school basketball game

[olivetree]

New at sport photography and was reading on this forum on how to take good sporting photo, try to take this basketball match.
Will be glad to have comments on it, so as to improve on my photography,

Don't know how to get the picture sharp, is it because of the setting????

The setting on this picture are

F 4, ISO 1600, 1/160, manual setting

txs for all ur comments..

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14052353@N07/2308997436/" title="basketball 5r (by ngjaden)"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2145/2308997436_3859b958a1.jpg" title="basketball 5r (by ngjaden)" alt="basketball 5r (by ngjaden)" width="357" height="500" /></a>

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Hi Olive tree,
I think you had really good timing catching the players in the air. I am kinda new to photography, but I have been working on action shots and have had similar sharpness problems. You should try to increase your shutter speed and try a tripod, especially if you are using a telephoto lens (don't think you said). I tend to move my camera too much handheld trying to follow the motion. Also, if you shoot in this gym again, you could try taking the picture from a higher angle so that the windows at the top aren't in the picture. They are a little distracting and create a harsh backlight. I think this is a great start though. Keep up the good work!
~wannabe

[olivetree]

Txs for ur feedback, just wondering if i increase my shutter speed, all the picture will be very under.
will take note on the hasrsh backlight

[Kevin Held What]

Hey dude,

I've been shooting indoor ultimate frisbee games, and I think the lighting is similar. Wannabe was right when she said you need a faster shutter speed. As for being underdeveloped, you have to crank open your aperture and up the ISO as far as you feel comfortable with. You'll get grain, but it's better than having your photos blurred to Hell.

One option is to get a really fast lens. Like, f1.8 or f1.4. I took my 50mm f1.8 for a spin at a tournament today, and it had excellent stopping power. This will allow you to up your shutter speed considerably and not have to worry too much about grain.

[DaveKl]

After shooting two years of high school girls basketball, this is my basic approach:

1) Use a fast lens - I'd start with an 85/1.8 as many gyms aren't bright enough to use an f/2.8 zoom, but anyway use the fastest thing you have.

2) Use Preset WB to a gray card or other neutral target. Gym lights don't match any of the other settings (fluorescent, incandescent, etc.). This way your shots will have consistent and mostly correct color.

3) Use M exposure mode. This way your shots will have consistent exposure during the game. Set aperture to wide open (smallest f-number). Set ISO to highest your camera will do. Take some test shots of the kids warming up, review with histograms and blinking highlights and adjusting shutter speed to get an appropriate exposure. You want to get to at least 1/250s shutter speed. 1/500s is better. If you can get faster than 1/500s, then you can think about lowering ISO. Motion blur is worse than high-ISO noise. My local gyms range from ISO3200, f/1.8, 1/250 to ISO1600, f/1.8, 1/500s.

4) Set focus to AF-C, center point only. Keep the focus point on the player's waistline, or numbers or face, depending on how tight your shot is. You can crop later to fix composition. If you can track a player for 1 second before shooting you shouldn't have any trouble with focus. If you swing to a moving player and fire immediately the success rate will be lower. My camera doesn't have the Lock-On feature that some Nikon's have, so when another player or the refs cut between me and the player I'm tracking, I lift the shutter button for a moment and then half-press when I've got a clear shot again. The lock-on feature is supposed to do that for you, but when I borrowed a camera with that feature, I turned it off as I'm in the habit already. For extra credit, prefocus on the net and lock it by holding your AE-L/AF-L button (the 70-200/VR has focus hold buttons which may be handier to use) when someone's shooting a free throw to try to capture the rebound shot without any delay for focusing. You won't know where the ball goes until it does.

5) Set the camera to continuous shooting but don't depend on bursts except when there is an unpredictable scene, like a scramble for a loose ball. Instead, try to lead the action a bit with the shutter. With some practice you'll learn the delay of your camera and will be able to smoothly press the button as the player goes up for the shot resulting in the ball being captured just leaving their fingertips.

6) Try to be smooth in your motions; even at 85mm and 1/250s, you can completely blur up a shot by having the camera in (the wrong) motion at the time of shutter release. Pan smoothly with the player for best results.

7) Sitting on the corner of the floor at the offensive end (for your team ;-)) is the easiest position to get good shots from. When you get bored with that try some other locations, but you'll be back.

8) Turn off automatic image review so you won't be tempted to look at them while game play is still going on. Won't hurt battery life either. Also, always pay attention - sooner or later you'll get to catch the ball or a player.

9) Be prepared to throw away most of your shots. You will sometimes focus on the stands behind the player. The refs will ruin some of your shots.

10) After someone hits a remarkable, buzzer-beating shot, keep the camera to your eye and take pictures of the reactions.

11) jpeg is fine for these. If you are used to shooting and processing raw and have big enough cards, then shoot raw.

Good Luck.

[wpgreer]

Just a note on the shot you posted above -- that window's killing you.

If you've got a tele lens I'd go in the stands (or stand up) and shoot at eye level. Usually the refs are pretty cool with you shooting under the backboard, just off to the side (I used to shoot HS basketball for TV, back when I was a one-man-band).

Personally, I'd shoot on S mode and keep it to 1/1000 or so. Let the camera do the aperture work for you, it's going to change depending on where the players are on the court, which lights hit them and who's blocking their light while going after the ball. Those gyms can be pretty bright if they're new. If they're old, you're gonna be pretty much screwed no matter what, unless you have a flash and they let you use it.

I agrre you're gonna dump most of your shots. But try this to make it better. You can read the player to know what they're going to do. FOLLOW THE BALL, not the player. And keep both eyes open so you can see the whole court at once. That way you know who's open and when someone shifts their body language, you can tell who they're throwing the ball to.

And when they get the ball and act like they're jumping, start snapping on rapid-fire mode. You should be able to "bracket" their actions and get a before, during and after shot. One of them should turn out.

Hope that helps!

[SJH Foto]

After shooting two years of high school girls basketball, this is my basic approach:

1) Use a fast lens - I'd start with an 85/1.8 as many gyms aren't bright enough to use an f/2.8 zoom, but anyway use the fastest thing you have.

2) Use Preset WB to a gray card or other neutral target. Gym lights don't match any of the other settings (fluorescent, incandescent, etc.). This way your shots will have consistent and mostly correct color.

3) Use M exposure mode. This way your shots will have consistent exposure during the game. Set aperture to wide open (smallest f-number). Set ISO to highest your camera will do. Take some test shots of the kids warming up, review with histograms and blinking highlights and adjusting shutter speed to get an appropriate exposure. You want to get to at least 1/250s shutter speed. 1/500s is better. If you can get faster than 1/500s, then you can think about lowering ISO. Motion blur is worse than high-ISO noise. My local gyms range from ISO3200, f/1.8, 1/250 to ISO1600, f/1.8, 1/500s.

4) Set focus to AF-C, center point only. Keep the focus point on the player's waistline, or numbers or face, depending on how tight your shot is. You can crop later to fix composition. If you can track a player for 1 second before shooting you shouldn't have any trouble with focus. If you swing to a moving player and fire immediately the success rate will be lower. My camera doesn't have the Lock-On feature that some Nikon's have, so when another player or the refs cut between me and the player I'm tracking, I lift the shutter button for a moment and then half-press when I've got a clear shot again. The lock-on feature is supposed to do that for you, but when I borrowed a camera with that feature, I turned it off as I'm in the habit already. For extra credit, prefocus on the net and lock it by holding your AE-L/AF-L button (the 70-200/VR has focus hold buttons which may be handier to use) when someone's shooting a free throw to try to capture the rebound shot without any delay for focusing. You won't know where the ball goes until it does.

5) Set the camera to continuous shooting but don't depend on bursts except when there is an unpredictable scene, like a scramble for a loose ball. Instead, try to lead the action a bit with the shutter. With some practice you'll learn the delay of your camera and will be able to smoothly press the button as the player goes up for the shot resulting in the ball being captured just leaving their fingertips.

6) Try to be smooth in your motions; even at 85mm and 1/250s, you can completely blur up a shot by having the camera in (the wrong) motion at the time of shutter release. Pan smoothly with the player for best results.

7) Sitting on the corner of the floor at the offensive end (for your team ;-)) is the easiest position to get good shots from. When you get bored with that try some other locations, but you'll be back.

8) Turn off automatic image review so you won't be tempted to look at them while game play is still going on. Won't hurt battery life either. Also, always pay attention - sooner or later you'll get to catch the ball or a player.

9) Be prepared to throw away most of your shots. You will sometimes focus on the stands behind the player. The refs will ruin some of your shots.

10) After someone hits a remarkable, buzzer-beating shot, keep the camera to your eye and take pictures of the reactions.

11) jpeg is fine for these. If you are used to shooting and processing raw and have big enough cards, then shoot raw.

Good Luck.

Remarkable breakdown! You've hit on the key points exactly!

[Peterb]

Well I was going to give a few points as well but reading the two posts above I think everything has been covered.
I shoot heaps of B/Ball games and would suggest just a couple of things.
A shutter speed of nothing under 1/500, even higher the better.

But the other thing I would like to suggest is that when shooting a game, remember it has a story to it. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. You really want to be able to show this in your photos.

Also, dont forget to get shots of the bench as well, usually you will get some great expressions from the players as well as the coach (make sure you get permission from the coach before the game starts to do this as some coaches dont like cameras near the bench)

Also after the game ends, keep your eye open and your finger on the shutter ready to shoot. Even though the game has ended you can still get some great shots of the players.

Good luck with it all.
Peter

[briandee]

just a side note since DaveKL covered everything so awsome. to me, and this may be part of what your looking at, a high iso 1600 and higher can appear to be blury or slightly out of focus but i think its just all the color noise added to the picture. you can try a slight noise reduction and unsharpenMASK if you feel like doing processing.