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Basketball C&C

I tried my hand at basketball today. I used my 50mm 1.8 and 70-300 IS. With the 70-300 at the lower end I got f4-4.5 and shutter speeds in the 1/250th area. Needed to be faster to freeze the ball most of the time. With the 50mm you had to get close to the action. Hard to get a clear shot of the face without an arm or the ref blocking the shot. It seems difficult to get the basket in the shot as this age group doesn't play near the rim.

1/1600 f2 ISO 3200 Breakaway layups positioned just to the side of the basket are easy.

WVBB0001.jpg


1/1600 f2 ISO 3200 Keeping the arms out of the face is difficult.

WVBB0002.jpg


1/250 f4 ISO 3200 at 85mm Shooting them as they come towards you on the dribble seem like an easy shot.

WVBB0003.jpg
 

Nill Toulme

New member
Walter these are pretty good although they look a little soft to me and as usual WB in these gyms is a challenge, to put it mildly. It also looks to me like you're either standing up or up in the stands a row or two. I like to see these shots taken from the players' level or lower. Also while the crops look OK on the first two, I would crop the third one tighter.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 
I did adjust the jpgs with levels and picked a white point to get the WB better. How do you improve the sharpness?

I had to switch from RAW to JPG as I was running out of room. Will have to pick up another CF card.

The 3rd shot has her dad in the backround so I didn't crop it. But I agree it would be a better basketball shot cropped tighter.

Warren
 

Nill Toulme

New member
OK... daddy in the background is definitely important. Context, always context! ;-)

You can still tighten it up a little though, and straighten the tilt a bit. I also warmed it up slightly, did a local contrast enhancement to add a little pop, and hit it with PK Sharpener. This is just a quickie, but you get the idea...

WVBB0003.jpg

Hmmm... I still don't think I untilted it quite enough...

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I'm impressed Warren! 3200 ISO and perserverence!

Are you allowed to use flash? Take with a WhiBal card to correct the light.

Anyway, Warren, I am impressed.

Asher
 
Asher,

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't think anyone would complain if I used flash other than my daughter. She didn't want me to take pictures but couldn't wait to see them when she got home. I prefer not to distract the kids while they are playing if I can avoid it.

I don't own a WhiBal Card. Would you hold it in front of the lens and take a picture of it or put it on the gym floor? The gym light cycle and you can see different lighting in shots taken a 5fps. How would the WhiBal help with that?

Warren
 

Nill Toulme

New member
Warren she won't even notice the flash. You'll want to use a bracket though to keep the flash over the lens, otherwise the shadows are awful.

The way I use the WhiBal with cycling lights is to put it on the floor and then fire off a burst of ten frames or so of it. Then I memorize each of those frames as a Custom White Balance in my RAW converter (Capture One) — WAGym01, WAGym02, etc. Then when I'm converting, I can scroll through each of those custom WB's using my mouse wheel and pick which one looks best for each image.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Warren,

Please PM me your address and I'll award you a WhiBal card courtesy of Michael Tapes of http:/www.RAWWorkFlow.com.

You deserve it.

However you must report how you use it in the Gym and show your results. That last conditon is mine not Michael's.

Asher
 
Nil,

Can you believe I don't own a flash for my camera. I just use the pop up flash when needed. Do you have some examples of flash pics in a gym on your site? I'm thinking I would enjoy an 85mm 1.8 more that the 430 or 580 flash on my next purchase.

Asher,

Thank you. I appreciate all the help your forum provides. It's invaluable for someone like myself who is relatively new to SLR/DSLR photography.

Warren
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Our interest, Warren, is to promote peoples dreams and visions being implemented as fine prints.

You are obviously working hard and it's in out interest to watch you improve and make it!

Michael Tapes has been very generous in providing the WhiBal for exceptional efforts! We have more goodies to give out, in this case, I paid zero, The other awards are from me. More to follow.

Asher
 

Nill Toulme

New member
Warren I haven't used flash in the gym in several years, as I really don't like it, so I'd have to scratch around to find examples. The 85 f/1.8 would be an excellent choice instead.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Nill,

I know you can always do things by eye and that sunsets can get ruined by grey cards :) but do you find a place for grey cards or WhiBal in a gym to deal with the lighting coloration?

Asher
 
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