Well just as the weather turns from a very warm Indian Summer to the cold of late fall the bouncing of basketballs begin to fill the air.... and with that, girls high school basketball hits the hardwood, and in another week and a half the boys begin their season as well, yet some schools are still battleing on the gridiron for three more weeks. I know I have 5 five more football games to shoot, but they are not until after Thanksgiving when the final 10 teams remaining to do battle for the the 5 state championship tropheys. In the meantime, I'll be dodging basketballs, refs.
The girls take their sports seriously, and basketball sometimes resembles football here. The home team, in white won big tonight in a cross county season opener for both teams.

JS

Yeah bring on the round ball!!! Well as we move indoors there is a whole new set of shooting problems so get ready for a whole new tutorial to start John. Nice images by the way. Love the action with the girls.

not your best work JS. I've seen much better shots than these. 1 would be good if it were sharper, and run through a bit of neatimage, and 2 is just confusing as far as who's who goes. It looks like two girls on the same team are fighting for the ball. the wb is a bit yellow, but it's expected for gyms. 1 could also use a more even crop, with a bit more space at the top.

Thanks OT ... a whole new set of problems is sort of shown here. As Liven pointed out there are "problems" but thats why I posted em :) This gym absolutly BITES to shoot in. It is a dungeon at best. The "noisey" shot was taken at 3200 ISO :rolleyes:
First I didn't take time to do much on these....but they are 100% better than the originals! :eek:
This is one of those, ya better use flash joints or forget it :) I am curious as to what the paper used....I know they used one shot but thats probably it. I gave them the good stuff as usual.
Fortunatly tomorrow night I'll be at a real gym :), unfortunatly it will be the team in blues home and the team has some major issues this season and probably next too. However they have the best lit gym in the county.

ah yes, the ISO 3200. Wait, are you shooting with a Mk II? I hate shooting in ISO 3200. Not only does the quality suck and have a ton of noise, I feel like I lose a ton of sharpness. Good luck on your next venue. Glad to hear it's the best lighting available. Do you own strobes by the way? I'm thinking of investing in some in the next year or so.

Nope, no strobes :( and no $$$ to buy em at this point. I blew all my $$ on the new gear :) However, I may not need strobes, I did play with the flash a bit last night and I think I'll try that next trip there from up top. I got some OK stuff with the flash up there.

JS

what are you shooting these with for a lens? I got my old highschool (yes, john stark) yearbook to pay for part of a new canon 50mm f/1.8 for me in agreement that I would shoot a lot of the winter sports for the yearbook. Sweet deal, eh?

#1 I'd like to see the whole reflection on the floor, if you cropped this I think you maybe cropped too much off the bottom.
I'm sure there are 3 girls in that pile somewhere :)

#2 it's pinched a bit on that left edge
So many lefs in this, I love the near symmetry as they jump for the ball.
I think there may be 4 girls in there, but can't see enough of them to decide.
Count the legs and divide by 2 doesn't work.

Interesting the noise problem there, was this with the 1D?
I think the 20D has similar noise to the 1D mkII N, and I'm almost happy with it at 1600.

These are some very exciting photos. While not "technically" good, they do tell a story about the game. LIke SW said, #1 would be a little better with the whole reflection in the image. I like the competitiveness of #2. It tells me everything I have come to expect out of Indiana basketball.

I'm not sure how many giorls are in the shot :)
The reflection is not cropped....although the cheerleaders are.
This is the same place that I got a spectacular shot of a kid trying to dribble while falling , and a perfect reflection of him off the floor. The gym has lousy lighting but the most reflective floor. This may actually aid in the lighting problems though, and definately the color issues. The walls are not white, they are an ugly yellow. You cannot shoot at tungstein lighting setting even though thats what the lights are because the photos are completly yellow and ugly.

OK,
The noise, these are all second or third shots in a series. It appears the noise is worse on consecutive shots than the first shot, especially at 1600 and 3200. I do not see this at 800 at all, only those two speeds. The light also falls off dramaticaly between the second and third shots as well.... :confused:
What I did notice though, is when changing them to B&W they look exactly as B&W film would look like at those speeds.

I had more than enough for the paper and was playing around with 28-300mm lens when I took these.

JS

I like this one a lot. I might try a slower shutter speed for a darker background. I don't thoos basketball so I don't know if you could hold the action at a slower shutter speed. But it would make the girls pop a little more. Actually, the thing that I'd most like to see is less depth-of-field. Have you tried shooting with the 70-200 f/2.8L at f/3.2-4? I think that would be great. But again - I haven't tried it so I don't know. I live half a block from a University. I should probably try shooting a game some time, just so I can discover how hard it really is. It's easy to be a critic :rolleyes:

Well lets see here, shooting here at anything other than f2.8 you would need a flash. This dump is dark to the eyes, and I really hate the place. That said it is just 8/10ths of a mile from my home :o I do however like the mileage pay as I'm paid as if I drove 12 miles by the paper :D , but thats the only good thing about it!

I may use flash the next game there just to see what I get from the floor. With a diffuser (Stofen) I shouldn't blind the kids even at full power. It will probably be a boys game and they can't hit a shot anyway so flash won't matter :p The AD may not like it but he'll get over it (hmmmm, he knows where I live :eek: )

As for slower shutter speed, yes I do that on occasion, however certain people at the paper do not like it at all and gave both the staff photographer and myself a lecture on what THEY want. Too bad since those shots are often the best with a slow shutter :)

JS

Love them JS!

OT is right. A tutorial for indoor sports would be great.

My nephew is hoping I come and shoot some of his basketball games this season. I have never shot basketball in my life.

It wasn't long ago you hadn't shot football too.... :)

Anyway, basketball isn't hard to shoot, just a pain to get some good action. Getting individual shots is easy, getting a battle for the ball is another thing. It really comes down to being in the right place at the right time. At some gyms the best place (and safest) is up high. Being under the basket on the floor can be hazardous to you and your gear. I had one lens broken a few years back during a game when the ball hit it. I've had players crash into me too. In one girls case it probably saved her from injury and hitting the wall. Instead I was soar for a few days.

One thiong about shooting up high, at most gyms it will give you an additional stop with the reflection of the light off the floor.

JS