Basketball ambient and bounced

jonh68

These were taken a couple of nights ago. I used ambient light for most of them with the D700 and the 85 mm 1.8. ISO was set at 6400, and AWB. I used to set it at auto ISO, but I discovered on lay ups when the ceiling lights were in the background, the ISO would go to 200-400 range and underexpose.

Processing, cropping, NR and sharpening were done through DXO. I wish I could post some more of my bounced light shots, but I was shooting for two papers and gave them the best shots. 2 and 6 were underexposed as they were in a bad spot on the court so I used exposure compensation to lighten them up.

Ambient.
1

2

3

4

5

6


On the other end of the court, the lighting was pretty bad under the basket, so I bounced the light off the ceiling. The top of the ceiling was lined with what looked like insulation panels which gave the pictures a warmer look. I just cannot see myself taking the time to set up strobes all over the gym when I can get results like this on camera. It's not better than strobes, but it looks more natural for my tastes. I didn't change a thing with my settings which got me some shots when the flash was recycling.
7

8

Qarik

I like the emotion/action you captured. But the background in those shots is quite noisy though the players see okay. Also the white balance is drifting from shot to shot. I suppose it is perfectly fine for newsprint though.

I almost thought the d700 would have bit less noise. What aperture/shutter speed were you using?

jonh68

Qarik wrote:

I like the emotion/action you captured. But the background in those shots is quite noisy though the players see okay. Also the white balance is drifting from shot to shot. I suppose it is perfectly fine for newsprint though.

I almost thought the d700 would have bit less noise. What aperture/shutter speed were you using?

I would rather have the players look good than the background. For newsprints it is just fine and even printed out for most normal sizes it looks good too. I also had to crop some of these by 1/3 so that magnifies the noise.

Aperture was 2.2 for most of them and ss was 1/400 to 1/500 depending on which side of the gym.

rwells

Good shots as usual Jon,

Looks like that magical pixel dust on the D700 has some gravel in it, and at the lowly ISO 6400...

Just kidding

Man, it's never enough, is it...

jonh68

Thanks!

Considering the two shots with the most background noise were underexposed and were salvageable with exposure compensation while shooting in jpg, I'll take it.

Looks like that magical pixel dust on the D700 has some gravel in it, and at the lowly ISO 6400...

I am sending it back right away!

rwells

jonh68 wrote:

I am sending it back right away!

johng

I agree about nice action and sharpness but also about the noise. Backgrounds are noisy and players show a bit too much noise reduction. That's why it's critical to get the exposure correct in-camera. Still you have to love the colors of the 700 at high ISO.

jonh68

johng wrote:

I agree about nice action and sharpness but also about the noise. Backgrounds are noisy and players show a bit too much noise reduction. That's why it's critical to get the exposure correct in-camera. Still you have to love the colors of the 700 at high ISO.

Exposure is everything at shooting at high ISO. Unfortunately, the exposure changes from one area of the court to the other.

dbaker1221

great captures