Basketball - 11-13-12

[Rob4bama]

Tried shooting some basketball for the first time. Started using a 85mm but changed to a 70-200mm. Couldn't seem to get far enough away to get the whole body on lay-up, etc. Most are my students so I was happy to take them. Any comments / criticisms are welcome.

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[JacaRanda]

Hello,

I really like #9 the best. I relate to the determination in the face of player number 12. He is hustling his tail off to get back on defense to prevent a lay up. Great capture IMHO!

I suspect the more you shoot events like this, the more you will get timing and composition down. You have done well already.

 

[color]

Good composition and exposure but I feel like several of these are not as sharp as they should be

 

[Sarmad]

I like this, especially the determination of the players!

 

[fjrabon]

I like 4 & 7 a lot. 9 is good too.

Some seem a touch dark, do you use manual or a priority mode indoors? I generally shoot manual indoors with f/2.8 and 1/500 SS and then whatever ISO that gives me, then I dont have to worry about inconsistent exposures depending on what the meter is reading. I'll drop down to 1/400 for HS basketball if I have to, and also some time for the effect as well (1/400 will give you a bit of blur to the hands and feet, but the head and body are still crisp). I also tend to use kelvin for white balance instead of auto. usually 4000, but it will vary from gym to gym, the reflections from the wood floor add a lot of brightness that has a warm cast to it, that the camera gets fooled by in auto, or even if you do a custom WB with a grey card or expo disc, I find that to get me in the ballpark, good old test shots with kelvin and eyeballing the whites is the best method, the in post I'll usually refine it a bit. Depending on the speed of the light cycles, you may even have different white balances from shot to shot.

8 I'd go to 4X5 format and then use the crop to get rid of some of the dead space to the mascot's back. 4, 5 and 6 could use some straightening. They do seem a tad bit soft, as others have remarked, but I cant tell if it's missed focus or just the lens being soft or maybe even the upload to the gallery. They're not outrageously soft by any means, I'd still call them acceptably soft.