Indoor basketball, Strobes or not?

Shane422

I'm shooting a HS basketball game tomorrow night at a mid size college gym. I have a Nikon D50 and a D50, a 50MM f1.8, 28-75MM f2.8, and a 70-200MM f2.8, SB600, SB28, and Elinchrom Skyport flash triggers to work with.

I have shot the D90 quite cleanly up to ISO2000 and feel comfortable with that. But I was thinking about shooting it strobist style with the two speedlights. But the sync speed on the D90 is only 1/200th. Will that be fast enough for sharp pics?

I could go back to the D50 and sync as fast as 1/1000th, but then I'm going back to a 6MP sensor. I'm guessing that I can get at least 1/400th at f2.8, ISO 1600 if I go without speedlights. ISO1600 on the D90 is probably equal to ISO400-600 on the D50.

mercphoto

1/200th shutter speed with the strobes will freeze the action only if your strobes are two-stops or higher over ambient. But if you are exposed relatively correct to ambient and using the strobes as fill, then no. Set to under expose ambient, adjust the strobes to compensate, and you should be fine.

donek

Shooting with strobes takes quite a bit of practice to do really well. It sort of depends on your objective here. If you just need to walk away with a couple good keepers and wish to get your feet wet with strobes, try them. If you need a lot of really good shots and have more experience without the strobes, go that route. If you're just looking to fill in the shadows, bounce a camera mounted flash off the ceiling or wall behind you with high speed sync turned on and expose for ambient light, setting the flash to ttl.

Shane422

Thanks for the advice. I haven't yet been to the arena, so I'll go prepared for strobes and no strobes.

I actually shoot with strobes quite a bit for portraits, but freezing the action has yet to be an issue in that setting. But I am quite comfortable metering, and setting up the lights.

donek

Shane422 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I haven't yet been to the arena, so I'll go prepared for strobes and no strobes.

I actually shoot with strobes quite a bit for portraits, but freezing the action has yet to be an issue in that setting. But I am quite comfortable metering, and setting up the lights.

Have fun. Be sure to post your results here.

Shane422

Well the game was the Ohio Div. III regional finals at Wilmington College. The team was recently a Youtube sensation for the 90ft shot by Casey Weber that he repeated for the local news, and for ESPN. I believe he is 3 for 10 on camera for the 90ft shot now.

When I got to the gym, I took a quick meter reading and got f3.2, ISO2500, and 1/250th. I talked to the facilities manager about mounting some speedlights, he said no. So I had to shoot the high ISO. Luckily the D90 does fairly well in that department. I tried to keep the shutter speed at 1/320 or 1/400th and just push the RAW file later. There were about 6 other photogs there also not using flash.

Here are a few shots. The game ended with a pair of free throws by each team to decide the outcome. Dayton Christian survived to play in the final four this coming Thursday. I don't profess to have gotten great shots. I was just happy to be able to get any shots in that lighting situation. I am now in complete awe of those that do this professionally. Shooting wide open on moving subjects really makes focusing a challenge.