BBL: Glasgow Roacks v Sheffield Utd

[weepete]

Hi all,

Been going to watch my local Basketball team - the Glasgow Rocks - with the family for a few years now. I started taking my camera as a bit of a technical excersise and to see if I could manage anything like some decent shots. I've still got a long way to go but these are a lot better than my first attempts so here are a few of my latest efforts, C&C is welcome if you wish to leave a comment but I appreciate 5 is a lot to comment on so feel free to do as much or as little as you like. 1 and 4 are my favourites and all are shot with a Canon 7D with a 70-300mm f3.5-5.6, most in manual mode (ss 800, wide open, iso on auto), BBF, CWA metering, AI-Servo mode and a single point focus (some shots were manual focus and some AF)

1.
Rocks v Sheffield Utd-7 by wee_pete, on Flickr

2.
Rocks v Sheffield Utd-13 by wee_pete, on Flickr

3.

Rocks v Sheffield Utd-4 by wee_pete, on Flickr

4.

Rocks v Sheffield Utd-12 by wee_pete, on Flickr

5.

Rocks v Sheffield Utd-17 by wee_pete, on Flickr

 

[cbarnard7]

I didn't realize basketball was so popular in Scotland (forgive my ignorance!). Nice action shots! I feel like #3, my favorite of the lot, is a little soft? Could just be my eyes at 7am on a bright computer screen. Well done- I learned something today!

 

[weepete]

Cheers mate, basketball isn't as popular as other sports over here, the Rocks being the only team in Scotland that's in the British Basketball League but it does have a small following. The lighting has gotten a lot better since they moved to the new stadium though!

To my eye they are all a little soft or not as sharp as I'd like. It could be my shutter speed was still a bit slow for the speed of the game but I think it's most likely it's the lens though I may have missed the focus slightly on a couple of shots. It'd be nice to have an f2.8 but it's well out of my price range atm

 

[vintagesnaps]

I agree there's some softness which might be the lens; seems like the shutter speed was fast enough because I don't think I see movement blur as much as overall a lack of sharpness. You might want to experiment with your settings and see what works best, maybe jot down some notes since some of these look sharper than others.

It could be that the light is different in some parts of the arena, or even as you turn a different direction you might need to meter and recheck and adjust settings. I think it's something of a tradeoff in adjusting shutter speed, aperture, and ISO in arena lighting (whether to try a higher ISO or use a 1/500 shutter speed etc.) to figure out what works best.

I'd think about your framing, a little adjustment there could give you a better shot - in #2 where there are two players in the shot I'd try to keep an eye on getting feet/hands completely in the frame so they don't seem cropped of at an odd place. That probably just takes practice and if you keep at it you'll keep getting better photos the more you take pictures at the games, you seem to be on the right track.

 

[weepete]

Thanks vintagesnaps, I agree completely with the framing thing. In shot 2 I was gutted that I cropped off the Utd player's hand and foot, but I do like the players positions in this shot. I tend to have my lens at a set focal distance, normally around 135mm so I don't have to take vital seconds zooming, but the draw back of that is I seem to get the shot or not. Next time I'll try and work more on the framing and see if I can give myself a bit more room.