basketball help!

hschlessphoto

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I shoot sports for my school's yearbook and personal pleasure. I'm also into a lot of other fields of photography, but I am having a bit of trouble in the basketball gym. I have a nikon D50 (max ISO 1600) and usually use a 55-200 f/4-5.6 lens. I cant get bright shots without noise, and my flash makes higns look blue. I have tried all sorts of manual settings. any suggestions PLEASE?

Thank you!


P.S. please check out my gallery below

jonh68

I couldn't find your BB pics in your gallery so it's hard to tell.

Your lens is not really good for shooting indoor basketball. You need at least a 2.8 for HS gyms. You don't mention if you are using on camera flash or external, but i recommend getting an external flash as well.

I shot some serviceable pictures last year using my 18-200 vr with on camera flash, but it wasn't fun seeing the results. Getting a 85 1.8 helped out much in being able to shoot without a flash and adding a sb-800 and bounce flashing off of walls and ceiling made it even better. I have a D50 as well and it's fast sync speed 1/500 is pretty good for capturing BB with a flash, although it takes timing for the moment.

hschlessphoto

hahah i just realized i dont have any of my bball ones in there! ooops! how much does a lens like an 85 cost? thanks

johng

Yes, forget about a 2.8 lens. With ISO 1600, 2.8 wont be fast enough. The Nikon 85mm sells for around $400

You could get an external flash instead but the reality is it is much easier to get quality shots with the faster lens. Getting quality flash shots consistently is difficult. And there are VERY, VERY few people I've seen who get results preferable to available light shots with a fast lens. Even folks investing in strobes I've seen very mixed results. The 85 is the right path IMO for quality shots.

BRATCH

hschlessphoto wrote:

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I shoot sports for my school's yearbook and personal pleasure. I'm also into a lot of other fields of photography, but I am having a bit of trouble in the basketball gym. I have a nikon D50 (max ISO 1600) and usually use a 55-200 f/4-5.6 lens. I cant get bright shots without noise, and my flash makes higns look blue. I have tried all sorts of manual settings. any suggestions PLEASE?

Thank you!


P.S. please check out my gallery below

I don't think many people feel the same way as I do, but that 55-200 lens is damn handy. I've shot countless basketball games with it and I've gotten some pretty good shots.

I'm not discounting the advice that you are getting from the fellows before me, but sometimes 2.8 lenses just aren't in the budget. But I will tell you that with your D50, an SB-600 external flash can be in your budget and that will help you tremendously.

You can get a Nikon SB-600 at Amazon.com for under $200.

Also, a bigger, better flash (face it, you always need a little flash in some of these basketball dungeons) will help out your blue photos. You can take four photos as fast as you can pull the trigger and one will be blue, the next yellow, the next redish and one might be right. That's the cycle of crappy basketball lights, but a flash will even things out with a good consistent light source.

You can get a 50mm 1.8 for $100 as well. Kind of short, but good for under the basket stuff. It takes a little getting used to because the f/4-5.6 lens has a much larger depth of field.

Anyway, if cost is an issue consider dropping the cash on an SB-600. A D50, 55-200 and a SB-600 is very servicable. I shot basketball for several years using a D70, 55-200 and SB-600. Even won a state press award with a basketball action photo I took with that setup from a game shot in a 50 year-old high school gym.

Then snag a good 2.8 lens when you get the chance.

johng

BRATCH wrote:

...
Also, a bigger, better flash (face it, you always need a little flash in some of these basketball dungeons) will help out your blue photos. You can take four photos as fast as you can pull the trigger and one will be blue, the next yellow, the next redish and one might be right. That's the cycle of crappy basketball lights, but a flash will even things out with a good consistent light source.
....
Then snag a good 2.8 lens when you get the chance.

Just wanted to comment on these two points:
1. in 90% of gyms at least around me the lighting is fairly consistent. A proper manual white balance results in consistent shots. About 10% of the gyms dont have enough overlapping field of light and you get cycling temperatures so a custom WB is not practical.

2. 2.8 and ISO 1600 just isn't good enough for most HS gyms. If you want to get good shots with 2.8 you'll need ISO 3200. Otherwise you're either underexposing or your shutter speeds are too slow.

I would concur, the 50mm is a good option whenn there are severe budget constraints.

For flash use - you'll have to judge that for yourself. Everything is a compromise. But I will throw this out at you: most hobbyist sports shooters like to get galleries of shots. So, before deciding on an approach I might suggest looking at GALLERY LEVEL results from the different equipment. I.E. find someone using the 85mm and ask to see a gallery of shots (not a cherry picked half dozen). Same with the flash and 5.6 lens option.
Looking at galleries does two things for you:
1. It allows you to judge for yourself before you spend your $$ how good the solution will work.
2. It gets you a person that is using the equipment and is getting results youd like to get. So you can ask them questions.

In either case, most sports shooters on this board should have a gallery of basketball shots from a solution they're recommending.

I think when you see gallery level results you'll get a better feeling for the pros/cons of each approach.

I myself shoot Canon, so I'm not sure it's a relavent comparison. But if you like you can look at the Boys basketball shots (non CYO shots -those were with 70-200). Those Wadsworth and Medina boys basketball shots were taken with an 85mm 1.8 lens in the Canon system.

time2smile

Nice fire shots

I have a D50 and for BB I use a SB-600 bounced off the back wall with a foam reflector. The lens is the 50 f1.8, usually set for 1/160 f2.2 for some greater DOF iso 800. It works for me. The coach loves the pics. I'll post some on my site after the season. I agree that the 85 f1.8 may be the best way to go for the buck, at least for me, I would be cropping less.

beetle8

I would rather use available light, I've used flash at a few events and I always feel like the athletes would rather not have the flash going off. The last time I used a flash I saw the wrestler look up at me after the shot, so that gave me the intrusive feeling.
I'll agree with Johng I think consistency wise no flash is better.
1600 is not enough

johng

time2smile wrote:

Nice fire shots

I agree that the 85 f1.8 may be the best way to go for the buck, at least for me, I would be cropping less.

You'll also find the images are sharper. If you're doing heavy cropping now it's likely your lens is focusing near infinity and relatively speaking you'll get softer results. A 50mm lens is good for about 10-15 feet and that's it. 85 is good to about 20 feet. Shoot within those limitations and you'll see the quality of your shots jump WAY up.