Indoor volleyball - with/without flash

Nimai

I've been helping out a friend who's daughter is on the volleyball team. I knew high school gymnasium volleyball would be a challenging shoot! On my first visit, I went in with my Canon 30D and 70-200 f/2.8 IS. I tried ISO 1600, 1/320.


They cleaned up OK in post, using NeatImage to remove noise, and combinations of Auto-Levels and Auto-Color.


The next week, I brought the same lens, but this time I came early and set up two strobes in the corners of the bleachers and used Pocket Wizards to trigger them. With the flashes, my maximum shutter speed was 1/250, but I was able to use ISO 400, and the strobe froze the action much better. The flashed shots also didn't need as much post processing.



The only weird thing with the flashes up in the corners of the gym was the shadow of the netting cast on the girls. But I might be able to chalk that up to artistic intent!

StevenV

great comparison, thanks for posting. did you get any push-back or complaints about the flashes, from players, coaches or officials (or parents)?

JESTER

These look great. High School gyn lighting is usually terrible and you have to do a lot of post processing. Yours looks a lot better than most I have seen. Most have problems with getting the ball or the players hands in focus.

Where I am located you can't use flash at the games. I use ISO 1600 or 3200 with a shutter speed as high as I can get. I PP with noiseninja.

Dave

Nimai

We thought the flashes would be a problem, that's why we got set up early and tried them out all through warm-ups. The flashes are fast, but not totally unnoticeable. We got through warm-ups with no problems, and when the game started, we just kept quiet and kept going. I don't believe it was too distruptive, with the flashes outside of their field of view for the most part.

PineapplePhoto

Great post. I will be doing my first volleyball game this week, scary!

I am ordering my 85mm f1.8 from B&H as we speak.

Nimai

PineapplePhoto wrote:

I am ordering my 85mm f1.8 from B&H as we speak.

Oooh~

jonh68

I tried bounce lighting using my Nikon SB400 and 85 1.8 for a game in a badly lit gym. The 1.8 was able to pick up the light and I had the shutterspeed set at 1/400. They were a tad underexposed, but the lighting was soft and didn't cast shadows.

With your strobe lights, you may be able to bounce them as well?

Nimai

I should have taken a wide-angle shot of the gym. I think it had cream-colored ceilings with metal scaffolding as well.
I might be able to bounce, but I'm using a f/2.8 lens. I'm definitely going to continue trying things!

wilsonjg

I shoot some volleyball and I always make a point to find the referees before the matches and tell them I'll be using a flash during the matches. If you are nice and approach them first, you'll not have too many issues with them.

"Most of the time", they tell me it is fine with them and I'll only have to put the flash away if a coach or a player objects. I've only been asked to stop using the flash once in probably 35 matches..... (the "other teams" coach had issues with me that day - we were killing them!! )

This is usually what I come away with......

sirsloop

Nimai wrote:

The only weird thing with the flashes up in the corners of the gym was the shadow of the netting cast on the girls. But I might be able to chalk that up to artistic intent!

Lol... just means you need to put flashes all around the ring to blow out those shadows. HAHAHAH... let the fans know when you got that shot!!! rofl

jonh68

This is a shot with the 85 1.8 and bounce light off the celing.