Strobed HS Basketball with New D4 Settings

MDalby

I had been struggling a little with my shots being tack sharp. I made a couple of settings changes and I am more happy with the results. I use BBF so I only have the shutter for release and not focus.

Nikon D4 Settings
A1 AF-C Priority Selection: Release
A2 AF-S Priority Selection: Release
A3 Focus Tracking with Lock-on: 2 (between Normal 3 and short 1)
A4 AF Activation: AF-ON only
A7 Number of Focus Points: 21 Points
A8 Assign AF-ON Button: AF-ON
A9 Assign AF-ON Button Vert: AF-ON
Sharpness: 6
AF-C D9

#1


#2


#3


#4 - The white jersey player isn't as sharp as the other player.


#5


#6 - Not as sharp as I would like.

williaes

This is going to sound really basic but what aperture are you shooting? Look at both #4 and #6 on the bicep of each subject. That appears to be tack sharp on focus and then drop off like a really shallow dof. The white jersey guy in #4 looks like he is just out of the circle of focus. His arm though appears to be in focus. Like I said really basic questions but use a dof calculator and see how narrow those shots are. That could be a simple issue. Other than that at a high speed game of BB those are great shots. I shoot for two local news papers and I would be REALLY happy with those for media print. Good Job.

MDalby

f/4.0 for the aperture

JimKarczewski

Hell, I normally shoot 3.2-3.5, some darker gyms I'll have to go to f4, but typically I just drop my ISO. Yeah, there are instances of another player being slightly out of focus, but most of the time it's not related to the action, so I don't worry about it.

nipprdog

MDalby wrote: »

I had been struggling a little with my shots being tack sharp.#6 - Not as sharp as I would like.

You're beating yourself up for nothing. Its WINTER. We're not outdoors shooting at 1/2500-1/4000 with our 2.8 glass. Were indoors shooting at 1/250. Fast moving high school players are NOT going to be tack sharp. Accept it. The parents who would buy your shots, won't notice.

EphTwoEight

Yeah, they look fantastic to me!

JimKarczewski

nipprdog wrote: »

You're beating yourself up for nothing. Its WINTER. We're not outdoors shooting at 1/2500-1/4000 with our 2.8 glass. Were indoors shooting at 1/250. Fast moving high school players are NOT going to be tack sharp. Accept it. The parents who would buy your shots, won't notice.

With Einsteins is about the only (cheap) way you can get them really sharp. Due to the short t.1 time they should be really sharp.. If not I'd suspect something else because of flash duration is so damn quick on them.

MDalby

Jim,

I use Einstein strobes. The good thing about Einsteins is if you drop the power, you actually get a shorter flash duration which should equate to better freezing of the action. I generally shoot at 1/6 power so I get plenty of burst opportunities and can generally freeze the action.