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Kikoprice · January 22, 2012

Here are a few shots from the past few weeks.

I had enough time to set up 2 580 flash units but there wasnt anywhere to mount them. I ended up super clamping them to a rolling chair stand that was only 6 feet tall and only 6 feet wide.

#1

Nathan shooting the same gym with the same camera and using a 300 2.8

#2

Different gym, same shot.

This is with 2 off camera flash units {580II} 7D and 70-200 2.8
#3

This is with a 7D and a 300 2.8 with no flash {Nates Shot}
#4

Any feed back is appreciated. Its hard to judge how your doing without C&C.

Kikoprice · January 26, 2012

A little help with some C&C?

zSCOTTz · January 26, 2012

I like number 1 the best, the background bothers me a little in number 2. When you set up flash to the chairs, do you have to ask permission to do that in the gym?

jonh68 · January 26, 2012

I like 2 and 4 the best. I am just not a fan of strobbed basketball as it doesn't look natural to the way the game is being played.

Kikoprice · January 26, 2012

We are on a first name basis with all of the AD and coaches in the district, so we can do just about what we want to do. Most of the courts we are shooting have a lot of burnt out lights that won't get replaced due to budget problems.

I would love to be able to shoot available light and not have to deal with strobes. Not much you can do about the conditions. Example, shot #2 I think Nate was getting 1/400 @ f2.8 iso 6400. The only shot that were usable we're the ones when the action near still.

Thanks for the comments, it does help.

Frank

Quincy T · January 27, 2012

Was #1 an early shot? Seems like you didn't have your shutter speed dialed in for good ambient, but I like the action. Very traditional basketball stuff right there.

Kikoprice · January 27, 2012

They were right at the edge of my limitied flash coverage area. I only have to 580's to work with. Thanks for the comment.

JimKarczewski · January 28, 2012

Kikoprice wrote: »

They were right at the edge of my limitied flash coverage area. I only have to 580's to work with. Thanks for the comment.

I don't quite understand this statement?

I shoot with 580's all the time... the background there is DARK.. which means you are shooting way too far over ambient.. like maybe 4 stops?

If your ambient is oh, lets say 1/200 @ 2.8, ISO 3200, you want your lights set that they will expose the subject, 1/200 @ 2.8, ISO 800. That will put your background 2 stops under and not extremely dark like those posted. It's a balancing game. If you don't care about ambient, use more flashes and light up the back court.. but.. there are always drawbacks to everything, you have to weigh your options

Kikoprice · January 28, 2012

Thanks for posting Jim. Ive been trying to get this flash concept into my brain. I bounce between 11 different schools all with different lighting and limited time at each location. The concept should be the same for every location. This gym had flourescent lights a really bad color cast and really busy backgrounds. I figured I wanted very little ambient due to the bad lighting and busy back ground. Ambient was dead on @ ISO 6400 F2.8 and 1/500. I was at ISO 640-500m, F4.5 and 1/250.

Your posts and MDalbys posts on flash got me headed in this direction, I was hoping one of you would show up with some direction for me.

JimKarczewski · January 29, 2012

My typical and I say typical as tonights location was not is:

4 - 580EXII with PiXel battery packs set to 1/4 power, 50mm zoom. Which gives me 1/200 @ 3.5, ISO 640.

Tonight, I was using 6 lights, my 580II's + 2 540EZ's.. All 1/2 power to give me 1/200@ 4, ISO 160 (yes, 160.) I did this because the gym was REALLY bright. When the natural light shooters say, "Man I love how bright this place is" I have to really crank the power to overtake the lighting.

However, my typical is as stated above. I may have to open or close my aperture a little, usually I'm between 3.2 and 4 and that's it.

Then thing is you MUST remember when shooting with flash... and it took me a bit to wrap my head around.. Ambient is controlled by your shutter speed, flash is controlled by your aperture.

Want more light from the flash? open your aperture. Want less ambient, increase your shutter. Of course, you also have to work within your max-sync speed as well.

Details, details.

Kikoprice · January 29, 2012

Thanks Jim. How many stops below ambient do you try to stay at to keep motion blur under control? I have been under the impression it's about 2 stops.

JimKarczewski · January 30, 2012

Kikoprice wrote: »

They were right at the edge of my limitied flash coverage area. I only have to 580's to work with. Thanks for the comment.

Kikoprice wrote: »

Thanks Jim. How many stops below ambient do you try to stay at to keep motion blur under control? I have been under the impression it's about 2 stops.

Correct.. 2 to 2.5 stops is good.. More than 4 and your background will typically really get dark, as you've experienced already. However if the ambient is REALLY bright well, your background just won't go black. Like the 1/2 power I used Friday & Sat.. This is the end result:

http://www.jimkarczewski.com/Sporting-Events/HSBasketball11/Munster-Valparaiso-012812/

Fogcity · January 30, 2012

Hi Jim,
Found these posts and thanks for the info-this also helped a lot. I checked out your shots, very nice--they almost look hdr--are you processing them in post to have this effect? Or maybe it was just the lighting in that gym. I like the look.
Karen

JimKarczewski · January 30, 2012

Its just the light... very little pp other than sharpening

Kikoprice · January 30, 2012

Thats the one of the thing that has me using flash, the quality of the light. If you dont like the available light, bring your own...

Thanks again Jim, if you show up in San Diego during summertime, I will take you out tuna fishing, my treat.

JimKarczewski · January 30, 2012

Kikoprice wrote: »

Thats the one of the thing that has me using flash, the quality of the light. If you dont like the available light, bring your own...

Thanks again Jim, if you show up in San Diego during summertime, I will take you out tuna fishing, my treat.

Exactly. I don't care if I can't shoot 10fps during a game like the guys shooting ambient. I know that mine will look better with flash.

I mean, go to a pro game sometime and you'll see they can only flash once every second or so if they are lucky.. so its all about the light and getting your timing down.

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