Boys and Girls High School Basketball (6 pictures)

Harveylevine

Pictures taken Jan 16, 2009 at Churchill High School, Potomac, Maryland

I take high school sports pictures as a freelancer for a local newspaper. While the newspaper seems happy with the photographs I submit, I'd appreciate your comments and criticisms. I have a few comments at the end of this post.

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My comments:

1. I generally stand just behind the baseline to one side of the net. I can almost touch the players. Why do I see other photographers, also down at court level, shooting with huge telephotos? I have to use the wide end of my 18-200 mm lens with my Nikon D300 or a 50 mm prime lens. Even with a full-frame camera, these monster telephoto lenses (and their attendant monopods) seem better suited to football pictures. These photographers, to judge from their equipment must be professionals or advanced amateurs. Do they know something I don't? (In picture #1, the players were practically on top of me when I snapped the shutter - the lens was set to 36 mm according to the metadata).

2. I generally use flash (Nikon SB 800) which doesn't seem to bother the players. I like the way the light falls off so that the well-lighted players stand out against the dark background (gym lighting is always very poor - at least at the high school level). ISOs are generally in the 640 -800 range which only requires moderate noise reduction in Photoshop.

3. My processing: I shoot RAW. I use Lightroom to crop, adjust white balance, and adjust exposures. When I use ISOs of 500 or greater, I usually finish off by using Image Processor to batch-process the images using the Photoshop noise reduction plugin, Define 2. Lightroom and Image Processor batch-convert the RAW images to jpegs for uploading.

Thanks,

Harvey

donek

Every image is crooked; leaning to the left. Make sure you straighten them in post. Save yourself the effort in the future by paying attention to the verticle lines when shooting. These seem over flashed to me. The oriental girl in #5 has blown out cheek bones with more natual skin tones other places. This is a result of your direct flash. All the images have this direct flash look. I'd push your iso to 1600 or even 3200 and bounce your flash. You'll be able to expose a more natural look (backgrounds not so dark) and the bounced flash will pull some of the shadows off the players faces.

With your DX format camera, a 70-200 is a bit long. Your 50mm prime will work very well. Your 18-200 is unlikely to let in enough light with it's smaller sperture. The FX chip in the D700 or D3 make a 70-200 (equivalent to 46-133 on a DX) an ideal lens for basketball. If you shoot the opposite basket or past the center line an FX & 300 (equivalent to 200mm on DX) will do well for sportrait type images. For newsprint, you probably want to try to get shots with interaction near the net, so stick to the 50mm and crop liberally. In newsprint a 1/4 crop will produce an excellent image.

sportsshooter06

Harveylevine wrote:

Pictures taken Jan 16, 2009 at Churchill High School, Potomac, Maryland

I take high school sports pictures as a freelancer for a local newspaper. While the newspaper seems happy with the photographs I submit, I'd appreciate your comments and criticisms. I have a few comments at the end of this post.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.

---

My comments:

1. I generally stand just behind the baseline to one side of the net. I can almost touch the players. Why do I see other photographers, also down at court level, shooting with huge telephotos? I have to use the wide end of my 18-200 mm lens with my Nikon D300 or a 50 mm prime lens. Even with a full-frame camera, these monster telephoto lenses (and their attendant monopods) seem better suited to football pictures. These photographers, to judge from their equipment must be professionals or advanced amateurs. Do they know something I don't? (In picture #1, the players were practically on top of me when I snapped the shutter - the lens was set to 36 mm according to the metadata).

2. I generally use flash (Nikon SB 800) which doesn't seem to bother the players. I like the way the light falls off so that the well-lighted players stand out against the dark background (gym lighting is always very poor - at least at the high school level). ISOs are generally in the 640 -800 range which only requires moderate noise reduction in Photoshop.

3. My processing: I shoot RAW. I use Lightroom to crop, adjust white balance, and adjust exposures. When I use ISOs of 500 or greater, I usually finish off by using Image Processor to batch-process the images using the Photoshop noise reduction plugin, Define 2. Lightroom and Image Processor batch-convert the RAW images to jpegs for uploading.



Harvey

enjoy, churchill, wooten. rockville md.
ok, if your local paper is using your stuff, well the photoeditor needs some help. as donek said, over flashed, dark backgrounds etc etc.

i am not understanding your comments about long lens etc. In a hs gym, a 70-200 2.8 on a DX format camera, can be used from end to end if you are a capable shooter, can frame correctly and have the patience to wait for the proper action, showing faces, ball etc.
A 70-200 on a full frame d3, d3x, d700 etc, is wonderful from half court in, but a little short, beyond half court. You can still get useful shots from the backcourt, but you will need to do some crop.
The perfect combo for near side action, is a 24-70 or equivalent and a 70-200. This will give a wide angle, and a telephoto if needed.
Basketball should, if possible, be shot from behind the basket, as you will get better action, faces and balls.
Wb in the gym is not impossible, i would shoot in jpg. faster file writing smaller files to process and in my professional opinion, if you get your settings correct, will give excellent results.
Try using the flourescent setting for wb. enjoy

Thanks,

Harveylevine

Donek and Sportsshooter06:
Thanks to both of you for providing helpful comments, I appreciate it. In the future I'll try to remember to keep the camera level or at least as much as possible when trying to follow the ball as it is quickly passed from player to player.

Donek: I'm not sure how to follow your suggestion about using bounce flash. The gym ceiling is typically over 50 feet high and there are no walls (only stands on the side) to reflect the light. I'll try to minimize the "over-flashed" look in the future.