College Women's BBall with new lens

Shima

Just got my used Sigma APO 70-200 f2.8 EX DG HSM this past friday from a fellow smug mugger here... so the Saturday women's game was my first chance to really test it out.

Valparaiso University vs. Saint Xavier
(Valpo won)

I still need to figure out white balance settings as it is different from the canon 70-200 f4 I was using previously... but since I didn't have as much time for shooting as I would have liked (had to help out operating a video camera for our web cast on Horizon League... VU went on break on Friday, so we had no students that I could get to do it instead!) I did the best I could w/ the 7 minutes of game time my boss covered my vid camera for me...

Anyhoo, here's a few of the shots I captured... REALLY looking forward to having the whole men's game on January 2nd to play with this thing.

(and again, I realize white balance is off)






And there was a small handful of pep banders who stuck around after finals to play in the holiday spirit (so I used them to test out non-fast action photos on the lens!)

kitkatkaplan

Details

Shima wrote:

Just got my used Sigma APO 70-200 f2.8 EX DG HSM this past friday from a fellow smug mugger here... so the Saturday women's game was my first chance to really test it out.

These are great shots, really sharp and natural. I'm really having problems shoooting action in available light. I just got a Sigma 17-70 f2.8 which I hope will help. I'd like to know more details of these shots. Are they all done with a flash or available light? What ISO?
Great work.

Shima

kitkatkaplan wrote:

These are great shots, really sharp and natural. I'm really having problems shooting action in available light. I just got a Sigma 17-70 f2.8 which I hope will help. I'd like to know more details of these shots. Are they all done with a flash or available light? What ISO?
Great work.

All available light, that's why I bought the 70-200 f2.8 I don't own a cool strobe like the newspaper photogs... so I gotta work w/ my available light for now.

ISO 1600 on a Rebel XTi body (I really want a 40D eventually though)
f2.8 aperture and 1/400 for the shutter
(shooting in manual)

rdlugosz

The shots look good! Glad you're enjoying the lens!

donek

Your shots look good. I'm in my second season shooting indoor sports. I've started using a bounce flash almost all the time. I simply point it at the ceiling or the floor. If you look at your shots, you'll find a good portion of the faces seem to be in shadow. With the bounce flash at about 1/4 power this goes away. You can see the result of my latest game at: http://www.donek.smugmug.com/gallery/4032870#234755929
I still shoot manual and have not increased my shutter speed or closed my aperture. This has just enhanced the available light. I find that a lot of the WB issues seem to diminish too. I've gone to auto WB and only occaisionally adjust it in post. The green looking walls in that gallery are actually green. When I shoot wide under the baskett, I point the flash at the net. I still get the bounce, but it really emphasises your location when you just catch the bottom of the net.

Hope that helps.

Shima

donek wrote:

Your shots look good. I'm in my second season shooting indoor sports. I've started using a bounce flash almost all the time. I simply point it at the ceiling or the floor. If you look at your shots, you'll find a good portion of the faces seem to be in shadow. With the bounce flash at about 1/4 power this goes away. You can see the result of my latest game at: http://www.donek.smugmug.com/gallery/4032870#234755929
I still shoot manual and have not increased my shutter speed or closed my aperture. This has just enhanced the available light. I find that a lot of the WB issues seem to diminish too. I've gone to auto WB and only occaisionally adjust it in post. The green looking walls in that gallery are actually green. When I shoot wide under the baskett, I point the flash at the net. I still get the bounce, but it really emphasises your location when you just catch the bottom of the net.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the feedback! Most of the people who use a flash at all use remote strobes... so I'm a little weary of causing any fights over using my flash just angled, but the thought has come across my mind. Yeah it really bugs me that their faces aren't lit up, but that's part of the issue I just have to deal with until I can get the means to fix that I suppose...

This is my first season shooting b-ball so hopefully by my second I can look closer to your shots! Nice selection of photos you have

jonh68

Unless it's forbidden or you sit under the basket with a wide angle lens, the use of a flash doesn't bother the players. I have shot enough games that somebody would complain by now. I point my flash straight up to bounce as well. Ask the refs, and shoot some with flash during warmups to get some feedback from the players. I HATE straight on flash, but bounce light does work if you don't have strobes.

SirGeorge

White balance in a gym
Shima,
Nice work and I fully empathize with the white balance issue - coincidentally I just made a post to this section "Girls High School Track" and it has taken me a few shoots to get it (almost) right; and I can see you exprienced changing light conditions within the gym...that makes it tough

I found the key to set the white balance to 3200K (for Tungsten) but I still found that i underexposed (even though all of my setting appeared correct) , to my liking by an 1/2 stop - so i pushed the images 1/2 stop in PP and I like the results. That said, I shoot in RAW so I correct any failings in adjustment in Lightroom.

You may wish to try a WhiBal card to give you a reference point for your gym and your equipment.

Good luck and keep posting.

jonh68 wrote:

Unless it's forbidden or you sit under the basket with a wide angle lens, the use of a flash doesn't bother the players. I have shot enough games that somebody would complain by now. I point my flash straight up to bounce as well. Ask the refs, and shoot some with flash during warmups to get some feedback from the players. I HATE straight on flash, but bounce light does work if you don't have strobes.

shoppix

Basketball - indoor sports shoting!
Indoor sports dilema!!!
Just shot 6 HS holiday tournament games in 3 different school gyms. One was so dark - had 2 bulb flourescent fixtures - I almost left and went home!
But, I stayed and met the challenge! Like a good sports shooter - that I want to be!
Using a D70S, noise at 800 and up is awful. Anyways I set WB to floourescent, ISO 1250-1600, 1/320, and 2.8(70-200 sigma) or 2.2 (Nikon 50 1.8). Then adjusted enough, in Lightroom, to upload to smugmug for viewing and buying (proof delayed). Then I opened the JPEGS in PSE for more editing and ran through NeatImage to clear up the noise.

Steve
shoppix.smugmug.com

Shima

shoppix wrote:

Indoor sports dilema!!!
Just shot 6 HS holiday tournament games in 3 different school gyms. One was so dark - had 2 bulb flourescent fixtures - I almost left and went home!
But, I stayed and met the challenge! Like a good sports shooter - that I want to be!
Using a D70S, noise at 800 and up is awful. Anyways I set WB to floourescent, ISO 1250-1600, 1/320, and 2.8(70-200 sigma) or 2.2 (Nikon 50 1.8). Then adjusted enough, in Lightroom, to upload to smugmug for viewing and buying (proof delayed). Then I opened the JPEGS in PSE for more editing and ran through NeatImage to clear up the noise.

Steve
shoppix.smugmug.com

Thanks, yeah I shoot at flourescent just sometimes randomly shots are off, not sure why... Most of the time (I'd say 90-95% of the time) they're just fine though. I have been doing ISO 1600, 2.8, 1/400 (on my 70-200 sigma) no one buys my shots (...yet!) I only started shooting this season just for fun / my personal enjoyment... I did get a fellow VU staff member though approaching me asking if I'd shoot (for pay!) some shots of his daughters basketball team playing, so that should hopefully pan out in the upcoming months!

Anyhoo I think I did a bit better for round 2 w/ the new sigma lens, see my post about the men's game that was yesterday. Thanks again for looking and sharing your comments!