Last HS Basketball Game with my 24-70..

JimKarczewski

Now that my 70-200 is back, I'll most likely be shooting the remainder of the season with my 70-200. I've had comments before about "not proper" to shoot with a short lens in basketball, but I'd like to say to whomever said it, You need to look around more! I've seen more shots with wide angles and mid-range lenses lately than I can shake a stick at and all in professional, respected publications. It's not the tool you use, it's what you create using the tools!

K, gripes aside. This is my typical 4 light setup which I've talked about in the past. 2 lights on each side, fired with PocketWizards. This game they were 1/4 power, 70mm zoom and gave me 1/200 @ 3.5, ISO 500. I don't normally like using 500 (prefer 640 or 320 if I'm going lower) but I was lazy and didn't change them.

Sorry about the watermark, didn't get a chance to post them to a non-public gallery yet.. if I do, I'll update them without.

jhefti

JimKarczewski wrote: »

Now that my 70-200 is back, I'll most likely be shooting the remainder of the season with my 70-200. I've had comments before about "not proper" to shoot with a short lens in basketball, but I'd like to say to whomever said it, You need to look around more! I've seen more shots with wide angles and mid-range lenses lately than I can shake a stick at and all in professional, respected publications. It's not the tool you use, it's what you create using the tools!

Whoever said you shouldn't shoot hoops with a short lens? I typically use two bodies: one with a 70-200 and another with a 24-70. Many of the shooters around me are similarly equipped, and all have some kind of short lens.

I'm not a big fan of lighting-enhanced shots, but these do look nice!

JimKarczewski

jhefti wrote: »

Whoever said you shouldn't shoot hoops with a short lens? I typically use two bodies: one with a 70-200 and another with a 24-70. Many of the shooters around me are similarly equipped, and all have some kind of short lens.

I'm not a big fan of lighting-enhanced shots, but these do look nice!

Oh, I know... but.. I've been "called out" by using my 24-70 which I completely don't understand!

I'll probably be dual shooting the remainder of the year, 24-70 on one cam, 70-200 on the other.

, with the lights.. you need lighting around here, we have some DARK, DARK holes here in Indiana.

jhefti

JimKarczewski wrote: »

, with the lights.. you need lighting around here, we have some DARK, DARK holes here in Indiana.

Yeah, my kids' high school hoops games are played in a gym with horrible lights that have the worst cycling problem I have ever had to deal with. It almost drove me to buy some external lights.

73Rocks

JimKarczewski wrote: »

Oh, I know... but.. I've been "called out" by using my 24-70 which I completely don't understand!

I'll probably be dual shooting the remainder of the year, 24-70 on one cam, 70-200 on the other.

, with the lights.. you need lighting around here, we have some DARK, DARK holes here in Indiana.

I haven't been called out on it . . . but then again I don't shoot for any large publications . . . but I use mostly small focal length lenses without stobes too. Three reasons (1) I prefer pictures that don't have a lot of shadows or different shades of light . . . as natural look as possible. (2) I can't afford all the extra equipment and I don't think I could get them to work as well as Jim does (you guessed it #2 is actually #1). (3) The small gyms across NE South Dakota have at the most 4 to 6 feet between the wall and the baseline . . . there just isn't any room for a big lens.

That being said, what I use for my Canon 7D is a 50mm f1.4 prime lens with my 580EX Speedlight turned down to about 1/64th power with an ISO of about 640 to 800 and a shutter speed of 640.

A couple of gyms in my area have a little more room to work with, but not many. When tournament time comes around and I have the chance to shoot in a large arena (with good lighting and lots of room) I will pull out my 70-200 IS. But this brings about one of the few things that really irks me, just when I have a great shot like a fast break basket coming right at me there will be somebody who thinks now is the time to get some popcorn and will walk right in front of me . . . or worse yet decide to stop right in front of me and watch the action.

Anyway, I just thought I would add my 2 cents about short lenses. They seem to work fine for myself and the editors of the two papers I shoot for. As a matter of fact, they work so well that I have just had another small town paper hire me to shoot their local team for the tournament season.

Speaking of tournament season . . . one last note . . . looking forward to seeing some great tournament photos on this site from other Grinners. I get a lot of ideas and inspirations here!

Moving Pictures

I've recently obtained a fast 28-70, and its much better for shooting the down-low action than the 70-200 ever was. Now, I generally have some strange barns to shoot in. The one tonight gives me about 6 feet at one end, nine at the other between baseline and concrete. The other one I've shot in recently gives me about four feet, max. The zoom is way too big.

Tomorrow, I'll possibly be shooting in a barn that's got about a metre of space from baseline to wall. And it's YELLER. I mean, so damned yeller, I may throw on a 1/4 or 1/2 CTO (yes, orange) to help balance the flashes to the piss-orange ambient. Howda hell they ever made yellow fluorescents, I have no clue ...

And as a very recent (as in, one game) convert to flash setups, I can tell you ... it makes a huge difference, especially in those dark barns where due to some obscure designer/builder thing, they figure it's not wise to put lights near the walls, which means the space under the basket (which is close to a wall) is thus transformed into something about as dark as the fourth level of Hades.