OVC Volleyball

[Old Timer]

A little of the action from the Ohio Valley Conference opening game for Morehead State University and Belmont. Even darker at this venue than the high school I have been shooting at. All shot with either the D700 or the D7000 at ISO 5000 and 1/400 at f2.8.

[Photo-John]

I think I can tell which ones were shot with the D7000

But overall, these are very impressive for those two cameras - especially the D7000. I would never even consider shooting at ISO 5000 with the D7000. But it's obviously working for you. Are you using any noise reduction in post for these?

Great timing and composition, too. Those first three are really good.

[Old Timer]

Thanks for the look and the comments John. I'm very pleased with the D7000 as a second body and backup to the D700. Wish I had the resources to get a D3S or a D4 but that doesn't look like a possibility anytime soon. I don't like to go to ISO 5000 but didn't have much choice with light conditions in this old building. I do routinely shot at ISO 3200 for sports action in able to keep my shutter speed where I want them and don't have a lot of noise problems with either camera. Yes there is a small amount of noise reduction done in post using Neat Image.

[Bob32]

Larry,

Nice shots. My favorite is #1. Too bad there's no ball showing in #3. The last two shots would benefit from straightening.

I never shoot volleyball at less than 1/500, but it looks like 1/400 did OK for you here. With the D700 I'm typically at ISO 6400 minimum and in the dungeons called gyms sometimes have to go to ISO 12800 where acceptable results are still obtainable. God bless the D700!

This is my first visit to this website in a while. Is your limit still 800 pixels per side? I'm used to a website that allows 1200 pixels per side, meaning that anything I post there has to be resized to be posted here. Ouch!

Bob

[Old Timer]

I'm posting at 1000 but I think that they still say 800. the D700 is very forgiving at higher ISO's but still I hesitate to go beyond 5000.

[Bob32]

Larry,

Can I reliably get away with posting at 1000 pixels per side? If so, that will help a lot in minimizing the amount of image resizing I would have to do to post here. I don't normally exceed 800 pixels vertically but I often do horizontally.

I hesitated a long time before exceeding 6,400 with my D700, but gradually started using 8,000, 10,000, and finally 12,800 and was pleasantly surprised at the decent results I obtained at these higher ISO values. I prefer to stick to 6,400 maximum, but I don't hesitate to go up to 12,800 if necessary. As a matter of fact, I shot a volleyball game a few nights ago at a high school that has one of those ancient lighting systems where the lighting level is not only low but where each photo frame is a different color from the one either before or after it. There I used ISO 12,800. Needless to say, noise reduction is advisable when using the higher ISOs.

Bob

[Old Timer]

I feel for you with those light systems. I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago at high school football game with the lights. Processing those images was a real nightmare.

[Bob32]

Larry,

At the beginning of the year I started shooting everything RAW. In converting the images with Adobe Camera RAW I find that it is much less difficult to adjust the white balance than it was when I was shooting only jpegs. It still isn't easy, but it's a lot more doable.

When I encounter one of those school gyms with an ancient lighting system I place the school on my boycott list so that I don't have to deal with white balance issues there in the future. That gym the other night was one that I had not visited before so I didn't know what to expect, but as soon as I entered the gym door I knew that I had a challenge at hand.

Bob

[Old Timer]

I concur with the boycott list. I went to all raw nearly a year ago and I agree it does make adjusting WB much easier, but still a step I would like to eliminate in post.

[Bob32]

Larry,

I make a custom white balance setting for every gym in which I take photos. I generally do this once a year at the start of the season in case any changes have been made to the lighting system since the end of the previous season. This works OK with normal gym lighting systems, but doesn't help much with those primitive lighting systems. Fortunately a number of the schools in my area have upgraded their gym lighting systems over the past few years. One large high school in this town was on my boycott list until they installed a new lighting system two years ago. Now the gym is the brightest one in the area.

What do I need to do to receive e-mail notice that somebody has responded to one of my posts?

Is it possible to go even higher than 1000 pixels on a side when uploading images to the forum? I sent one successfully that was 939 pixels horizontally but didn't try sending one that was 1019 pixels horizontally.

Bob