More Highschool Basketball

donek

I shot games Friday and Saturday for the paper. I got some fun shots and had a great time doing it. I tried the coffee filter technique for setting WB, but went back to a custom setting in Capture on Fridays game. I can't seem to get rid of the green cast in that gym. Any suggestions? Here are a couple.

The kid who got the ball is the most amazing player I've seen. I saw him run the length of the court and the ball only hit the ground three time. He's amazingly fast and only 5'7".

Here's one of those really green ones:


Saturdays game produced better results on the WB thing, but still not perfect in my opinion. Here's a great sequence of a kid going in for a lay-up, getting fauled, flying sideways through the air and still making the attemp. It took him a couple seconds to get up and make the free throws.






I tried shooting Shutter priority this weekend at 1/400. Normally I'm 1/500 at f1.4 on my 50mm. I got a bit sharper focus with a tighter aperture on some shots, but gained a bit of motion blurr too. Tough to know which way to go in the future.

Fridays game: http://donek.smugmug.com/gallery/2222273
Saturdays Game: http://donek.smugmug.com/gallery/2225358

Thanks for looking.

RandySmugMug

i'd just shot RAW & fix WB after
1/400 should be ok and if the light is low it will help u keep iso down

the action and composition is very good
these look soft on most faces....i assume u USMed them so maybe try to find what sensor got the focus.
do you shoot shutter or focus priority ?

donek

RandySmugMug wrote:

i'd just shot RAW & fix WB after
1/400 should be ok and if the light is low it will help u keep iso down

the action and composition is very good
these look soft on most faces....i assume u USMed them so maybe try to find what sensor got the focus.
do you shoot shutter or focus priority ?

I did shoot Raw, but no matter how I change the White balance, the green won't go away. The teams colors are green, so I think there is a lot of reflected green off the painting on some areas of the walls.

I didn't use any USM on them. What do you mean "what sensor got the focus"? I do use a single center focal point. The action tends to be so fast, that aiming for much other than center mass would be pretty tough. Is that my next step, move my focal point up and point it at the head?

I shot Shutter priority on these games, but I normally shoot manual. Focus priority? Do you mean Aperture priority? I find Aperture priority produces too inconsistent a shutter speed on indoor games. That's why I normally just go manual, but shooting shutter priority allows the camera to close down and give a bit more depth of field bringing more than one player into focus when the lighting permits.

RandySmugMug

donek wrote:

I did shoot Raw, but no matter how I change the White balance, the green won't go away. The teams colors are green, so I think there is a lot of reflected green off the painting on some areas of the walls.

I didn't use any USM on them. What do you mean "what sensor got the focus"? I do use a single center focal point. The action tends to be so fast, that aiming for much other than center mass would be pretty tough. Is that my next step, move my focal point up and point it at the head?

I shot Shutter priority on these games, but I normally shoot manual. Focus priority? Do you mean Aperture priority? I find Aperture priority produces too inconsistent a shutter speed on indoor games. That's why I normally just go manual, but shooting shutter priority allows the camera to close down and give a bit more depth of field bringing more than one player into focus when the lighting permits.

i try to shoot for the players eyes. I prefer shutter priority, AFC, single sensor (and the center one unless I shoot portrait mode, then i change the sensor to line up with the eyes again). I think they need some sharpening.

ian408

RandySmugMug wrote:

i try to shoot for the players eyes. I prefer shutter priority, AFC, single sensor (and the center one unless I shoot portrait mode, then i change the sensor to line up with the eyes again). I think they need some sharpening.

I like the composition and action. You've done well.

If you prefer the center point and shoot for the eyes, you may end up out
of focus. Not sure which camera body you are shooting with. Canon focus
points are not all the same. Meaning that different points are more or less
accurate--take a look through the manual for an explanation of how they
work. Again, using a Canon body as an example; adjusting the focus point
is (or should be) second nature. The point I'm trying to make is that you
should use a focus point that gets the best focus for your composition.

As far as the color cast. Adjusting WB is just one part of your post processing.
You will need to use levels/curves to get rid of the color cast. There's a
tutorial for adjusting in the How To secton.

Randy's right about the sharpening. A bit of UnSharpMask would go a
long way toward making these look better--maybe adding a little "pop"
would punch up the color too.