basketball photos

[benji]

Hello,
My son plays basketball as well as other sports and every yr I find it difficult to take good shots of him playing basketball. I can get good shots of other sports, and I figure its probably mostly the lighting in gyms and the speed of the game. I just thought I'd ask for any tips. thanks:)

Thre are two of my photos in the gallery. http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=544

[jerryph]

Gyms and arenas are notorious for having wierd colour and poor quality lighting. One absolutely needs a fast lens, higher ISO and often a flash makes all the difference.

Check out this article over on the strobist's site:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/04/on-assignment-big-gym-little-lights.html

[benji]

Thanks so much for the link...wish we had that orange background!..LOL

[dkippen]

Benji -

With patience and practice comes perfection. We don't always get it right the first time, but taking that first step is great. As Jerry says, lighting is not always the best and unfortunately, the best lens for the job is typically the most expensive.

[ladyups]

I'm going to a 5/6 grade basketball game tonight. My great niece is one of the cheerleaders and has been begging me to come see her cheer. I plan on taking my camera but not sure I'll get anything good. I have a 75-300, 18-70 and 50 mm lenses and my external flash...any suggestions as to which lens I should use? And what ISO? The first two are not fast lenses...the first one is 4.5 and the second will open to 3.5 on the wide end. (I think this is right..:rolleyes:) The 50 mm opens to 1.7 but I don't think I can get close enough for it...

[jerryph]

Without knowing the actual conditions, I would have to guess that likely your 50mm would be your best bet (is it the 50mm F/1.8?), and plan to use a lot of the running shoe zoom method (lol). ISO. Likely somewhere around 800 or possibly higher. Set your white balance to auto and shoot in RAW if your camera supports it. That way you don't have to worry about the light colour, it can be easily adjusted later. Play with your aperture. Something between 1.8 and 4 will be needed depending on how much DOF you need, though at those numbers, your DOF will be limited.

For action if you can get to it, your goals should be to reach about a 1/250th shutter speed, where motion blur starts to fall off a lot. At 1/320th and up, motion blur is for all intents and purposes eliminated.

[dkippen]

Mary - don't forget to show us the results!

[ladyups]

Without knowing the actual conditions, I would have to guess that likely your 50mm would be your best bet (is it the 50mm F/1.8?). ISO. Likely somewhere around 800 or possibly higher. Set your white balance to auto and shoot in RAW if your camera supports it. That way you don't have to worry about the light colour, it can be easily adjusted later.

Thank you, Jerry, for the quick reply...I was afraid I wouldn't get a reply till after I left for work and won't have time tonight to check the site. No, its the Minolta 50mm 1.7. I don't know exactly how to use my flash yet. Its this one:..

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=11038686

[ladyups]

Mary - don't forget to show us the results!

You probably won't want to see the results...LOL...I'm not real good at indoor exposures. But...if any come out worth looking at, I'll share..

[ladyups]

Hey, Jerry...what about my metering mode...

I have Multi-segment, center weighted, and Spot

[jerryph]

Center weighted will give you a bit more accuracy on your target. With spot metered, if your target moves out and the camera hits the wrong "spot", metering will be off the most.

Multisegment is an overall average of what is in the complete frame and your target may be a little underexposed to your tastes.

That said... any will work becuase if you are shooting RAW (which you should be), it is easy to raise or lower the exposure a little to match your needs. :)

Just for laughs, I would try a few shots without a flash. Set the lens to F/1.4 (or whatever the biggest you can get the aperture to open), set your ISO to 800 and see what the shutter speeds are. If its not fast enough, I would just start raising the ISO or using the flash (if its allowed where you will be), but set the flash on manual and slowly raise power until it gives me just what I need to get the shot (if it has this level of adjustability).

Good or not so good, share anyways please, we all can learn from your experiences. We're all in the same boat! ;) :D

[benji]

Mary did you learn anything taking photos at the game? Do share?

[Zero]

Its not easy! I had a crack at bball shots when I first got my camera. Wide apeture and high ISO is the way to go. Anything to get the sutter speed nice and quick but still let in the light. Also is great for using the multi-shot mode, get those dunk action shots!
Heres one I took from up in the stands a fair way away.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2075/img0060sl2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2075/img0060sl2.d5f05be95f.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=253&i=img0060sl2.jpg)

[jerryph]

ISO 400, F/5 and a 1/100th shutter speed... thats a very well lit gym!

I've been to some where F/1.4, ISO 1600 only gave me 1/125th. Most hockey arenas are also in the ISO 800 and up brightness level and in my local rink I sometimes have to go as high as 2500!