First go at Basketball

[noreturnphotos]

Hey Everyone,
I finally made it into the last game of the season.
These are cropped, and adjusted for w/b. I wont tell you that I wore my contacts and couldn't see my lcd screen to make adjustments. I can't see anything up close with them.. Another valuable lesson?
Nikon D40 iso 1600 70-300 vr Have Fun tear em up Please!






Oh ya we lost by 4
As always C&C welcome.
Thanks
Royce

[mhayes]

Royce,

These look pretty good for iso 1600. I like the last couple of captures better due to the lower vantage point. The others from the higher vantage point take something out of the action around the net for me.

Keep shooting!

Mark

[jmthompson]

Hi Royce!
I agree with Mark, when I shoot basketball, I always get as low of a perspective as possible, usually kneeling or sitting on the floor. From that vantage point, it always makes the players look like they are jumping higher! One other suggestion I have if you want to shoot alot of basketball, or any indoor sports for that matter, would be to invest in a noise reducing program, such as Neat Image (there are some others, but I just got done shooting five hours of basketball, and my brain is fried and I can't think of the names!!). I use Neat Image, and it works great as a plug-in in PhotoShop. I think it was about $50 - 60 online.

Here is an example shot at an ISO-1250 and ran through Neat Image:


Especially when shooting the little guys, if you get down on the floor and shoot from their level, it just seems to result in a better image.


I hope that helps a bit! It's too bad that is the last game of your season...now you will have to wait to try some more! I love shooting basketball, and the thrill of getting that perfect shot makes the 50 throw-aways in between all worth it!!!!

Jana T.

[noreturnphotos]

Mark, Jana. Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the help and direction.
All the shots were taken from the same spot, gym has but one bleacher section. Next opportunity I have, I'll be with the official photographer and try out different lenses.
Will look into the "neat" package those are very clean images. thanks for the pro insider secret...
Royce

[oTTer]

The last two are my favorites. I love the intensity on those two little faces, and I don't like kids. I think indoor shots are hard to get, probably a lighting issue. Everything should be easy. I don't know why my camcorder takes awesome indoor shots (I film my sis's barrel racing indoors) but a regular camera sucks. I suppose on a camcorder, you aren't opening and closing the light source as in a shutter on a camera, eh? I have to wait for the outdoor barrel racing, and those are few and far between.
Get more of those kid shots. I would think your YMCA would be a great place for that. I'm just up the street from a lutheran college, I could try and take pictures during practices, if that sort of thing interested me.
High school football games are tough too, they are after dark, and the teams frown upon you walking onto the field to get a picture of your nephew.

[gldiana]

Very nice photos, all of them. I like the intensity they show.
My program of choice for noise reduction is Noise Ninja. It works stand-alone as well as a plu-in for Photoshop and Lightroom.

[davearnoldphoto]

Royce, you mentioned your ISO but didn't say what your other settings were. I assume you were shooting with a small aperture and having to compensate with a longer exposure. Hence, you did not stop the motion which is imperative in shots like this. If you compare jmthompson's stop action while shooting with an ISO 1250, note the stop action of the moving hands. You'll either need to be wide open on your aperture or, if you were, pick up a lens that opens to at a minimum of 2.8 and preferably wider.

[jmthompson]

Royce,
I completely forgot to mention that I usually shoot basketball with a 50mm 1.8 lens, usually wide open at 1.8. Once in a while in really bright gyms, I might go to 2.0 or 2.2, but I think I have only found one gym that is bright enough. I would rather leave it at 1.8, and then if possible increase my shutter speed to get the correct exposure. The one bright gym we have around here lets me go up to 1/400 with f1.8 and ISO-800, but for the most part it is f1.8, ISO-1250, and shutter speed of 1/250. That is pretty much the standard for most of our gyms, except the couple of schools that are lucky enough to have bright, new gyms!
Hope that helps!
Jana T.

[noreturnphotos]

It's all about the glass!
Thanks everyone for your help and information.
Royce

[davearnoldphoto]

It's all about the glass!
Thanks everyone for your help and information.
Royce

LOL.. true as far as focus for crisp photos... but for action, it's all about the aperture.

[jmthompson]

Dave is so right when it comes to the action shots! I leave my 70-200 f2.8L IS lens in the bag for about 80% of my basketball games, and shoot with my $80.00 Canon 50mm lens. It takes incredibly sharp photos and has paid for itself at least 70 times since I bought it in July! So the adage "You get what you pay for" isn't ALWAYS true (but this is one lens you don't want to drop, I think it would be done for, but at least it is cheap to replace!!).

One other suggestion I wanted to make, kind of as a sidenote, if you shoot in RAW, when you have your picture open in your RAW editor, you might want to keep an eye on your blacks, and try to get a little bit of detail in your black. If you look at your refs pants, they are REALLY black. Usually the default setting on the black is about 5, if you try sliding it down to about 3, it might bring out a little detail in the black so they don't look so BLACK. The shorts on the player going for a layup in my photo above are a good example. In the RAW photo, they were solid black, but with a little touchup, I was able to bring out a little detail just using the black slider. Just a suggestion!