Volleyball

KMCC

Spanning the county (Fulton) to bring you the constant variety of sport . . . .
yesterday led me to try my hand at volleyball, a sport that I'd never photographed before.

It'll take a couple more games before I learn enough to be able to anticipate the action and time my shots better; and optimizing the exposure given the vagaries of gym lighting is a challenge too. But here are a couple of shots from a preseason tournment.

(click on image for EXIF)

adpace

Nice action shots. #2 is my favorite, but would like to see the distance between her feet and the ground. The only thing I can suggest (and take this with a grain of salt as I've never photographed a sport, but as someone who has played a lot of volleyball in HS and college)... zoom out further. Get the girls in the air... and make sure to show them off the ground by seeing their feet. Try to capture how high the net is... or how low those back row ladies have to get in order to scoop up the ball from a spike. The 1st picture you have shows that the most, but the others make me feel like they're playing on a 2 ft high net! Great job on your first time though!! The lighting & color look great! I'd think v.ball to be a pretty difficult sport to shoot, so Well Done!!

KMCC

adpace wrote:

Get the girls in the air... and make sure to show them off the ground by seeing their feet. Try to capture how high the net is... or how low those back row ladies have to get in order to scoop up the ball from a spike.

I agree completely. This was a pre-season tournament and there were two games going on at all times which made it impossible for me to get down on the floor where the angles would have been much more conducive to the type of shots you're describing.

The first shot was taken from the bleachers; about 10 feet above floor level. The last two were actually taken from at least 20 feet above floor level shooting from above the bleachers.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get down on the court for some regular season games and be shooting up, rather than down.

Thanks for the comments.

Dbl

Kent thats some of the nicest lighting I've seen in a gym. It looks like you have some natural light mixed in. Colors and balance are really nice and it appears as if you had a decent shutterspeed to work with.

shiningstars

What lens did you use? I have taken pictures of volleyball and basketball for 2 years and never come close to that clarity. I love the vibrant colors and how more than one person is in focus.

KMCC

shiningstars wrote:

What lens did you use? I have taken pictures of volleyball and basketball for 2 years and never come close to that clarity. I love the vibrant colors and how more than one person is in focus.

Thanks for the comments on the shots.

The first one was taken with a Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8 lens; the last two were taken with a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8.

You can click on any of the images to see the full EXIF, but all were shot with a Canon 30D in Manual mode: 1/500 shutterspeed, f/2.8, and ISO 1600.

All of the shots were taken between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. This gym has a lot of windows which were letting in plenty of light; which helped with the color balance.

Let me know if you have any other questions.