Shooting basketball- Any advice?

dinneenp

Hi,
In my pursuit to try out all things new I'm
going to shoot basketball tomorrow night.

Any advice or tips? Stand by the base line mainly, high shutter and aperture but anything else.
I'll try some panning & slow shutter shots as well.

It sounds a lot easier that football but amy advice etc would be welcome.

I'll post up some shots after.
Cheers
Pa

Scarlet42

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,
In my pursuit to try out all things new I'm
going to shoot basketball tomorrow night.

Any advice or tips? Stand by the base line mainly, high shutter and aperture but anything else.
I'll try some panning & slow shutter shots as well.

It sounds a lot easier that football but amy advice etc would be welcome.

I'll post up some shots after.
Cheers
Pa

I covered a few basketball games, I found it quite difficult, the light in the halls wasn't the best, so needed a high ISO, found the best place to be was behind the basket..its that the base line??..will try to post a few to see what you think..haven't covered one in ages

Sean

hoganpoly

Done a few basketball games myself,lighting can vary from gym to gym of course,fast lens and high iso ,better a noisy shot than a blurred one, shutter needs to be around 1/200th at least, best position is on baseline 6 feet from the corner,if you have a remote trigger than set one camera up thus,check your public liability also as if someone falls onto or on you questions may be asked, its a great game to cover as its fast and not out in the cold and rain:)Enjoy

Scarlet42

some of my efforts .. taken a while ago


Sean Carleton Basketball 5 by armani_1970, on Flickr


Sean Carleton Basketball 3 by armani_1970, on Flickr


Sean Carleton Basketball 1 by armani_1970, on Flickr

oh and didn't mean right behind the basket!

hoganpoly

great shots there ,no exif data so cant tell what lens etc you were using;)

dinneenp

God, it was a lot harder than I thought.
Even though I had a 17-50 f.28 and 70-200 f2.8 I struggled with f2.8 and 180 second at 1600 ISO.

I found the ball flew around extremely quickly and so many bodies around that it was hard to get a clear shot of a shooter...

will post some tomorrow

hoganpoly

Can be tough alright getting a good shot of the shooter , some of the best action shots can be off the ball like players fighting for position,also celebrations , if the hall has a balcony use that and zoom in tight from above , fair play for trying as most people struggle in poor light conditions

dinneenp

Here's some of the shots, very grainy and dark. I didn't shot in RAW, havne't gone done that avenue yet (will/should).
I used my 17-50 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 lenses. I found standing right under the net was a good position.
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here's the EXIF data from above photo, what could I have done to try to get a better photo (besides RAW). I played around with Exposure Bias a bit
Camera Model PENTAX K-7
Exposure 0.00556 sec (1/180)
F-Number f2.8
Focal Length 45 mm
Exposure Bias 3
ISO: 1600

Thanks,
Pa

hoganpoly

Some good shots there Pa ,nice shot of the ref:), your main problem with the gym is the floor and walls are so dark so no reflected light to help you,i,d never shot raw for sports as need less buffering, try and get to a well lit gym and see how you get on

Scarlet42

my shots taken using 70-200 2.8 with Canon 1d MKII and 40D

The first one
Aperture 2.8,
Shutter 1/500
ISO 3200

had to tweak it a bit using photoshop .. just levels ..

That hall had yellow walls and yellow celling.. first time I shot there was a nightmare.. was using bounce flash for team shots .. very funny!

same as hogan says .. those blue walls and floor don't help much and I don't use RAW either.

what about underexposing a bit on the night to get a higher shutter speed then brighten up later at home??

Sean

Borderfox

For most indoor sports I would use a prime lens, like a 50mm-85mm f1.8 or wider aperture to freeze the action and seperate the subject from the background. You can get away with f2.8 but push the iso up as high as you can to get a fast shutter speed, 1/500th at least for most sports

135L f2 ISO 6400


24-70L ISO 3200

dinneenp

I have a 30mm f1.4 lens, should have tried a few shots with that in hindsight.
But the problem with it I thought would be that
a. I'd have no blurred background as I wouldn't be close enough to get that effect
b. I'd be very restricted in what I could shoot as it's 30mm.

Cheers.