High school basketball game with d300

[amin_siminati]

<p>Hi, i'm a high school photo student, and we wanted to try shooting some basketball games. I tried on Monday, but wasn't satisfied with the results. The lighting is horrible, so it's challenging.</p>

<p>I was using the 18-135mm lense, and had it on 51 point auto focus. I shot in manual mode, and had it on continuous focus.</p>

<p>I read around a little and came up with a few ideas on how to improve it, but wanted some feedback.</p>

<p>Use 9 or 11 point auto focus since it focuses faster instead of the 51 i used.<br>

Use auto iso<br>

shutter speed minimum of 1/500 (i used 320, and they where blurry)<br>

use prime lenses</p>

<p>Well i didn't have photo today, but i talked to my teacher, and we a have a couple prime lenses. The 85mm 1.8, and the 50mm 1.4, and the 50mm 1.8. I'm obviously not going to take the 50mm 1.8, and i'm not sure whether it's the 50mm 1.4 af or af-s.I can find out tomorrow.</p>

<p>I'm not sure which one i should sign out. Also, I've heard primes focus faster, so should i be expecting faster focus speed?</p>

<p>I also don't know what the <strong>AF-C Priority selection, </strong> i've read different people recommending different things.</p>

<p>Most people recommend shooting in raw, but we only have 1gb cards, and that fills up fast when your shooting in continuous mode. I might ask to take out a second one, but i wouldn't count on it. Last time i used medium sized jpegs, only shot the second half of the game, and the card filled up before the game ended, so i had to go back, and deleted some pictures. <br /> </p>

[hal_b]

<p>The 85mm will be the most useful. But I would try to use both the 50 and the 85 alternately, as long as they are both available. Your autofocus questions just boil down to a matter of preference. Good sports photography is a result of careful planning and anticipation. I would say 80% planning, 15% luck, and only 5% rapid-fire machine-gunning.</p>

<p>1/500 is a good starting point, but you should be able to eek out good results at 1/320 and even 1/250 if you pick your moments. Forget RAW shooting since space is a problem. Sports reporting doesn't require the same tight color-control and finish as, for example, weddings and portraiture. Since you're filling your card, take your cues from the basketball players and be a little more selective in the shots you take. Great shots are NOT the result of blind-luck rapid-fire madness.</p>

[sking]

<p>Nima,<br>

I shoot high school and college basketball for a daily newspaper. My main gear is a DSLR and either a 50mm f/1.8 or an 85mm f/1.8. I set the ISO on the camera to 3200, and that typically gives me an exposure of 1/250 second at f/2.2 or 2.8. Most gyms are tombs when it come to light.<br>

Anyway, don't disparage the humble 50mm f/1.8. It focuses quickly and gives good results.<br>

The last thing is that you must shoot a lot! Every player is in motion, and you control nothing; so shoot a lot so you have choices later when you edit.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>The D300 has a huge cache, so you don't need super fast CF cards to make a good go of things. That means that you could buy your own 4GB card for less than $20, even at a place like Wal-Mart. That might make you feel less cramped as you're learning what works.<br /><br />If you can use a 50/1.4, you'll find that - even if you don't shoot with the lens wide open - you'll get better AF performance, because the lens is dragging in that much more light while you're composing. So, if that's an option, that's the one to use in the 50mm department. That and the 85 should get a lot done for you. The slower kit lenses can be OK for wide shots of the crowd and other atmospherics, but they're pretty much useless for dimly lit action. <br /><br />Have fun, take a deep breath while you're working, and learn to anticipate. When I was your age and doing what you're doing, I was using slow grainy B&W film, and was realistically limited to perhaps 72 shots per game. That'll teach you to cool your jets and work om those more thoughtful shots!</p>

[dave_wilson1]

<p>I keep trying to post but it keeps shutting me off. Anyway, 50 and 85 were also what I alway used with Fuji 1600 so with the digi and higher ISO you'll be in good shape. Maybe use just the 50 on one game andt the 85 on another just to ge used to them. When I did paper work in the 1980s they would allow me one roll of 24 for basketball including process and print. Anything past that was on me, in other words profit lost. How things have changed.</p>

[Jerry_]

<p>One tip: focus on the floor (i.e., under the basket) or the basket, then turn off your auto-focus on the camera. Wait for some action in the spot you pre-focused on, then fire a couple of frames. Chances are good you will get more frames that are good vs. trying to keep up with the auto-focus on and the players going every which way.....</p>

<p> </p>

[tri-x1]

<p>Jerry offers a good tip. Zone focus--turn off AF and focus on a spot near the basket (a good place is where players position themselves to get rebounds). Then you don't have to worry about the camera focusing quick enough. Just wait for the action to come into your zone.<br>

Also, if you aren't using a flash, try to shoot the action at its peak--when players are at the top of their jumps while shooting or rebounding. There isn't as much movement so you are less likely to get blurred images.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>I'm guessing that you were having more issues with the lens being slow to AF than the AF points itself. I shoot the D300 and for team sports such as hockey / bb I use the 51 point AF.</p>

<p>AF-C typically referrs to the continuous AF mode. There is also a "Center / single point" AF mode. I use that (Single point) when I'm shooting individual sports.</p>

<p>The 50 1.8 is a nice lens - that with the D300 you should be able to get up to 2000 ISO and a 1/320 Shutter Speed. Don't go with the AUTO ISO. It is okay for some things, but sports isn't one of them.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[amin_siminati]

<p>Thank you all for the advice, it's been great.</p>

<p>The next game is next week, but i think i'll go to some practices, and practice taking pictures. I'll try the whole focusing on the ground, and see how it goes. </p>

<p>Im going to pick up a 8gb card tomorow, since I also want to get pictures of tomorows talent show. </p>

<p>I just found out about the talent show, and they have rehearsal tonight, but the photo teacher is gone, so i can't sign out the equipment. The talent show will be in the theater. and they will have theater lights pointed at them, so i think it i'll be fine. I'll also sigh out a tripod, and the 85mm prime lense, but i think the zoom should be fine. </p>

<p>I'll be their 30 minutes early to test settings before it starts, so i think i'll do fine, but all tips are highly appreciated.</p>

<p>So thank you, and all tips for both the basketball, and the talent show is highly appreciated. Unless i am highly unsatisfied, i'll post a couple images to show how things went.</p>

 

[amin_siminati]

<p>Also, I already have Photoshop cs4, but is there any other software i should be considering? </p>

[alvinyap]

<p>You've already got some great responses on this thread, so I won't echo any more but would suggest if the lighting is bad and you have access to flashes, maybe go the strobist route? http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/04/on-assignment-prep-basketball.html</p>

<p>Google strobist basketball, should have a few more hits.</p>

<p>Alvin</p>

[rconey]

<p>David: What don't you like about auto-iso? I use it in high school wrestling with the D300 and 85 f1.4 or 50 f1.4 and it works quite nicely. I usually use 1600 maximum auto iso and 200th sec shutter speed minimum. If that is not achievable, the shutter speed starts dropping. Usually I am in center weighted metering and different views have different light.</p>

[raymond_petty1]

<p>Just an FYI - I have shot in dingy high school gyms last yr and found the 50/1.4 to be noticeably more responsive than the 85/1.8. Now that was with the D200 which is nowhere near the D300 in low light AF performance. Also, remember ISO 3200 may be good for newspaper or web, but if you want nice prints, your going to have to find a way to get near ISO 1600 ( and 1/500 sec to stop action ). Good Luck !</p>

[dan_mccarty1]

<p>At this time of year you should be able to find some good prices on memory cards. Get at least a 4GB or 8GB card. I shoot RAW and a 8GB card will last me through a couple of hours of soccer games.<br>

With a RAW file you might be surprised how much a dark photo can be improved. But the processing of the file is yet another skill to be learned however you could just produce JPGs from the RAW without any changes. In the future when your photo processing skills have improved you can go back and edit the RAW files and see how much better the photos can be compared to the JPGs produced by the camera.<br>

Along with focusing on the floor near the basket dont forget that you can focus on the backboard and rim. <br>

I have always shot aperture priority mode so I can control DOF as needed. With the darkness of the gym shooting you very likely will have to shoot with a wide open aperture so watch the DOF. If possible I just try to use F8 since it is a good balance of DOF and shutter speed but you gots to work with the light you have and set accordingly.<br>

I setup my ISO to give me a shutter speed as close to 1000 as I can as close to F8 as possible. The camera is also set to so that the ISO can go to 3600 if required. Not sure if the gym lighting will require this since it should be constant but I do this at outdoor games where the light can change depending on the clouds. The technique works well when on roller coaster rides. :)<br>

You have to get you head into the game to anticipate when something is going to happen, be in position to get a good photo and be able get the photo with the equipment you have. Sometimes that is not possible by the way. :)<br>

Have fun.<br>

Later,<br>

Dan</p>

<p> </p>

[amin_siminati]

<p>I posted a message here on saturday, but for some reason it didn't come up..</p>

<p> The talent show was in the small gym , and the stage lights where broken (the huge, nice ones), so they turned on the lights in the stage itself (a couple of low watt lights, meant to find your way around, not meant for when your doing something on stage), turned the lights at the back of the gym off, and in the front on.. I wasn't able to sign out the 85mm prime, so i had the zoom lense, until halfway through i ran into my photo teacher from last year, and he brought it down for me. Which helped the lighting, but it was an old one, and it only had manual focus. So i forced to manula focus for my first time, and a bunch of my shots where out of focus. I got it about right, but for the last preformence people came in front of my seat, so i had to walk around, and manual focus for the first time ever. I was also out of space, so i had to keep deleting images.</p>

<p>On friday i went to another school to take pictures of the wrestling match, with a brand new af 50mm f1.8 (i saw him unwrap it.. doesn't make a difference really, but fun fact..) I started taking pictures for first round in a hurry, and didn't really look at my settings. My aperture was up at 3.5. But for the next rounds i brought it down to 1.8, and 2.0.. I really liked the prime, it got me 8 times more light than shooting at 3.5.. So my iso came down, and my shutter speed went up! </p>

<p>I'll be shooting a basketball game on wednesday, and i'll take out the 50mm 1.8 lense (i know most people recommend the 85mm, but we don't have a auto focus one, and my eyes suck). At 12 megapixels, I have room to crop. It's gonna be fun, i should be able to get a shutter speed of almost 1000, with a iso of 1600. (i found out that the gym lighting wasn't really bad, it's just that i was zoomed, so my minimum apertures of f5.6. Which gives you slightly more than 1/16th of the light (compared to 1.8)...</p>

<p>O, and what software should i be using? I'm currently using adobe photoshop, I' got lightroom, but don't know how to fully use it yet. I'll be looking into tutorials, and stuff during the break (which starts this saturday.) I might be able to take out a camera during to work on both my shooting ,and editing skills. </p>

<p>Also, i put in a order for a 8gb memory card, and will buy a 16gb one to if i see one on a good sale. I also bought 80gb of pisaca space for a year. I know i could of got unlimited space with flickr for 5 bucks mroe, but i really like the software included with google, and doubt i'll be going over 80gb. I also use google for everything, so one acount is easier. My only complaint is that people need to download the images to view them in full quality, and i wouldn't mind it if the quality was decent, but it's horrible. Also, people who don't have picasa can't download whole albums at once. (unless i'm missing something here.)</p>

<p>Anyways, thanks for all the help! </p>