Sometimes it pays to ask permission!
Tim Kamppinen
Registered Users Posts: 816 Major grins
I know photographers sometimes live by the maxim "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission," but I'm happy to report that sometimes asking permission pays off. I've never been much into sports shooting, but thought I'd try my hand at it. I'm a teacher at a very small rural school in upper Michigan, Ewen-Trout Creek HS. The boys basketball team has gone undefeated this season and so I decided to try shooting their district tournament games. The first game I shot, I just had an sb600 on camera, bouncing off a white wall behind the basket. I got some decent shots but realized that I needed a better setup. The next game I bungeed two sb-28's together and held them in my hand, bouncing them off the ceiling and firing them with cactus triggers. The ceiling in that gym was not extremely high (25 ft or so) and it was white. I found that I got some fairly good light doing this, but it was awkward holding the flashes and trying to shoot the camera, and I had to shoot at f/2.8 and ISO 800. Autofocusing at 2.8 with my D40 produced plenty of shots that had imprecise or just plain "off" focus due to the limitations of the camera and the narrow depth of field. The ISO 800 was also pretty noisy, especially since I found myself doing a fair amount of post work to sharpen the photos, etc.
For the next game, I used the two sb28's along with the 600, all on a metal bracket that I rigged up, at the top of a 9.5 ft light stand bouncing off the ceiling. Each flash was at 1/2 power for good recycle rates, and I was able to shoot at f/3.5. Also, by this time I had made my long-intended upgrade to the D90, so my autofocusing was better and the shots were less noisy, though still at ISO 800. With this setup I was able to get some nice shots, like the following:
I was quite pleased with this, but the shots still had quite a bit of noise when viewed close and needed more PP attention that I would have preferred.
Anyway, they won that game and advanced to the regional semifinals, which are held in the gym of a local university, Michigan Tech (where I went to school, incidentally). I emailed the facilities manager to ask if it would be ok to set up my lights... against my inclinations, of course, since I'd rather ask for forgiveness. I was shocked when he emailed me back offering to let me use their stadium strobe system, with no questions asked! I showed up a half an hour before the game and tracked him down. He handed me a pocket wizard and pointed me toward another photographer who could fill me in. I couldn't believe my luck.
The other shooter was there for the paper but was extremely gracious to let me shoot offense for the Ewen team for 3 out of four quarters. He told me that as long as he had a few good offense shots from them I could shoot it the rest of the night. The lights were great. I got f/5.6~6.3 at ISO 200! Even the available light was much brighter, which allowed me to autofocus more accurately. Out of 200 shots that I took I only had a handful with the focus off. When I saw that I could shoot at 5.6, I put the 28-70 tamron back in my bag and took out the 18-200 VR. Not as sharp, but the added range made it worthwhile since I didn't need the larger apertures. There were 4 strobes on each side of the court, cross lighting it, and they had a 1-1.5 sec recycle time. I missed a couple of shots because I didn't wait long enough to recycle, but for the most part I was able to time it right. I couldn't believe when I saw how sharp and clean the images were on my comp at home. After screwing around with noisy ISO 800 images this was like a dream come true.
As for the game, well, it was the most exciting basketball game I've ever seen! The two teams were neck and neck through the whole game, and I think the largest point difference in the second half was 3 points. We were down by three with 20 seconds or so left and we tied it up and went into overtime. It went back and forth in overtime and the other team scored with something like seven seconds left on the clock and were up by one point. It looked pretty grim at that point, but then one of our guys made the winning layup with less than a second left on the clock, beating the buzzer and locking the victory. Best of all, I got the shot! I was right behind the basket and got him on his way up. Everyone went wild at that point and people stormed the court in a wild frenzy. It actually made me want to be a sport shooter. Lucky for me, I asked the guy if I could shoot their next game, on Wednesday, and he said "no problem".
Ok, if you've actually made it this far, here are the shots I got with the stadium strobes:
And here's the game winning shot:
The combination of low noise and less cropping necessary because I was using the 18-200 means I know there will be no issue printing these... which is great because I am hoping to sell some shots to parents through my website, since several have been asking me to do this. If anyone is interested, you can view all the shots from the game in this gallery: http://www.timkphotography.com/gallery/7630464_iaV6k#493297679_GoKcQ on my website.
Here's another one that I really like, though it had every reason to be a throwaway shot. The strobes fired at a very low output (I must have shot right after the other shooter) and the frame looked almost black when I opened it up in camera raw. I did +4 exposure and some fill light just to see what was going on, and I knew I had to salvage it somehow once I saw the expressions on the players and the coach. It was during one of the last timeouts during the overtime period, right after the other team had taken the lead. The shot looked like grainy, oversaturated garbage, but I decided to try a black and white conversion on it and like I said, I really like the result, grain and all. Here it is:
BTW, I'd be interested in suggestions for shooting basketball... where you like to position yourself, how to follow the action best, etc. What works for you?
For the next game, I used the two sb28's along with the 600, all on a metal bracket that I rigged up, at the top of a 9.5 ft light stand bouncing off the ceiling. Each flash was at 1/2 power for good recycle rates, and I was able to shoot at f/3.5. Also, by this time I had made my long-intended upgrade to the D90, so my autofocusing was better and the shots were less noisy, though still at ISO 800. With this setup I was able to get some nice shots, like the following:
I was quite pleased with this, but the shots still had quite a bit of noise when viewed close and needed more PP attention that I would have preferred.
Anyway, they won that game and advanced to the regional semifinals, which are held in the gym of a local university, Michigan Tech (where I went to school, incidentally). I emailed the facilities manager to ask if it would be ok to set up my lights... against my inclinations, of course, since I'd rather ask for forgiveness. I was shocked when he emailed me back offering to let me use their stadium strobe system, with no questions asked! I showed up a half an hour before the game and tracked him down. He handed me a pocket wizard and pointed me toward another photographer who could fill me in. I couldn't believe my luck.
The other shooter was there for the paper but was extremely gracious to let me shoot offense for the Ewen team for 3 out of four quarters. He told me that as long as he had a few good offense shots from them I could shoot it the rest of the night. The lights were great. I got f/5.6~6.3 at ISO 200! Even the available light was much brighter, which allowed me to autofocus more accurately. Out of 200 shots that I took I only had a handful with the focus off. When I saw that I could shoot at 5.6, I put the 28-70 tamron back in my bag and took out the 18-200 VR. Not as sharp, but the added range made it worthwhile since I didn't need the larger apertures. There were 4 strobes on each side of the court, cross lighting it, and they had a 1-1.5 sec recycle time. I missed a couple of shots because I didn't wait long enough to recycle, but for the most part I was able to time it right. I couldn't believe when I saw how sharp and clean the images were on my comp at home. After screwing around with noisy ISO 800 images this was like a dream come true.
As for the game, well, it was the most exciting basketball game I've ever seen! The two teams were neck and neck through the whole game, and I think the largest point difference in the second half was 3 points. We were down by three with 20 seconds or so left and we tied it up and went into overtime. It went back and forth in overtime and the other team scored with something like seven seconds left on the clock and were up by one point. It looked pretty grim at that point, but then one of our guys made the winning layup with less than a second left on the clock, beating the buzzer and locking the victory. Best of all, I got the shot! I was right behind the basket and got him on his way up. Everyone went wild at that point and people stormed the court in a wild frenzy. It actually made me want to be a sport shooter. Lucky for me, I asked the guy if I could shoot their next game, on Wednesday, and he said "no problem".
Ok, if you've actually made it this far, here are the shots I got with the stadium strobes:
And here's the game winning shot:
The combination of low noise and less cropping necessary because I was using the 18-200 means I know there will be no issue printing these... which is great because I am hoping to sell some shots to parents through my website, since several have been asking me to do this. If anyone is interested, you can view all the shots from the game in this gallery: http://www.timkphotography.com/gallery/7630464_iaV6k#493297679_GoKcQ on my website.
Here's another one that I really like, though it had every reason to be a throwaway shot. The strobes fired at a very low output (I must have shot right after the other shooter) and the frame looked almost black when I opened it up in camera raw. I did +4 exposure and some fill light just to see what was going on, and I knew I had to salvage it somehow once I saw the expressions on the players and the coach. It was during one of the last timeouts during the overtime period, right after the other team had taken the lead. The shot looked like grainy, oversaturated garbage, but I decided to try a black and white conversion on it and like I said, I really like the result, grain and all. Here it is:
BTW, I'd be interested in suggestions for shooting basketball... where you like to position yourself, how to follow the action best, etc. What works for you?
0
Comments
14-24 24-70 70-200mm (vr2)
85 and 50 1.4
45 PC and sb910 x2
http://www.danielkimphotography.com
Thanks! I've been meaning to look into some noise reduction software for a while now... I should really get on that. I know the noise reduction filter in PS is of limited value because it really softens the image if you have it at a setting where it actually reduces the noise... does noise ninja do a better job of maintaining sharpness? I've also heard Nik makes a noise reduction program that a lot of people use... any thoughts on pros and cons of each?
http://blog.timkphotography.com
It's generally recommended that noise reduction be completed before any other post-processing. If you follow that work flow, it should have no impact on sharpening.
Kent
"Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs."- Ansel Adams
Web site
Does this mean before even opening the file in camera raw and adjusting it there? Or before doing anything in PS?
http://blog.timkphotography.com
My Images | My Lessons Learned and Other Adventures
I typically shoot JPEG. I run all of the (ISO 800 or higher) files through the noise reduction software before I ever open Lightroom.
Kent
"Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs."- Ansel Adams
Web site