Varsity Hoops

double_b

Some of my recent boys Varsity basketball. New gym, good lighting,although I probably could have done a little better, but I think I was expectign less after shooting the previous three games in middle school dungeons I didn't realize soon enough I could have gotten better results than I did.

1. Game's leading scorer


2.

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
3.

<o:p></o:p>
4.

johng

Brian - great first image. Very strong.

Shot 2 has too much dead space for my tastes - opposite end backboard support is a major distraction.

Shot 3 is nice but appears front focused (shoe in better focus than face) and his face is blocked by the arm reducing it's impact.

Last shot has great timing but the face is a bit soft on the shooter - either motion blur or focus is on lower extremities and face is at the edge of sharp DOF. From an action/framing standpoint it's the most compelling image - if it just had the sharpness of #1 it would be outstanding.

double_b

johng wrote:

Brian - great first image. Very strong.

Shot 2 has too much dead space for my tastes - opposite end backboard support is a major distraction.

Shot 3 is nice but appears front focused (shoe in better focus than face) and his face is blocked by the arm reducing it's impact.

Last shot has great timing but the face is a bit soft on the shooter - either motion blur or focus is on lower extremities and face is at the edge of sharp DOF. From an action/framing standpoint it's the most compelling image - if it just had the sharpness of #1 it would be outstanding.

John,

Thanks for the C&C, always looking for it so I appreciate it much.

#2 is about a 50% crop so I didn't want to go too much farther with it so I thought maybe I would let it cropped where it is so you could see where he was on the floor with the shot, he was just as good outside as he was inside under the basket so I figured, hey maybe his parents would like to see a shot like, haha.....but I know what you're saying.

You're right too about the other two being at the edge of the DOF. I think the next step in my development is to definitely work on getting the faces in focus more. How I do that I'm not sure yet. In fact the one shot where the foot is on focus is a perfect example, the camera(D300) grabbed the leg/hip where I had the focus point and tracked it, but obviously since it was on a different plane than his face and at 2.2 the face falls out of the zone.

Any tips for situations like that? As of now I use center point and dynamic. I shoot so much vertically when shooting basketball(I need a grip!!) that I have toyed with the idea of changing the focus point to one near the top of the frame to see if that would help with faces, but I haven't had a game yet where it didn't matter if I blew a half just practicing.

Any tips or comments are certainly welcomed!

johng

Well I'm a canon guy so I'm not intimately familiar with the focus point performance on the D300. I know within Canon that the xxD and xxxD non center points just weren't good enough (and their placement was poor) but since going to 1dIII I ALWAYS use non-center. I then focus on the face. My advice is give a non center point a try and see how it does. For what it's worth when you're that close shooting up - no matter what point you're using, focus on the face. THink about it - even if you get just torso you'll have a great shot. Look at that last shot and crop torso up and imagine a bit more net - with sharp faces/hands/ball the shot would be much stronger than what you've got with the legs in it. Sure it's great to have both but the interesting action is the heads/ball anyway. When action is further away, focusing on chest isn't bad - dof is deep enough

double_b

johng wrote:

Well I'm a canon guy so I'm not intimately familiar with the focus point performance on the D300. I know within Canon that the xxD and xxxD non center points just weren't good enough (and their placement was poor) but since going to 1dIII I ALWAYS use non-center. I then focus on the face. My advice is give a non center point a try and see how it does. For what it's worth when you're that close shooting up - no matter what point you're using, focus on the face. THink about it - even if you get just torso you'll have a great shot. Look at that last shot and crop torso up and imagine a bit more net - with sharp faces/hands/ball the shot would be much stronger than what you've got with the legs in it. Sure it's great to have both but the interesting action is the heads/ball anyway. When action is further away, focusing on chest isn't bad - dof is deep enough

Good stuff! Thanks. I wondered how other shooters handled the action when in that close, one thing I kept doing the first time out,and even some this time was cutting feet off. But the past two times I tried to focus on NOT doing that and then I always debate with myself in post whether to keep a shot where the feet are cut off, sometimes I do crop to where it is just torso up.

I will definitely give the off center shot and see how it goes.

Of course soon it will be outdoor and I can shoot at ISO 200 and crop away. !!!

Enitsugua

double_b wrote:

You're right too about the other two being at the edge of the DOF. I think the next step in my development is to definitely work on getting the faces in focus more. How I do that I'm not sure yet. In fact the one shot where the foot is on focus is a perfect example, the camera(D300) grabbed the leg/hip where I had the focus point and tracked it, but obviously since it was on a different plane than his face and at 2.2 the face falls out of the zone.

Any tips for situations like that? As of now I use center point and dynamic. I shoot so much vertically when shooting basketball(I need a grip!!) that I have toyed with the idea of changing the focus point to one near the top of the frame to see if that would help with faces, but I haven't had a game yet where it didn't matter if I blew a half just practicing.

Try the point up three from center (when shooting vertically) and then one to the left or right on the D300. Also, how many points are you using? The D300 does better at 21 for action. It can't keep up with 51 3D for sports. You might be okay at 51 without 3D for basketball. Depends on the lighting (both quantity and quality). Try both and see. The lens you use can also make a difference on focus speed. You want one with AF-S if you can get it. Still, I find the D300 missing many focus opportunities that the D700 or D3 nail (and that's shooting the latter two NOT on point focus). The processor's just too slow in the D300 to catch everything.

attorneyjay

ha, these shots looked awfully familiar to me, then I realized I was at this event shooting the JV game! I believe I remember seeing you but it was during the game so I didn't have time to introduce myself.

Anyway, very nice shots. I'll check out your gallery.

Jay