Well it's better than the first game was :) but then that didn't take much, other than descent lighting :) . Of course, as I expected the home team suffered their second defeat, this time it was only 54 - 12, so as of now these poor girls have been outscored 109 - 22 in just two games....ouch!

The photos:
The two of #21 were just because she's the best ball handler the team has, and the youngest player on the team as well. I like the small amount of motion blur in those two shots as they give the photos some movement. The one where the player is falling is one of two shots (the first one). I beleive the second shot was run in the paper because the editor emailed saying he really liked that shot. In it shes halfway to the floor and both girls (including the one grabbing for the ball) have really great expressions. The lighting in this gym is a heck of a lot better than the other thread, and one reaon I love shooting at this school.
Notice the light colored floor which helps the lighting. Originally I didn't like the Royal blue walls but since they fixed the lights it's not a problem. What is odd in this gym is they have both Tungstien and flourecent lights yet these were shot with auto WB in standard
(picture) mode 200 shutter speed, 800 ISO, f2.8 (EF 70-200 USM IS, IS mode 1), Large JPG file type.

JS

All in all, nice work. Lighting definately helps. I took some shots at a local h.s. game and the lighting was not good at all. Used my kit lens (D70)as I basically had no choice.

I think I'd crop your shot and draw attion to the players on the floor. I forgot to mention on my shots below that only the top shot is cropped, the others are full views.

JS

JS......shot was already cropped down from a bigger picture, and I was afraid of getting too much noise in a tighter crop, plus I didn't want the official's arm in the picture. I did try this again though, with the following result.

Yup, that looks much better. Now the lights and crowd are not distracting as they were before. It doesn't look like it hurt much recropping it. It would work better this way for a newspaper shot than the first version you posted.

Well I was right, they did run the shot of the girl falling to the floor :) ...glad she was ok though, they can't lose any more kids!

lol...I mispelled attention below :) fingers and brain are not working together today :)

JS

Wow... those basketball pictures are great. Using the same lens last night, I was getting very frustrated with the quality of my pictures. I even tried a flash (which just cast a nasty shadow).

I shot the pictures at f 2.8 ISO 1600 and the shutter speed averaged 100-200. When I get home today, I will try and hop online and post a couple of the better pictures to see what suggestions I can get.

How far back did you have to stand in order to get the near side pictures? I was all the way back in a corner just trying to get some decent shots. 70mm seemed way too close.

This is going to take some practice. I was able to shoot the frosh/soph game without any interruptions (because Mike was playing) but after he was done changing he came out to take pictures of the JV and Varsity game. There is another learning curve here :)

Thanks for sharing your pictures and thoughts!! I am like a sponge soaking this stuff up.

CW, sorry, I missed this one :(

Anyway I was may 7 or 8 ft from the line...dodging cheerleaders :) I normally shoot BB tight, but not tonight I was too far...but I can't sit on the floor...body won't take it :(

JS

didn't see this one before...

JS, the shots look soft. There's definitely some motion blur at work there. Now you see why I prefer that 1/640 like I was saying. ;)

didn't see this one before...

JS, the shots look soft. There's definitely some motion blur at work there. Now you see why I prefer that 1/640 like I was saying. ;)


There is nothing wrong with having motion blurr! I personally would rather have some motion than a a staggnent shot with no appearance of actual motion.
When used in newsprint you probably won't notice 99% of the things you say are problems, including the ssoftness you see here...the bleeding will cover up more than you can imagine.

JS

i prefer motion blur on hands, feet, balls, pucks, whatever, but never faces. I can't deal with blurred faces. that's my #1 pet peeve when it comes to sports photography.