HS Basketball - Remote Flash Setup

MDalby

This week I will be doing my first remote flash shooting for basketball. I have been concerned about the correct flash and camera setup. I have been doing some reading and found the following links at the Strobist site:

Strobist Prep Basketball

Big Gym, Little Lights

• I will only be using 2 Speedlight SB-800s at this time so I will have one on each width of the court in the stands.
• I am going to go to some practices this week and experiment. I am going to start with 1/4 output and try some shots at 1/2.

Any other readings that you recommend?
Any other tricks and tips on the flash and camera set up?

Thanks,

MD

JimKarczewski

MD-

You can start that way, he suggests putting lights at the top of the key, 50mm zoom. The 50mm zoom works for me, but top of the key I dunno, I got way too many horrible shadows when the action was under the basket.. where most things happen anyway. I'd say 99% of my shoots now, the attached image is how I shoot the game, minus the 3rd light at 1/2 court. That was a one time "test" to see what the images would look like. Typically with my canon flashes, which I think are about the same power as your SB800's, I only need to crank to 1/8th power to get decent images. 1/200 @ F4, ISO 1600 is typical for what I shoot.

This is my lighting setup:



A few from the last game i did using that setup. One light no gel, one light 1/2 CTO. Found the highlights look a little nicer when using the CTO on the light closest to where I'm shooting and no gel on the other light, WB set to 5K.





Also, experiment! This game was one of the first I shot using the "Strobist" setup. These were at the top of the key as he suggested. Lighting definitely looks different, but as I said, getting down under the basket it all but impossible unless you have a third light pointed down there from the baseline.. especially if there is a lot of traffic in the lane and surrounding it.. or big players surrounding a small player..

MDalby

Jim, EXCELLENT. Thank you for the help. I haven't used any gels yet. I will play with that this week.

I have been pretty much shooting from under the basket, just outside the key. It is good for lots of action around the hoop. I think I need to get different views though. I think I will also try shots from the corner.