HSBB on Saturday

donek

Shot little basketball on Saturday. I used my 3 remote Sb-800s. Still getting a little ghosting. I think I'll try turning them up a bit on Tuesday.

1. got a little rim light from this angle.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


C&C appreciated. Thanks for looking.

bobcool

These look really good - one day when I have the budget for a couple more flashes I want to try this.

One suggestion about ghosting - instead of turning the flash power up, either increase the shutter speed or decrease the ISO setting. A faster shutter speed will knock down the ambient light, and a lower ISO will do the same, and get you cleaner pictures if you're shooting with a higher ISO than the camera base ISO. Another benefit is you won't lose whatever recycle time you have right now with the flashes since you won't have to use more power.

You have great action going on here and with a slightly darker background I think the players will stand apart from the background even more. I'm looking forward to more of your shots - keep up the great work!

donek

bobcool wrote:

These look really good - one day when I have the budget for a couple more flashes I want to try this.

One suggestion about ghosting - instead of turning the flash power up, either increase the shutter speed or decrease the ISO setting. A faster shutter speed will knock down the ambient light, and a lower ISO will do the same, and get you cleaner pictures if you're shooting with a higher ISO than the camera base ISO. Another benefit is you won't lose whatever recycle time you have right now with the flashes since you won't have to use more power.

You have great action going on here and with a slightly darker background I think the players will stand apart from the background even more. I'm looking forward to more of your shots - keep up the great work!

I'm already maxed out at the 1/250 sync speed for the D300 and D700.

clemensphoto's

These are really great action shots.

MJRPHOTO

Sean,
These are great. I am just starting to set up with a lighting system also. I will be testing out this week.
I have (1) sb-800 and (2) sb-900 with pocket wizards. I was wondering where to set up the third flash.
How did you have the three set up?

MDalby

Sean,

Nice shots. I think the action looks great. Did the wide angle shot turn out? Can you post?

donek

MJRPHOTO wrote:

Sean,
These are great. I am just starting to set up with a lighting system also. I will be testing out this week.
I have (1) sb-800 and (2) sb-900 with pocket wizards. I was wondering where to set up the third flash.
How did you have the three set up?

I've set things up two different ways (assuming direct lighting). You set up with two lights even with the basket pointing just in front of it at 50mm. Set the thrid right next to one pointing at center court at 70mm to illuminate the players that are a bit further from the goal. The other option is right on the floor below the basket (about 10 feet back or against the wall) as wide as possible (35mm) 1/2 the power of your other flashes.

donek

MDalby wrote:

Sean,

Nice shots. I think the action looks great. Did the wide angle shot turn out? Can you post?

I was less impressed with the wide shots as the faces are harder to see. I think that type of shot would work best on a slam dunk or just after sinking the ball with the player looking down. How did your evening game turn out. Have you posted any of your shots yet?

Here are a couple of the wide shots. I actually cropped in a little.


too much shadow on the face.

MDalby

Sean, I see your point on the shadow and not enough of hte face but the shots are still a real fun view of the action. I really like the concept.

jhelms

donek wrote:

I'm already maxed out at the 1/250 sync speed for the D300 and D700.

Does the high speed flash sync only work with the speedlight is mounted on-camera?

Just curious - I've used that with my D200 and SB600 and I thought I had done some with the CLS remote as well but maybe it doesn't HDSync when shooting wireless?

tjk60

donek wrote:

I was less impressed with the wide shots as the faces are harder to see. I think that type of shot would work best on a slam dunk or just after sinking the ball with the player looking down. How did your evening game turn out. Have you posted any of your shots yet?

Here are a couple of the wide shots. I actually cropped in a little.

too much shadow on the face.

I think you need to stand up for the wide shots, there will be a few you'll like from a better angle (more faces....)

donek

jhelms wrote:

Does the high speed flash sync only work with the speedlight is mounted on-camera?

Just curious - I've used that with my D200 and SB600 and I thought I had done some with the CLS remote as well but maybe it doesn't HDSync when shooting wireless?

High speed sync works in cls and on camera, but not when shooting with radio triggers. CLS has a limited range and will not work in a gym. High speed sync actually lengthens the duration of the flash, reducing the power of the flash. Go to this thread:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=104604&highlight=flash+barn+door
and scroll down to mercphoto's explanation.

donek

tjk60 wrote:

I think you need to stand up for the wide shots, there will be a few you'll like from a better angle (more faces....)

I was trying to emphasize the athletes height. I shot these from about mid thigh height on Tuesday. There's more face in the shot, but the jumps aren't quite as impressive looking.



This was a very low scoring game, so there weren't as many opportunities.

jhelms

What lens and f-stop were you using?

Good pics!

kenyahudson

Thanks for the answer upthread about the third flash. I have used two SB-24s with Elinchrom triggers and receivers for three games this season. The results are getting better. I have a third flash and have been wondering where to place it. (Of course, I would also need another trigger!) I've been doing several searches on ghosting and like a previous response the common theme is to reduce the amount of ambient that the camera relies upon. I mistakenly took some shots with the one of the flashes on 1/2 power and the other on my normal 1/4 power and the images on the half-power flashes' side had no ghosting.

donek

jhelms wrote:

What lens and f-stop were you using?

Good pics!

The second set of wide shots were taken with a 24-70 f2.8 on a D700 at f4. The first set were with a 24-120 f3.5-5.6 VR at f4 on a D700.

donek

kenyahudson wrote:

Thanks for the answer upthread about the third flash. I have used two SB-24s with Elinchrom triggers and receivers for three games this season. The results are getting better. I have a third flash and have been wondering where to place it. (Of course, I would also need another trigger!) I've been doing several searches on ghosting and like a previous response the common theme is to reduce the amount of ambient that the camera relies upon. I mistakenly took some shots with the one of the flashes on 1/2 power and the other on my normal 1/4 power and the images on the half-power flashes' side had no ghosting.

I've upped my power to 1/2, but added gels to try to match the light color from the flash to the ambient.

jhelms

donek wrote:

The second set of wide shots were taken with a 24-70 f2.8 on a D700 at f4. The first set were with a 24-120 f3.5-5.6 VR at f4 on a D700.

Cool - what iso? I'd bet the low iso awesomeness of the D700 would help out a lot in dimly lit gyms.

donek

jhelms wrote:

Cool - what iso? I'd bet the low iso awesomeness of the D700 would help out a lot in dimly lit gyms.

ISO was 1250.