HS Volleyball with strobes

donek

A lot of the walls in this gym are brick, so rather than bouncing the flashes, I pointed them more at the players. In a previous post rwells had suggested I try to get 2 stops faster than ambient. Pointing the flashes at the players allowed me to get 2 1/3 stops faster than ambient. It did a much better job of stopping the motion, but produced darker backgrounds and I had to deal with some shadows (strobe placement is very important to minimize this). Here are a few.

1. The ball actually got her in the face


2. I always wonder how they do that with their eyes closed.


3.


4. a little lack of communication


5. This team always has cheer leaders and I liked this shot.

rainbow

Some excellent volleyball shots. Nailed the timing on #2, too!

One thing I notice (took a second to figure out) is that the shadow of the net is prominent in #2 and #3. Not sure if there is a way around that if shooting from the opposing side of the court. How do you place your flashes in the gym?

Thanks for sharing. Maybe your photos will inspire me to learn how to get my flash off of my camera one day!

donek

rainbow wrote:

Some excellent volleyball shots. Nailed the timing on #2, too!

One thing I notice (took a second to figure out) is that the shadow of the net is prominent in #2 and #3. Not sure if there is a way around that if shooting from the opposing side of the court. How do you place your flashes in the gym?

Thanks for sharing. Maybe your photos will inspire me to learn how to get my flash off of my camera one day!

Improper flash placement can make those net shadows realy prominent. The key is to place them as close to in line with the net as you dare (without anoying the refs) and fire them at each team. I use 4 speedlights. Two are are mounted about 15 to 20 feet either side of the net, set to about 1/4 50mm and aimed (not directly, but over their heads to feather the light) to evenly cover the side of the net they are on. Unfortunately, with the flashes pointed at the players, you generate a lot of shadows. This can sometimes create unusable images if a player is in front of the flash. You can see the girls hands in #1 are in shadow. Had it been her face, I would have tossed it.

rainbow

donek wrote:

Improper flash placement can make those net shadows realy prominent. The key is to place them as close to in line with the net as you dare (without anoying the refs) and fire them at each team. I use 4 speedlights. Two are are mounted about 15 to 20 feet either side of the net, set to about 1/4 50mm and aimed (not directly, but over their heads to feather the light) to evenly cover the side of the net they are on. Unfortunately, with the flashes pointed at the players, you generate a lot of shadows. This can sometimes create unusable images if a player is in front of the flash. You can see the girls hands in #1 are in shadow. Had it been her face, I would have tossed it.

Thanks for sharing this info. It is much appreciated to help me (and others) improve our skills.

myoung

rainbow wrote:

Thanks for sharing this info. It is much appreciated to help me (and others) improve our skills.

Nice shots!

Not sure why, but I've always considered the use of flash in a small gym to be invasive, for lack of a better word.