Shooting basketball games sucks

[Jaszek]

So today I went with two of my teachers to shoot a school basketball game and it sucked. The posted shot is one of the better ones I got. I know there is noise in it. No PP. Do you have any tips? I have used my 50mm, 18-55 and 10-20. Only some good shots with each lens.

 

[tbphotography]

when i shoot in-gym sports, i always set up slave strobes where i know there will be lots of action, and if anyone gives me hell about the flashes; i have my handy-dandy press pass to wave in their face...

 

[Mgw189]

50MM is going to be your best bet because of the wide aperture of course that limits your ability to get good closeups and what have you. The 10-20 could lend itself to come pretty cool shots at 10mm that I wouldnt say would be a "normal" basketball type shot again going to have some issues with the amount of light being let in. The 70-300 would be good lens to get the action but again the light issue. As far as editing try noise ninja or neat image or something like that to help.

 

[Mongoos3]

I get amazing basketball photos from my school games. Just make sure you have it on the right settings

 

[Jaszek]

My teacher said that soon we will go to another game and that this was like "practice" to see which settings work best. Even he had bad pictures and I think he is a great photographer. At the end we were bored so the three of us lined up and when there was action we pretended to be photojournalists and fired off with our flashes me with my XSI 3.5 fps and them with d300's gripped at 9 fps lol. Next thing I see is the ref coming up to us and telling us to not use flash lol. O and tbphotography[/b/, where did you get your press pass?

 

[Michael P. Harker]

Most Basketball photography is done with a 135mm f/2.8 lens with an ISO of 650 and shooting at 1/250th of a second without flash. For a slighter wide field, use an 85mm f/1.8 which allows for action-stopping shutter speeds and a feel for the game's pace.

Michael P. Harker

 

[jlykins]

I usually shoot basketball with a 17-50 2.8... I get great results with this setup