InDoor Basketball Help

One Moment One Shot

I am at a Basketball Tournament and don't have a f2.8 lens yet and shooting with a 55-200 4-5.6 and a 18-55 that comes with the Nikon D3000.

Pictures are pretty blurry.

Any suggestions on settings to get some good shots?

And I don't have an external flash yet. Just built in flash.


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MDalby

You can get external flash pretty cheap and is the more cost effective solution. Glass can be pricey.

You can get used flashes at the following:

http://www.keh.com/

A couple of clamps and some cheap triggers and you are in business.

MD

MDalby

I shot my game last night with flash at f4.5 and ISO 1250.

One Moment One Shot

So without having a flash tonight any other options?


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http://www.onemomentoneshot.com

rainbow

Highest useful ISO. Center point focus and keep subject centered. Take shots when they are not moving as much (such as the top of a leap when they are momentarily stationary). If moving, they should be coming toward you (like on baseline, not sideline) versus running across your field. Aperture priority opened to the widest possible so meter will select fastest shutter under the lighting condition. Shoot a whole bunch and cross your fingers.... Gopd luck!

Also, get closer to use wider focal length, so lower f-stop and less "apparent movement" in the frame.

One Moment One Shot

Thanks for the help.... The RESULTS............ Finding me a Low Light Lens and SpeedLight ASAP

rainbow wrote: »

Highest useful ISO. Center point focus and keep subject centered. Take shots when they are not moving as much (such as the top of a leap when they are momentarily stationary). If moving, they should be coming toward you (like on baseline, not sideline) versus running across your field. Aperture priority opened to the widest possible so meter will select fastest shutter under the lighting condition. Shoot a whole bunch and cross your fingers.... Gopd luck!

Also, get closer to use wider focal length, so lower f-stop and less "apparent movement" in the frame.

JimKarczewski

Have a look at post #26 in this thread. I bet you can do it WITHOUT a lens upgrade.. Just speedlights and some wireless triggers....

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=27683&page=2

Cheap triggers and cheap flashes are the easy way to start, then upgrade your glass. Personal experience though, I shoot a 70-200 for basketball (for the near court) on a 5DII... I tend to shoot tight rather than loose. Now I just have to start shooting basketball horizontal because of the format our paper runs in, I get bigger pics publishes, but that's another topic all together!

D3Sshooter

MDalby wrote: »

You can get external flash pretty cheap and is the more cost effective solution. Glass can be pricey.

You can get used flashes at the following:

http://www.keh.com/

A couple of clamps and some cheap triggers and you are in business.

MD

Yes you can, but that will not solve the issue as the distance is in most cases to far.

D3Sshooter

When you say Blurry do you mean NOT SHARP or Movement Blur ?

Here are the affecting factors.

1. Diafragma, a small number means a large opening but a very limited Depth Of Field ( zone in the picture that is seen as sharp). For sports the F factor should be in most cases > 5.6

2. The higher the F number of the diafragma to more DOF you will get, but less light falls through the lens.

3. The second factor is the shutter speed, depending on the sports you will have to use high speed values ranging from 1/250 to 1/1000 of a second. Much depending on the actual movement (lateral or frontal) speeds might have to different. High speeds will freeze the picture, les high speeds will blur the movement ( can be nice so show the power and dynamic of the movement).

4. The exposure or light, this has to be right. use your light meter in the camera. For sports and specific attention points use the spot measurement, otherwise use matrix. Use the camera in shutter mode (you determine the fixed shutter speed) the diaphragm will be adjusted automatically if you have the option to set the upper and lower limit of the diaphragm.
The amount of light needed for a correct exposure will be regulated by your camera (In shutter mode) by adjusting the diaphragm on the condition that you have not exceeded the boundaries or limitations of the lens.
To overcome that , place the ISO value to Auto and if you can set the upper and lower boundary of the auto ISO.
With these settings it should just work fine even without a flash unit.

5. A flash unit helps as a fill-in light source, but remember the light can only carry so far (intensity reduced by the second quadrate).

If your problem was just Sharpness, then place the camera in focus spot mode (single red square in the ocular) .

MDalby

D3Sshooter wrote: »

When you say Blurry do you mean NOT SHARP or Movement Blur ?
1. Diafragma, a small number means a large opening but a very limited Depth Of Field ( zone in the picture that is seen as sharp). For sports the F factor should be in most cases > 5.6

Personally, I like to have my aperture lower than 5.6. I like bokeh in my shots where possible and you are only going to get that if you have your lens wide open. But then you have less DOF and have less of your shot in focus.

cecilc

One Moment One Shot wrote: »

I am at a Basketball Tournament and don't have a f2.8 lens yet and shooting with a 55-200 4-5.6 and a 18-55 that comes with the Nikon D3000.
Pictures are pretty blurry.
Any suggestions on settings to get some good shots?
And I don't have an external flash yet. Just built in flash.

This is easy to figure out ....
If your shots are blurry under ambient light and you're not strobing the game, then it's because your shutter speed isn't high enough to stop movement.
If you're at a high school gym or a rec gym or just about any place that's NOT a college or pro arena, the lights usually suck.
Which means cranking your ISO up about as high as you can go in order to get your shutter speed up to a more reasonable speed that will stop movement, usually 1/400 and above.
IF you cannot get at least 1/400 after cranking up your ISO to the maximum, then you can't expect to stop movement using the lenses that you're using.
At which time you'll know that you actually DO need a 2.8 or faster lens .....

Plus what "rainbow" said .... good advice there.

JimKarczewski

MDalby wrote: »

Personally, I like to have my aperture lower than 5.6. I like bokeh in my shots where possible and you are only going to get that if you have your lens wide open. But then you have less DOF and have less of your shot in focus.

Same here. If it was possible to shoot sports at >5.6 then all those guys shooting with $10,000+ lenses on the sidelines would really be pissed off at someone coming in with a 50-500 Sigma with it's 6.3 shooting! If you don't want subject isolation, which is what the 300 & 400/2.8's are going to give you, then sure.. shoot 5.6 or smaller. If you want that isolation, you need to be 4 or less. I hover around 3.5 for basketball.

johng

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet. Using flashes or strobes won't help with focus. An f5.6 lens lets in 4 times less light than an f2.8 lens. In HS gym lighting that makes it more challenging to focus. SO, even if you add an external light source to "freeze" the action you may find that the focus in the shot is still off because the camera/lens just couldn't get a good focus of the moving subject. It's a bit different when you're shooting outdoors in bright sunlight. But in poor indoor gym lighting, that lack of light-gathering ability in those lenses can really make it frustrating getting in-focus shots of good action.

JimKarczewski

Correct there John. The only thing that would help focus, and I honestly don't think it works in any of the tracking modes (AI focus for Canon, ??? for Nikon) is a flash on camera. You could set it to not fire, but I think that would also screw the triggers too, then again, maybe not. It's been a while since I put a flash on a camera and double as long since I had one on camera that didn't fire and still have wireless triggers connected elsewhere.