First time shooting indoor basketball

[will king]

I'll be shooting indoor kid's basketball this weekend. I'll be armed with a 1D

Mark III, 40D, and I'll probably bring my 24-70mmL f/2.8, 70-200mmL f/2.8 IS,

135mmL f/2, and 50mm f/1.4. I'm not scared to bump up my ISO to 1600, maybe

even 3200, as the 1D MIII is remarkable with low noise. My question is, what

is consdered to be a fast enough shutter speed to be able to freeze action and

make images that are sharp for basketball? I'll probably be shooting in AV,

wide open. Thanks.

[wilsontsoi]

Aloha, Will. If you can get satisfactory results at ISO-3200, then 2 f2.8 zooms will be your workhorse. The wide along baseline and the tele from corners or up on the stand. Shoot for 1/500 sec., but you?ll get by even at 1/320 if a player is running toward you (side to side movement needs faster shutter speed,) or even slower if you can time for peak of a jump shot.

 

As for shooting mode, I would advise going against auto-exposure since in-camera light meter can easily get fooled by bright ceiling light or extreme dark shadow in a gym. Since indoor gym lighting won't change during the game, go with manual mode, start at 1/500 sec. wide open, and crank up your MarkIII ISO. If ISO-3200 still doesn?t give you enough exposure with f2.8 lenses wide open, you?ll think want to swap over to the faster single focal length lenses at that point. I?m sure you?ll do just fine there.

 

Post a few when you?re done, particularly at ?What Did You Shoot This Weekend? thread as it?s a fun way to share and again, welcome back from HI.

[will king]

Mahalo Wilson. I miss Kauai already. ;) Manual makes much more sense. What do you do about white balance? I have the Expodisc? Is that a viable solution? Also, what should I aim for? Chest, head?

[glen_berry]

Will - I'm doing some HS basketball as well. I have a Nikon D80, and I've used my 50mm 1.4, and the 70-200 2.8. I've shot basketball with the 50mm in the "Sports" mode with some good results - EXIF shows shutter speeds between 1/100 and 1/160 - ISO 400. I found there was some foot movement at those slow shutter speeds, so I went to "S" priority @ 1/500 sec. and found that speed stopped the action dead with both the 50mm and the zoom. ISO went betweeen 640 and 720 with the 50mm, and stayed pretty much @ 1600 with the zoom, certainly within my comfort zone. Hope this helps..

[wilsontsoi]

Gosh, don't you just hate those question marks in place of quotation marks?!

 

Will, get there a little earlier and take custom WB with you Expodisc (or white card) from around top of key (or where you think most action will be.) In term of auto focus target, go for the most constrasty area which are typically the head or jersey number, and choosing which will depend on which AF point(s) you use as well as composition.

 

Glen, shooting with shutter priority might get some of your shots over or under exposed since your in-camera meter may be fooled by dark and light jerseys or bright light (shooting up from baseline) and dark shadow (unlit corners of gyms,) but if it works for you, then that's what counts, right?

 

^_^

[will king]

Thanks Wilson. I'll be sure to post some in the "weekend" thread.

[glen_berry]

Wilson - you're right, and thanks for the advice. Without blowing smoke, I seek out your photos in the sports forum every chance I get. Some great shots. I've tried to upload some sports shots to the "what did you shoot this weekend", but I think I'm too old to grasp the concept.

[dave_hoffmann]

If you shoot a gray card, make sure you are shooting it at 1/60s or slower so you get a good average from the cycling lights.

[kellyphillips]

You will have alot of fun Will. I've been shooting basketball for over a month now for a local newspaper. I have to shoot ISO 3200 with my 40D because the lights are so bad. I hate using speedlights, although I had to some last night. I found that anything under 1/400th just isn't quick enough. Like Wilson said, aim for 1/500th, f/2.8.<div></div>

[rick_larkin]

I'm fairly new at this too. Tonight I shot a bunch of images at a 2nd grade boys practice in prep for Saturday's game. My zooms are too slow for this so I used primes; a 50mm 1.4D, 20mm 2.8D and 24mm 2.8D respectively. Gym lighting sure does suck. The body is D300 so the ISO 3200 (among other things) really helps. Still, my images are nowhere near what I want to be. But that's not the equipment's fault. I clearly have much to learn as far as composition and where to place myself.

 

I do agree with others that 1/ 500 is about where one needs to be to really stop movement. Out of 130+ photos, I only kept a dozen. There're mainly for reference though. I preferred the 50mm and the 24mm over the 20mm. The actual focal lengths are more like 75mm and 36mm since they are not DX lenses. Apertures used were F2.8 to F4. I was shooting in aperture priority and that was probably a mistake. Come Saturday, I'll use the shutter speed priority and / or manual. I have a 5th grader playing ball too so I can try some more adjustments at his practice tomorrow night. It's definitely challenging.