HS Basketball

[Old Timer]

The high school season is winding down and KY is headed for tournament play. here are a few from one of the last regular season games.

[ConnieG]

Hello! I am new to the forum, and a beginning photographer. I think your pictures are great and am looking to get some good high school basketball photos also. I have an older Nikon D50 camera and just got a new Sigma 70-200mm lense. Do you know what settings I should use, or where to find the answers.

[Old Timer]

Nice to have you aboard here on the PR sports forum. Your setting will vary from venue to venue so it is impossible to tell you a magic setting that will work in every situation. I'm not familiar with the low light capabilities of the D50 but I would recommend using the highest ISO setting that you can without getting excessive noise. I'm able to shoot at 3200 and even 6400 when I shoot in raw (which I highly recommend) it would surprise me if you can get away with that with the D50. As for shutter speed and aperture use the fastest and the widest that you can. For action I would never go below 400 and I generally always shoot at f2.8 for indoor sports.

[ConnieG]

Thank you for your reply! (I have never participated in a forum so I am happy to see how this works.) As I said I am a beginner... I need help on a few more of the settings.
1. On the top dial what general setting do I use? The mode dial shows P-programmed auto, A-aperture-priority auto, S-shutter-priority auto, or M-manual. (There is also Auto, Landscape, Sports, Night portrait, Portrait, child, and Close up).
2. What ISO do I use? The highest I have is 1600.
3. How about white balance? There is Auto, incandescent, Fluorescent, direct sunlight , and flash (which I was hoping not to use)

[Old Timer]

As you begin to learn there will be a lot of trial and error. I would start by trying the highest ISO setting you have and hope that noise is not a major problem. I always shoot in M or manual mode. That way I can select the shutter speed and aperture that I need to get the best results. You may want to try A at your widest aperture and see where the camera suggests your shutter speed to be. If it is way slow to stop the action then you may need to adjust to compensate. Be sure and get your meter readings from off the players, don't let the camera get an average reading with a very dark background.

Sorry it took a while to answer you I've been out of town on business. You may want to check my SmugMug Sports gallery for other examples of action sports under varying conditions and venues. Here is a link to that site. LarryGooding's Photos

[ConnieG]

Thank you! I will try the photo tips and look at your link. I'm excited about possibly getting some better sports photos!

[Old Timer]

Thank you! I will try the photo tips and look at your link. I'm excited about possibly getting some better sports photos!

Love to see some of your results. I it's always easier to help when you can see wht you need to try and improve.

[Deuns]

Those are some awesome pics

[Deuns]

I love the graphics !!

[Bob32]

Hello! I am new to the forum, and a beginning photographer. I think your pictures are great and am looking to get some good high school basketball photos also. I have an older Nikon D50 camera and just got a new Sigma 70-200mm lense. Do you know what settings I should use, or where to find the answers.

ConnieG,

The D50 debuted in 2005 which makes it considerably behind current digital photography technology. I bought a Nikon D200 in 2007 which also had a practical limit of ISO 1600. I struggled to shoot basketball games in high school gyms and was able to get decent results only if I used 50 mm. f/1.8 and 85 mm. f/1.8 prime lenses that enabled me to get enough light. You may want to consider purchase of a 35 mm. f/1.8 or 50 mm. f/1.8 lens (or both) to get you the light you need in school gyms that typically are dimly lit. On my full-frame D700 I frequently use a 50 mm. f/1.8 with manual-mode settings of 1/500 and f/2.8 for shooting basketball games. However, I am typically shooting in the range of ISO 3,200 to ISO 5,000. With the D50 shooting at ISO 1600 you might have to open up an f/1.8 lens to as much as f/2. Even then you might find the light obtainable to be marginal. Also depth of field at f/2 is less than desirable. I realize that I am not painting a very good picture for using D50 for photographing indoor sports, but the fact is that its not easy to shoot indoor sports and higher end equipment is desirable in order to obtain decent results. With the D50 you might have to resort to use of flash. I don't use flash, so cannot advise you regarding that.

Regarding white balance I set a custom white balance for each of the gyms in which I shoot sports. Like Larry I recommend shooting RAW.

Bob

[ConnieG]

Love to see some of your results. I it's always easier to help when you can see wht you need to try and improve.

I uploaded some pictures to the gallery, and it says image pending approval. Maybe that is not the place to post them??? I used the manual setting and used iso 1600. I had apperature at 2.8. I was only able to get 125-320 shutter speed, depending on the gym we were in.
Overall I realize they are blurry and grainy. We tried exposure compensation -1.7 (someone told us to) and they seemed dark. In talking to people, we are leaning towards getting a new camera... thinking the Nikon D 7100. I'm also going to check into shooting RAW. I need to figure out how they would be converted to JPEG for sharing and adobe that I use.

[ConnieG]

ConnieG,

The D50 debuted in 2005 which makes it considerably behind current digital photography technology. I bought a Nikon D200 in 2007 which also had a practical limit of ISO 1600. I struggled to shoot basketball games in high school gyms and was able to get decent results only if I used 50 mm. f/1.8 and 85 mm. f/1.8 prime lenses that enabled me to get enough light. You may want to consider purchase of a 35 mm. f/1.8 or 50 mm. f/1.8 lens (or both) to get you the light you need in school gyms that typically are dimly lit. On my full-frame D700 I frequently use a 50 mm. f/1.8 with manual-mode settings of 1/500 and f/2.8 for shooting basketball games. However, I am typically shooting in the range of ISO 3,200 to ISO 5,000. With the D50 shooting at ISO 1600 you might have to open up an f/1.8 lens to as much as f/2. Even then you might find the light obtainable to be marginal. Also depth of field at f/2 is less than desirable. I realize that I am not painting a very good picture for using D50 for photographing indoor sports, but the fact is that its not easy to shoot indoor sports and higher end equipment is desirable in order to obtain decent results. With the D50 you might have to resort to use of flash. I don't use flash, so cannot advise you regarding that.

Regarding white balance I set a custom white balance for each of the gyms in which I shoot sports. Like Larry I recommend shooting RAW.

Bob

Thanks for your input! I am really unhappy with the quality of my pictures and am thinking about getting the Nikon D 7100.

[Bob32]

Thanks for your input! I am really unhappy with the quality of my pictures and am thinking about getting the Nikon D 7100.

ConnieG,

I'm not surprised to hear that you had problems getting decent results shooting your D50 at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 in the various gyms. Going with a D7100 would be a definite step in the right direction. If you can afford it a full-frame dslr like the D600 would be a giant step in the right direction.

Bob

[ConnieG]

Thanks for the info but I wont be able to get the D600...