High School Basketball...not happy with results

[erincarter]

I recently went and shot some high school basketball. I'm shooting with a D60 and my lens' are the 18-55 kit lens, 35 f/1.8 and my 70-200 f/2.8. I have an SB600 but didn't take it with me as I wasn't sure if using a flash would be allowed during the game. There was someone else there (I think he was with the newspaper) who was using his flash so I will take mine next time for sure.

Anyways, I shot mostly with the 35mm as I wasn't in a good spot to use the 70-200mm.
Like I said I'm not very happy with the results and I'm looking for some critique and advice on what I can do to improve when I go out to the next game next week.

Here are a couple of shots.


Shutter 1/100
f/2.0
ISO 800
35mm


Shutter 11/60
f/2.0
ISO 800
35mm

[lputman]

For most high school basketball, you don't want to shoot slower than 1/500 so you can stop action and eliminate motion blur. If you do use your flash, then you would go with max sync speed as the flash is what will stop the action. I think you would have been ok with the focal length of the 70-200 but your limitation of the 2.8 would probably have been the biggest hindrance. You appeared to be in a decent spot, don't forget to get the players coming down court.

If you do decide to take your flash next time, don't point it at the players, try to bounce behind you if you have a lighter colored wall or full power bounce straight up. You will get better color overall with the flash as you will not have the cycling of the lights that usually occurs with gymnasium lighting. A white balance nightmare.

[dlambert]

I read an interesting bit on Strobist about using stobes to light a basketball game:

Strobist: On Assignment: Speedlighting a College Gym

This discusses WB a bit, too, as Lori indicated.

[erincarter]

Thanks...I actually just saw that thing on Strobist as well. Lots to read and learn over there that's for sure.

I'm not sure about setting the strobes like that to shoot a basketball game...not sure how that would go over.
Maybe I'll see if I can go early and talk to the coach to see if it would be alright...maybe they'd let me into the gym sometime when it's not being used to try some things out?

[dlambert]

I agree -- I think if you're going to try something like that, it would be best to get some practice in ahead of time. It certainly sounds like an interesting technique, though, and I'd think it's applicable to other sporting venues, too.