Volleyball: Chico State whips Cal Poly Pomona

Here are some shots taken September 14 when the Chico State Wildcats hosted the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos. Chico State won 3-2 with hitter #14 (shown in first and last photos) leading the way with 19 kills. Almost every shot I took of #14 has her with mouth wide open.

All shots were taken with Nikon D700 + 80-200 f/2.8. Exposure was manually set at 1/500, f/4, and ISO 10,000.

When I showed these photos to friends and relatives I got more than one comment about the tight-fitting Bronco uniforms. My son said that I should change my name to Seymour Buns!

Bob

Love the action you captured especially #1. Any reason your shooting a f4 and not f 2.8 and using a lower ISO? What noise program are you using?

Larry,

Thanks much. I usually use f/3.5 or f/4 to give me greater depth of field. On most shots I have a hitter on one side of the net and blockers on the other. I like to have both in focus if possible.

I have been using Noise Ninja for a long time. However, I am finding the noise reduction feature of Adobe Camera RAW to be very effective. In fact, after converting my RAW files in ADR and including capture sharpening and noise reduction in the process I am finding little or no noise remaining for Noise Ninja to remove! In case you are wondering I'm not using anything fancy in the way of an image editing program: just Photoshop Elements 10 which, of course, includes ADR.

Bob

I like #4 and #6 for the capture of the action.
I thought that the shot would be better as it's hit, but I like #6 a lot ... I think because of the expression on the face of the #14 after the shot.

Thanks, Paul. Facial expressions in sports photos mean a lot.

Bob

Great color and action. Your right...Facial expressions in sports mean so much. I think it can be the photo itself if the action/expression is right.

Great Job
Phil