin starts to look funky.... Prints usually look good, so perhaps that is a colorspace/display thing.

Thanks for your comments!

Well....lens-wise, the 135 on FF is close to 85 on a crop. The 85 is one of the much touted lenses for indoor sports.

The new flourescent fixtures are not too bad if they install enough of them. Both of our gyms were redone, unfortunately for me the elementary gym is about 2/3 stop brighter than the high school gym.

Nice job!

nice job

sfinkernagel wrote in post #11678910
Dave-

Am I sensing some sarcasm there?

Stupid me, I guess..... trying to make it work in spite of all the focus issues I hear about, and the horrible focal length from that lens......

The truth is, That length works really well for me from the corner of the court, The 5Dii works so well in low light that it makes perfect sense to me in these caves that the kids play in. Focus issues? There are a few that miss, but I attribute that to my error.

This gym was actually not too bad to shoot in. They had florescent fixtures, which were giving light at about 3800K. The best part about them was that they were consistent- I didn't have the "wandering white balance" experience that most gyms provide. I shot these in Manual, 1/640, f 2.0, iso 3200. They were shot in RAW, and for the most part, I was able to bring them down about 1/3 stop in LR. That, by the way, is the brightest gym I have been in all winter.

As for dark- I get reluctant to push the exposure much higher. The highlights are close to the right side of my histogram, so especially when I am shooting the white team, I don't want to lose that detail. I could boost saturation and vibrance to give the colors more oomph, but then the skin starts to look funky.... Prints usually look good, so perhaps that is a colorspace/display thing.

Thanks for your comments!

Absolutely NOT! All the talk about the slow focusing capabilities of a 5Dii and your shots look GREAT!!! Also, the 135L (one of my favorites in the bag, BTW) give your shots that soft glow that really fits HS girls bball well. I'll bet they LOVE your shots.

dave

sfinkernagel wrote in post #11678910
This gym was actually not too bad to shoot in. They had florescent fixtures, which were giving light at about 3800K. The best part about them was that they were consistent- I didn't have the "wandering white balance" experience that most gyms provide.

I think you got some really nice shots... I am trying to learn to shoot BBall... how did you know the TEMP of the lights??? I assume once you determined that, you just set your WB to that temp?

I shot a gray card to set a custom white balance- that gets me pretty close. Since I am shooting RAW, I can adjust it in post, but I was probably within 100k out of the camera. I can tell the temp from where the sliders in LR end up- I generally adjust things until the skin tones look good, and usually that takes care of the other colors as well. In this case, the white balance temp for the shots was consistently around 3800k.

I have an expodisc also, but really- it just gets me close too. The gray card does that too, and I don't worry about losing it. Most gym lights are inconsistent- I am not an expert, but my understanding is that they cycle through a color range, and a full cycle takes 1/60 of a second. Since an exposure is only a fraction of that, I usually have a different white balance on every shot. This gym was an exception, because it was consistent- much nicer to process.

Overall- white balance is the biggest issue I have with basketball- If that is off, then the shots just look sickly.

Thanks for your comment!

snyderman wrote in post #11682377
Absolutely NOT! All the talk about the slow focusing capabilities of a 5Dii and your shots look GREAT!!! Also, the 135L (one of my favorites in the bag, BTW) give your shots that soft glow that really fits HS girls bball well. I'll bet they LOVE your shots.

dave

you mean you didn't sell that piece of garbage lens yet?

namasste wrote in post #11686530
you mean you didn't sell that piece of garbage lens yet?

Took it off the sell block and keeping it! Still trying to sell my 70-200 2.8 though! I use the 135 on the 5D with flash to take pics of the cheerleaders, sidelines, coaches ... pretty much everything else except the game action.

dave

snyderman wrote in post #11687110
take pics of the cheerleaders, sidelines, coaches ... pretty much everything else except the game action.

dave

the above comment = an increase in sales this season. smart move my man!