Man, girls are violent..

[Destin]

So I've realized something. Girls basketball is MUCH more violent than boys basketball. The girls get MEAN. I'm just waiting for the claws to pop out when they're fighting over the ball! C&C if you want but this is more just for fun. These aren't the best shots from the game, just show the attitude.

1.)

2.)

3.)

 

[etnad0]

They need something to make it interesting, so they get more aggressive. LOL. Just ask the WNBA. Nice shots though.

 

[cnutco]

Destin, what settings are you shooting at with the D80?

 

[Tony S]

Yeah, they get pretty agressive out on the court. I find with the ladies playing you get better basic skills play that with the boys game where athleticism can over rule poor skills.

How are your strobes set up for these?

 

[matthewo]

man if the basket ball wasnt there in the first one i would think someone is beating her bad, she looks like she is about to cry

 

[Destin]

Destin, what settings are you shooting at with the D80?

1/200th (sync speed), f/2.8-4 depending on how far away they are from my strobes, iso 800. Always shot in RAW and edited in LR3.

My strobes are just 2 speedlights, and they are in the corner of the gym, about 10 feet apart from each other. Each is on half power, bounced in a criss cross pattern off of the ceiling. I can shoot most of my end of the court with this setup. If I set another light up in the other corner in my end, I could easily cover one whole end of the court.

 

[Derrel]

Good expression in these. I'd like to see the shadowed side "lifted" in post, and the images brightened up a bit...they look a bit too dark. But again, good expression! I like the last shot quite a bit...talk about getting mugged!

 

[Destin]

Good expression in these. I'd like to see the shadowed side "lifted" in post, and the images brightened up a bit...they look a bit too dark. But again, good expression! I like the last shot quite a bit...talk about getting mugged!

Thanks Derrel. In all honestly I shouldn't have edited these when I did because a: I haven't calibrated my monitor recently, and B; I was still half asleep and I'm not sure I was thinking straight lol. Looking back through my gallery on my website, i let some through that were wayyy off on exposure. Gonna have to calibrate and re-edit soon.

 

[cnutco]

I have been thinking of setting my two SB900's up for BBall, just not sure where to put them. Guess I will have to research and try some things out.

Did you use an external battery?

 

[Destin]

I have been thinking of setting my two SB900's up for BBall, just not sure where to put them. Guess I will have to research and try some things out.

Did you use an external battery?

My flashes are only running at 1/4- 1/2 power depending on the gym. I'm running 2450mah rechargables that get me about 1000 flashes at 1/2 power before the recycle time starts to suffer, so I just use AA's. I change them after the JV game before varsity comes out, just to be safe, but I probably don't even need to do that.

As far as position, just experiment. The biggest thing to consider is placing them where they are out of the way and not going to distract players. You can either bounce the flash off of the wall or ceiling, or use direct flash. Here's an example of each look:

Direct:

Bounced:

Note that bounced gives much softer and better placed shadows, and simulates the overhead lighting you'd typically see in a gym. Done right, the average person won't know flash was used. Bouncing also gives the flash more distance to travel before it hits the player, and while this robs power, it also gives more even lighting throughout your image due the the inverse square law.

Direct flash CAN yield great results, especially if you have ttl abilities off camera to change the flash power on the fly in order to match changing light-subject distance. But it gives harsh shadows and un-natural looking light.

Now, my ideal setup for basketball would use 4 lights, one in each corner of the gym in the end I'm shooting, and one on each side of midcourt. This would give really nice even lighting over about 3/4 of the court, but getting your lights positioned there is hard.

I've found the best lighting positions with 2 lights to be as follows:

- If you're shooting from the end line, near the basket (most gyms in my area aren't large enough to allow this) then put a light on each corner of that end of the court, at a 45 degree angle (both up, and out over the court at 45 degrees). This will give decently even lighting over the end of the court so you don't get strong shadows on one side of the players.

-If you're shooting from near the corner of the court, you'll want your lights both behind you in that corner as I did with the photos in my OP, to get even lighting around both sides of the corner.

 

[photo guy]

Nice photos