My last Basketball shots?

Steve Cavigliano · March 6, 2005

Hello All,
Well, the last of this year's JC games, in Northern California, were played tonight. The final 4 Nor Cal teams will travel down to San Diego (UCSD) to play the final 4 So Cal teams. Fortunately my son's team won and will be among the Final 8 :clap :clap

But the victory is bittersweet. Since the rest of their games will be 400+ miles away, tonight's shots might be my last ones. At least at this level :cry

Or, maybe I'll hop a jet and finally get to shoot my son's team under Div I lighting :lust

A couple of shots from tonight. Would have liked to have done better with the faces, but I wasn't able to move around much :rolleyes

I like the reaction in the background in this one :rofl

I'm sure most of you are about ready for B-ball season to end :lol Oh well, without B-ball I'll have nothing to do but to go out and look for some Egrets to shoot :lol3

Thanks for looking,
Steve

gus · March 6, 2005

That 1st ones a pearler steve

Really nice. Not the bigma 'eh ?

Andy · March 6, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Not the bigma 'eh ?

:lynn nawp.

hey steve nice set

wxwax · March 6, 2005

That first shot's great, Steve. Hey, I hope you don't mind, i took the liberty of playing with a crop. I keep looking at how newspapers handle their sports shots. they crop them severely (limited space in which to display them?

)

Anyway, based on what I've seen, here's how a newspaper might crop that first shot, to distill it to the essence of the action.

I've noticed that they don't feel compelled to show the entire basket, sometimes they don't even show the basket at all.

Steve Cavigliano · March 6, 2005

Humungus wrote:

That 1st ones a pearler steve Really nice. Not the bigma 'eh ?

Thanks Gus

Nah, the Bigma is tooooooo slow for indoor work. Although a 50-500mm indoor lens would be killer

This is the Canon 85mm F1.8. It's a really good indoor sports lens. Fast AF, sharp, good contrast, light weight and fairly inexpensive. It's also one of the most highly regarded portrait lenses Canon makes.

Thanks for the comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano · March 6, 2005

andy wrote:

:lynn nawp.

hey steve nice set

Thanks Andy

Time for baseball

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano · March 6, 2005

wxwax wrote:

That first shot's great, Steve. Hey, I hope you don't mind, i took the liberty of playing with a crop. I keep looking at how newspapers handle their sports shots. they crop them severely (limited space in which to display them? )

Anyway, based on what I've seen, here's how a newspaper might crop that first shot, to distill it to the essence of the action.

I've noticed that they don't feel compelled to show the entire basket, sometimes they don't even show the basket at all.

Sid, I like your edit. Thanks

I should have cropped them all more except I was worried they'd be too skinny. Afterall, nobody wants a 2"x10" print, do they?

Your edit doesn't have that problem. Very nice and thanks for the tip about the basket. With my dip to the left problem and using portrait orientation, sometimes it's hard to keep the basket visible after rotating the image straight :lol

Thanks for the crop and the comments,
Steve

KeithH · March 17, 2005

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

This is the Canon 85mm F1.8. It's a really good indoor sports lens. Fast AF, sharp, good contrast, light weight and fairly inexpensive. It's also one of the most highly regarded portrait lenses Canon makes.

Nice shots. I often use the Canon 100mm F/2.0 but sometimes wish I had the 85mm/1.8. Do you think if you had only the latter lens your shots would look much different? And what ISO do you use and how do you balance you ampeture and shutter speed? I seem to have to sacrifice somewhere when I try to shoot in dark gyms. Thanks.

Steve Cavigliano · March 17, 2005

KeithH wrote:

Nice shots. I often use the Canon 100mm F/2.0 but sometimes wish I had the 85mm/1.8. Do you think if you had only the latter lens your shots would look much different? And what ISO do you use and how do you balance you ampeture and shutter speed? I seem to have to sacrifice somewhere when I try to shoot in dark gyms. Thanks.

Hiya Keith and welcome to Dgrin

Thank you

I get so close (I have the freedom of shooting from just about anywhere), I was having trouble with even the 85mm's 135mm FOV. When you back is touching the wall, you really can't zoom out any more....lol I was seriously considering picking up a 50mm F1.8, just so I'd have a wider view. I don't think the 100mm F2 would work as well for me for those "under the basket" shots, but it might be better for those "cross court" shots. The ones where the 85mm just doesn't give enough background blur. I think that would be the main difference one might notice when comparing images from both lenses.

As far as settings go, I know I will be shooting in lighting that's anywhere from EV8 down to EV6 level. Since I try to get "motion freezing" speeds(1/400 minimum), I usually have to bump the ISO to 1600 and open the aperture up to F1.8-F2.2, depending on the lighting. I shoot RAW quite a bit and when I do, I might even lower the ISO to 800 and shoot at F1.8. Yes, the shots are under exposed (anywhere from .3EV's to a full stop) and I push them during RAW conversion. The noise is very similar to what I see with a correctly exposured ISO1600 image, but the color and dynamic range seem to be better at ISO800.

I hear you about dark gyms :cry Sometimes they are so bad, even ISO1600 and F1.8 will only get you to 1/250. And that's if you're lucky

What I have found is it's usually the lens that will cause problems. For example, I was shooting in the worst JC gym lighting I've ever seen, with the 85mm F1.8, and another Canon shooter was trying to use his 70-200mm F2.8L and not having much luck getting decent speeds. Personally, in this type of lighting, I'd say an F2.0 lens is probably the minimum you want to go with. Either that or revert back to the timing you might have used with a prosumer set for ISO800 and 1/125 speeds. Basically, catching the players at the top of their jumps.

Bottomline, when all else is said and done, if you have to sacrifice, it's probably going to be the shutter speed that suffers. Although, if your camera has the capability, I guess you could bump the ISO up to 3200 :wow

I hope I have answered your questions. If not keep posting til I do :lol

Thanks again and I hope you enjoy Dgrin

:

Steve

KeithH · March 17, 2005

Yes, that was very helpful. Thanks. I can't seem to get above 1/250, although I have used 1/320, and I feel like I must use ISO 3200 with my 20D, but I hate to. Of course, I use something like Noise Ninja to reduce the noise (which actually isn't that bad).

I wish I could use ISO 1600 more (or lower even) and have a little more depth of field to help in focusing, but it's tough. Maybe I should try shooting raw a little more. I tried deliberatly shooting underexposed with the Digital Rebel for basketball but the results were mixed. I would say the D20 would do better but I've been trying to cut down my post processing time.

I now have the 50mm f/1.4 lens which helps some. Oh well, basketball season is over for us now. Will be shooting any baseball and, later on, football?

Andy · March 17, 2005

indoor basketball shooting tips

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Hiya Keith and welcome to Dgrin

Thank you

I get so close (I have the freedom of shooting from just about anywhere), I was having trouble with even the 85mm's 135mm FOV. When you back is touching the wall, you really can't zoom out any more....lol I was seriously considering picking up a 50mm F1.8, just so I'd have a wider view. I don't think the 100mm F2 would work as well for me for those "under the basket" shots, but it might be better for those "cross court" shots. The ones where the 85mm just doesn't give enough background blur. I think that would be the main difference one might notice when comparing images from both lenses.

As far as settings go, I know I will be shooting in lighting that's anywhere from EV8 down to EV6 level. Since I try to get "motion freezing" speeds(1/400 minimum), I usually have to bump the ISO to 1600 and open the aperture up to F1.8-F2.2, depending on the lighting. I shoot RAW quite a bit and when I do, I might even lower the ISO to 800 and shoot at F1.8. Yes, the shots are under exposed (anywhere from .3EV's to a full stop) and I push them during RAW conversion. The noise is very similar to what I see with a correctly exposured ISO1600 image, but the color and dynamic range seem to be better at ISO800.

I hear you about dark gyms :cry Sometimes they are so bad, even ISO1600 and F1.8 will only get you to 1/250. And that's if you're lucky What I have found is it's usually the lens that will cause problems. For example, I was shooting in the worst JC gym lighting I've ever seen, with the 85mm F1.8, and another Canon shooter was trying to use his 70-200mm F2.8L and not having much luck getting decent speeds. Personally, in this type of lighting, I'd say an F2.0 lens is probably the minimum you want to go with. Either that or revert back to the timing you might have used with a prosumer set for ISO800 and 1/125 speeds. Basically, catching the players at the top of their jumps.

Bottomline, when all else is said and done, if you have to sacrifice, it's probably going to be the shutter speed that suffers. Although, if your camera has the capability, I guess you could bump the ISO up to 3200 :wow

I hope I have answered your questions. If not keep posting til I do :lol

Thanks again and I hope you enjoy Dgrin :

Steve

thanks steve, for taking the time to detail such great advice. yuda man.

mgmphotographics · June 28, 2006

Nice set, Steve! I am learning alot from you and I appreciate it. Thank you! I think my next basketball shots will be better even in what is said to be a veery dark gym. You definitely are da man!

Mara

My last Basketball shots?

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