Basketball tournament action

[Bob32]

OK, now that I have five posts under my belt I’ll attempt to make my maiden voyage here by posting photos for the first time.

These six shots were taken during a game played the first day of a recent high school basketball tournament. The local Panthers (white jerseys) were clearly one of the best teams in the tournament and won this contest 71-65.

I was stationed behind the baseline with a Nikon D700 + 24-85 f2.8-4 for all of these shots. Exposure was manually set at 1/500, f/4, and ISO 6,400. Noise Ninja was used for noise reduction.

Comments are welcome.

Bob

[Old Timer]

White walls and Noise Ninja sure made a difference here. The D700 is very good at high ISO's but 6400 is just ridicules. No way I would try and shoot ISO 6400 and expect descent results in my home gym even with my D700. Nice actions shots hope to see lots more from you in the weeks to come.

[Bob32]

Larry,

Thanks for your comments.

This high school gym used to have such a bad lighting system that I eventually gave up on it and refused to attempt to shoot any more indoor sports there. Then a couple of years ago the school updated the gym by installing a new floor and new lighting system. When I first walked into the updated gym I was nearly blinded by the light. I could hardly believe my eyes. It's now the best lit gym in the area and qualifies as my favorite gym.

If I were a follower of the every-sport-shot-at-f/2.8 school of photography I could get by in this gym by shooting at "only" ISO 3200 instead of 6400, but I prefer a bit more depth of field created by closing down to f/4 or so.

Even though I use Noise Ninja to reduce noise at high ISOs the amount of noise at ISO 6400 is rather modest. To minimize noise It helps to nail the exposure. I avoid under-exposure like the plague.

In all of the other gyms in the area I am typically operating in the range of ISO 8000 to 12,800 and still getting good results. Life has been a lot easier since I started using a D700 for indoor sports instead of a D200!

I visited your SmugMug galleries. What caught my eye were the photos you posted of the UK vs. MSU Women's Basketball game. The garish outfit worn by the guy who is presumably one of the coaches was almost beyond belief. It's hard to imagine an adult male bring willing to appear in public in such garb. He must be the showbiz type!

When posting photos here is it possible to provide space between the photos and insert comments pertinent to any of the photos? If possible, I'd also like to number each photo for reference purposes. Please advise.

I notice that when you open up the threads for review sometimes the original post is at the top and sometimes at the bottom. I'd like the original post to be always at the top. How do I control this?

Bob

[Old Timer]

Tom Hodges is the coach's name and he got a lot of national pub last year, his first at Morehead, when he started wearing the Loudmouth clothing. On a whim he emailed Loudmouth about their clothing line after seeing Pro golfer John Dailey wearing it. To Tom's surprise the president called him back in 10 minutes and offered to outfit him and his assistants if they would wear his clothing. It has been a big publicity success for both. I also had a HS game early this season where the male coach was wearing Loudmouth as well.

I'm going to forward your tech questions to the Captain of the ship Photo John. He should be able to get you going in the direction you want.

[Bob32]

Larry,

Thanks for the info. I question whether any high school or college needs publicity like this! But hey! I'm an old-school senior citizen who remembers the days when things were "normal."

Thanks also for forwarding my tech questions.

Bob

[Bob32]

White walls and Noise Ninja sure made a difference here. The D700 is very good at high ISO's but 6400 is just ridicules. No way I would try and shoot ISO 6400 and expect descent results in my home gym even with my D700. Nice actions shots hope to see lots more from you in the weeks to come.

Larry,

I have plenty of sports photos that I could post, but I'm concerned about the lack of response to posts. In scrolling through the list of threads I note that the ratio of Views to Replies is very high. There's a lot of lookers, but very few responders! For example, you are the one and only person who has responded to the thread I started three days ago. I enjoy having a dialog with my fellow photographers, but it takes two to tango! Is this what I can normally expect or is it an aberration due to the holidays?

Bob

[Old Timer]

Larry,

I have plenty of sports photos that I could post, but I'm concerned about the lack of response to posts. In scrolling through the list of threads I note that the ratio of Views to Replies is very high. There's a lot of lookers, but very few responders! For example, you are the one and only person who has responded to the thread I started three days ago. I enjoy having a dialog with my fellow photographers, but it takes two to tango! Is this what I can normally expect or is it an aberration due to the holidays?

Bob

I think the holidays has a lot to do with it Bob although we have over the last couple months seem to have few responses on the sports forum and fewer traditional sports photographers and more of the extreme and alternate sports.

[dhyravy]

I'll jump in here. I have been very busy at the "real" job and shooting this year. Although I'm not an available light shooter, these look pretty good. Watch the sharpening in NN though, most of my editors would kick these back as "over processed". I don't find these shots objectionable but that's the way it is in the "real" world. I have to say though that having tough standards has helped me tremendously to up my game. My goal is to have no drops from the editor which can be tough sometimes.

[Bob32]

Daniel,

Thanks for commenting. I'm glad that I just do this just for fun in retirement and don't have to satisfy your demanding editors! I don't use the sharpening function in NN. Instead I use Adjust Sharpness in Elements 6 for Mac. I'm careful to avoid over-sharpening by watching that I don't produce halos along edges.

Educate me. What is it about these images that would cause your editors to stamp them as "over-processed." Please be as specific as possible so that I know where I might alter my editing technique.

Bob