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High School Basketball.. My lighting
JimKarczewski
Registered Users Posts: 969 Major grins
Since some of us are talking about highschool and lighting the basketball games, figured I would show my latest incarnation of how I'm lighting things. Sorry I didn't take any setup shots, I'll do that next game I shoot.
The last game I shot was at my old high school, gym built I'd guess in the late 50s, I want to say 57... Sucky light. At 6400 it's 320@2.8, so not very good if you aren't using flash, or you are a glutton for punishment and want to attempt to shoot basketball with a 1.4!
2 lights on each side of the court, both set to 1/8 power which gave me 1/200 @ 4, ISO 1000. I played a little throughout the night lowering the ISO and opening up to 3.5, etc.. so might not be completely consistent if you happen to peek the info. One light one each side was pointed pretty much straight towards the court, while the other was aimed between the freethrow line and the top of the key or 3 point line. Fired with Pocketwizards, 1 on each side using a splitter to fire both lights. Lights set at 50mm zoom, one 580EXII with power pack and one 540EZ on each side with just rechargeables, until my new battery packs come in..
Crude diagram, but here is what I had and how I had them pointed:
Examples of the shots I was getting with this lighting:
1.
2. this is the far left of the court, almost side line @ the baseline, so light was pretty even across the court with the 2 heads pointed in different directions, didn't get overly hot for them being so close to the lights...
3.
4. This was almost the top of the key at the other side of the court, so the light still traveled pretty well, even though I didn't shoot a lot of that side...
5. Again, baseline @ Sideline, not too bad for getting too hot with the exposure...
I'm adding equipment this week. I've had some serious issues with my power.. and consistency shooting more than one frame at a time has sucked, so this game I shot in single shot mode.. no motor drive, which for me was a challenge, but made me focus more as well. I'm adding PiXeL power packs which are supposed to be pretty good to all 4 lights, so in brighter gyms I should have no problem setting lights to 1/2 power and motoring it for a few shots. We'll see.
The gallery:
http://www.jimkarczewski.com/Sporting-Events/HSBasketball11/Bishop-Noll-vs-Calumet-12311/
The last game I shot was at my old high school, gym built I'd guess in the late 50s, I want to say 57... Sucky light. At 6400 it's 320@2.8, so not very good if you aren't using flash, or you are a glutton for punishment and want to attempt to shoot basketball with a 1.4!
2 lights on each side of the court, both set to 1/8 power which gave me 1/200 @ 4, ISO 1000. I played a little throughout the night lowering the ISO and opening up to 3.5, etc.. so might not be completely consistent if you happen to peek the info. One light one each side was pointed pretty much straight towards the court, while the other was aimed between the freethrow line and the top of the key or 3 point line. Fired with Pocketwizards, 1 on each side using a splitter to fire both lights. Lights set at 50mm zoom, one 580EXII with power pack and one 540EZ on each side with just rechargeables, until my new battery packs come in..
Crude diagram, but here is what I had and how I had them pointed:
Examples of the shots I was getting with this lighting:
1.
2. this is the far left of the court, almost side line @ the baseline, so light was pretty even across the court with the 2 heads pointed in different directions, didn't get overly hot for them being so close to the lights...
3.
4. This was almost the top of the key at the other side of the court, so the light still traveled pretty well, even though I didn't shoot a lot of that side...
5. Again, baseline @ Sideline, not too bad for getting too hot with the exposure...
I'm adding equipment this week. I've had some serious issues with my power.. and consistency shooting more than one frame at a time has sucked, so this game I shot in single shot mode.. no motor drive, which for me was a challenge, but made me focus more as well. I'm adding PiXeL power packs which are supposed to be pretty good to all 4 lights, so in brighter gyms I should have no problem setting lights to 1/2 power and motoring it for a few shots. We'll see.
The gallery:
http://www.jimkarczewski.com/Sporting-Events/HSBasketball11/Bishop-Noll-vs-Calumet-12311/
Jim Karczewski - http://www.jimkarczewski.com
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Comments
I only have 2 speedlights but my strobe placement is the same as yours. I have directed both my flashes at the 3 point line above the key. I have my speedlights in the corner on 15' stands about 10 feet from the sideline. I may try to move the stands back a bit in tonight's game and see if that helps the corner shots not being so hot.
Since I only have 2 speedlights, I am having to use higher power. I shoot at 1/4 +2/3. I tried to dial it down a little and I started getting more blur. I am also going to reduce my ISO some more tonight.
Thanks for all the help and tutorial on strobes and basketball.
MD
CBS Sports MaxPreps Shooter
http://DalbyPhoto.com
No problem.
Reason I went to 4 lights is so I could lower the power and get the same amount of flash... AND to be able to light a little more broadly across the court. I picked up CHEAP canon flashes ($60) that are the same power as the current $500 top of the line flashes to use with basketball. Problem being their recycle sucks without external power... which is what I'm waiting for now. My original intention with 4 lights was to light both sides of the court, my big problem came when I found out a pocketwizard receiver didn't work past about 5ft.. meaning I didn't have enough to do it.