Basketball missed dunk

drode

This gym was much darker, lot's of the typical color cycling and it even had 2 lights out on one side of the floor near the basket. I had to pull out the 85mm and shoot at f/2, 1/500, ISO 3200. Not much margin for error at that aperture. This room just begged for flash but I think I need to get better elsewhere before I throw flash in the mix.

I think I got some better shots despite the awful light. While I miss the range of the 70-200, the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 is always such a pleasure to shoot with. I'd appreciate any feedback on how I might improve these.

The player in #3 is on the way up for a dunk attempt. He got the ball a little bit above the rim but couldn't jam it in and the ball ricocheted off the front of the rim. UPDATE: Added #3b, showing the miss (as much as I got anyway).

#1

#2

#3

#3b

#4

johng

Some nice pics - shot 3 really hit you where it hurts regarding WB - that's the tough part about these gyms. One suggestion though - you captioned this post "Missed Dunk" but there's no shot of the missed dunk. It's similar to labeling a football shot "touchdown" and show a photo of the hand-off on the 5 yard line.

As I said - nice photos - but if you choose to caption make sure the caption fits the photo not what happened after the photo was taken.

drode

Thanks. I should have included the frame where he misses. If I can edit the post, I'll add it.

I've been toying with the white balance on this image since last night. Nothing seems to look right. The biggest issue is that there appears to be 3 separate color casts. The BG has one, the players behind have another and the subject has another. He may even have 2 different color casts. Any guess how to choose the best compromise WB?

JimKarczewski

Color of the WB could be due to the lights cycling. Depending on the lights and your shutter speed, the lights can cycle and you can catch some lights at the top of their cycle and others at the bottom.. which will cause constant shifting. The only real way to fix that, I've found at least, is slower shutter speeds, but then that causes motion blur.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't it seems sometimes with these lights. Just like some schools around here I can shoot 1/500@2.8 ISO1600 and some schools are 1/250@2.8 ISO 6400 (and that's pushing it)... Never know what you're gonna get sometimes.

drode

Yeah, that's always the way. This gym was a bit on the dark side but the bigger issue was the unevenness of the light and the some shots would pickup multiple color casts. I evened out the image in Photoshop with better results but that takes time.

I do have a (potential) solution up my sleeve that I'm going to try as early as Friday. We'll see.