You can still get defensive shots for your team. You do this by getting at half court and get their faces when they guard. If you use a 200mm, it should be enough to shoot tight, or give you enough to crop tight anyway.
First please let us wish everyone a very happy new year. Agreat many of the comments on shooting basketball are very good, what troubles me are one's that are not correct.
1. Indoors due to variable lighting, cycling of lights etc. you must shoot in Manual Mode. When shooting in manual, you are directing the camera in the direction that you as the photographer is dictating. When you use Shutter or aperture priority, the camera is making decisions and you results will suffer. When you shoot in manual mode you do not need to constantly fiddle with your settings. You decide what shutter speed you need, you decide the ISO, you decide hte aperture.
2. i have shot basketball for quite some time, we have already done over 30 games this season, all our photography is for publication, newspaper, magazine or the internet. We are not shooting our kid or for myself.
3. I lead a team of at least 4 shooters that can sometimes number as many as 8 at multiple venues.
4. All sports photography looks better, when you have clean backgrounds, good action, clean, sharp, clear detailed images. We already know about faces, faces,, ball etc.
5. some easy shooting lessons. Light is the key, without light indoors you get noise, noise, dark, oof, etc.
6. Shooting wide open or at the largest aperture setting is almost a neccesity, not so much to blur the background or isolate the subject as the need for light. So number 1 priority, shoot at the maximum opening for the lens you are using, preferably f2.8 or better
7. shutter speed, since i shoot and edit, my own photos as well as others, i find 1/500 can be ok, but 1/640 is really the minimum for good clean shots. One caveat if you are shooting younger people, high school jr.varsity or below. You can probably get away with slower shutter 1/500, maybe 1/400. The game is slower, so slightly slower shutter works.
Experiment in digital practice is cheap.
8. ISO, this is the variable , you must crank the ISO as high as you and your camera can stand. A friend who shoots for a Major Newspaper cranks his D3 up to ISO h-3, so he can shoot at 1/800 or better.
9. wb the wb in the High school gyms where i do some shooting is within 3700-4000k. how do i know this? i asked for a bulb, the bulb manufacture has spec sheets and almost all schools use the same lights, just different wattages. Makes setting wb easier.
10. indoors, take the variable settings of the camera out of the difficulty equation, shooting in manual, negates the need to worry about EV, what meter to use just set the shutter, iso and aperture. get a good wb and shoot away.
Basketball is great to shoot, have a great new year and make good photographs.
Comments
Agreat many of the comments on shooting basketball are very good, what troubles me are one's that are not correct.
1. Indoors due to variable lighting, cycling of lights etc. you must shoot in Manual Mode. When shooting in manual, you are directing the camera in the direction that you as the photographer is dictating. When you use Shutter or aperture priority, the camera is making decisions and you results will suffer. When you shoot in manual mode you do not need to constantly fiddle with your settings. You decide what shutter speed you need, you decide the ISO, you decide hte aperture.
2. i have shot basketball for quite some time, we have already done over 30 games this season, all our photography is for publication, newspaper, magazine or the internet. We are not shooting our kid or for myself.
3. I lead a team of at least 4 shooters that can sometimes number as many as 8 at multiple venues.
4. All sports photography looks better, when you have clean backgrounds, good action, clean, sharp, clear detailed images. We already know about faces, faces,, ball etc.
5. some easy shooting lessons. Light is the key, without light indoors you get noise, noise, dark, oof, etc.
6. Shooting wide open or at the largest aperture setting is almost a neccesity, not so much to blur the background or isolate the subject as the need for light. So number 1 priority, shoot at the maximum opening for the lens you are using, preferably f2.8 or better
7. shutter speed, since i shoot and edit, my own photos as well as others, i find 1/500 can be ok, but 1/640 is really the minimum for good clean shots. One caveat if you are shooting younger people, high school jr.varsity or below. You can probably get away with slower shutter 1/500, maybe 1/400. The game is slower, so slightly slower shutter works.
Experiment in digital practice is cheap.
8. ISO, this is the variable , you must crank the ISO as high as you and your camera can stand. A friend who shoots for a Major Newspaper cranks his D3 up to ISO h-3, so he can shoot at 1/800 or better.
9. wb the wb in the High school gyms where i do some shooting is within 3700-4000k. how do i know this? i asked for a bulb, the bulb manufacture has spec sheets and almost all schools use the same lights, just different wattages. Makes setting wb easier.
10. indoors, take the variable settings of the camera out of the difficulty equation, shooting in manual, negates the need to worry about EV, what meter to use just set the shutter, iso and aperture. get a good wb and shoot away.
Basketball is great to shoot, have a great new year and make good photographs.
Thank you for the great advice!
CBS Sports MaxPreps Shooter
http://DalbyPhoto.com