tony_young

I have been shooting swimming, basketball and soccer for several years and my D70 gave me outstanding

sharpness and dead on focus in either manual and sport mode setting. All my lens are Nikkon made ranging from 35-

135mm f3.5, 70-200mm f2.8, 70-300mm and 15-35mm f2.8. Sure, I just got the D200 last year, so my time with the

D200 was less than my time on my D70 but out of the box I struggled and struggled and disappointed with the

focussing issue with my D200.

 

I did not want to believe it's the D200 or the lens, I blamed on myself not being able to get it setup right for the shots.

 

In basketball and in soccer, I had to choose my focus points wisely due to the nature of the sports (with many

nterfering objects nearby ). The same thing for swimming, the water often time competed with the face of the

swimmer. I did not have much problem with such issues with my D70 but I do with my D200 using the same lens.

 

In a low light HS gym, I had better sharpness w/o using flash (noise is a different issue comparing to D200) shooting

at shuttle speed around 120-200 at 800 or above (mostly at 1200 or 1600) iso with my D70 than my D200. Sure

200 shuttle speed can not freeze the action but you can still see and compare the areas in focus. The same thing

for low-key, natural lighting, non-action sport type of shots, I noticed that the hair were notorious soft, almost like

blur (with or without tripod) shooting at 2.8, 3.5 (depending on lens) and between 30sec -60sec. Before you said

anything about tripod and slow shuttle speed, I hand-held my medium format Mamiya, Hasselblad, F1, D70 before at

30 sec many times and still got great sharpness. If I shoot with flash, the focus problem seems reduce to almost

none.

 

I always aim my focus of the face of the subject and I got the wall behind or the shoulder or the table on the side

focussed instead.

 

I tried different focus setting in the back of the D200 and almost giving up all but the second from top. That is the

only one setting that gave me better but not perfect focus. I feel like I lost my confidence shooting paid job with D200

especially with my autofocus mode.

 

If some one shooting with the same environment as I do and have a better result, please do share your finding and/or

your setting. If you do, can you recommend the focus setting(and/or any tips) is best for swimming, soccer and

basket ball with no flash ( I used my f2.8 lens) where my subjects often time compete with un-predictably in front or

behind moving subjects. Thanks

Hi all,

 

My outfit used to be d1x, d70, with an old sb-24,sb-28 quantum turbo power

pack and I have recently added to my collection with D200, 80-200mm f2.8,sb-

800 and sd-n2.

 

Application: HS-basketball.

 

Before setup: D70 with Quantum Turbo and SB-24/sb-28 (3 live Ni-MHs with a

fake green battery unit)with repeating flash mode,35-135mm f3.5-4.5 af nikkor

(did not have anything to say about D or S lens) with marco. Camera set for

variety of P,S and A with low and high speed frame rate.

 

Results: Could not get decent multiple flashes (less than 2 secs worth) shots.

Red light flashing on flash unit therefore could not focus and get ready for

the next shot. D700 started to act up on slow and high frame rate even w/o the

flash unit attached) and focus seems to be really slow. Quantum turbo LED

showed power level is still good but could not be used on any other flash

units. SB-28 stopped working. The red rubber test button on sb-28 could not be

used to fire the flash manually.

 

Now setup: D200, SD-N2 power pack, SB-800 on TTL mode (with Ni-MHs batteries

fully charged), 80-200mm f2.8 ED lens. Pretty much the same set up on D200.

 

Problem:

a) Battery slowed down tremendously after few sets (3 frames group) of quick

recycle shots (less than 10 sets). Wait time about 3-4 secs and in some case

much longer.

b) When battery regained full power for next shot(after slowing down recycle),

focus is very slow & hard.

 

Question: What did I do wrong? Or what should be the right set up for that

scenario? Anything you would recommend? I was able to shoot near/ or behind

the hoop. Thanks

Ellis! you are no help on number 3...lol. I know everything I/anyone asked , if one have the time to try it all out, one will find the answer. But I know lots of you here already have a working solution and that can make my trying shorter. Can I hear what your set up will be for a typical sunset senario?

 

I cant move my subject too far out , my studio is small (18x20) and my lens is 35-135mm. I was trying to shoot the strobe backward (toward my camera at 2 o'clock) and use a reflector to lit up the other side of the subject...I still not get the background completely black. Maybe, I will have to change the paper to velvet or the Photeck's stuff that Beau mentioned.

I am pretty much aware of all the above comments and suggestion, thanks.

 

I consider this, 'cause i know I can be at the same level or better with those who are having their best shots posted in various online and major news media. More important I love what I do. I love catching the 'shot'.

 

So, I do work hard, I do have what it takes and I believe I do have artistic eyes for shots. I have made good-great shots using my 70-300 4-5.6 nikkor, 50-500mm Sigma and the old 80-200 f2.8 nikkor but I aslo missed quite a bit of opportunities to catch the 'shot' due to lack of resource.

 

I am not a full time photographer 'cause I dont make enough shooting what I want to do and make enough to support for a family of 8. So, if I know I can make decent money (yes, I know I have to work hard and smart)then I can find a way to justify for that kind of expense. If there are not much of a 'market' for it, then I will consider buying the lens only if I won a lottery.

 

So, if anyone know how those folks get paid (or not get paid) for having the shot taken and/or how sports illustrated and/or other major Mags would pay their dollar for assignments like that, I 'd like to know. I was told that various Mags (in different venues) dont pay much for coverpage shots (and I dont even have a clue how much is not much). Thanks

Hello,

 

I have 3 parts question on the topic.

 

a) what set up do I need to achieve the objective in studio setting with

black seemless paper background. Most of the time I use 1 strobe with either

softbox or umbrella and I tried to play with lowest setting on F-Stop I still

get the undesire details on background. In another word I still catch light on

the black background and it is not completely black. My subject is about 2-3

feet away from the background. My strobe is about 5-6 feet away from the

subject and is about 20 degree from the subject and about 5-6 feet high.

 

I can use photoshop to fix the problem but I 'd like to understand how low key

was done before PS/Digital time. Would there were always be post-production

works needed to completely darken the background? Or one shot one kill ?

 

b) I was using portal flash to shoot a model in the daylight. I accidentally

did something and the scene is just like I was shooting at night. The subject

is lit well but the back ground went fairly dark. I tried to repeat this

scenario later but could not do so. I was using a D70, 35-135 D lens and an sb-

24. I did not bounce my flash this time.Can some one tell me how can I repeat

this set up.

 

c) I am not so good at fill flash especially with light source behind the

subject. I dont want to over expose the background to get decent light on the

subject. I want my back ground properly lit (or darken a bit) and I the

subject is obviously well but not overly lit. Again, I am using sb-24 as my

fill flash. I always bounce my flash. I know this probably is an old topic but

I cant find the link at this time.Can you tell what setting template/method to

achieve this?

 

Btw, I tried to reduce the strobe power as well and play with various F-stop.

I could not get the f/x I wanted. Obviously I did not know how to use the sb-

24 correctly to control the power output, if you can walk me through in detail

of how to, that would be great.

 

 

Thanks

Hi all,

 

I really want to get a 300-400mmm f2.8 lens for nature and sports purpose and

I know I can get some good shots. The problem here is the market for action

shots (for junior and HS level) is much less than the market of 'non-action'

shots (in studio). I made better money in swimming than in football,soccer and

in basketball but it is far less than the justification for spending above 5k

on a decent long lens.

 

My question is how do those guys/gals with 400mm and above lens at college/pro

level sports make money to justify for the equipment they own? Do they ALL

work for some stock image agencies, major networks or.....their own? How do

they get pay for shooting and to own those expensive equipment, I wonder? Any

one?

 

How can I get there (to shoot at those college/pro level sports)? Thanks

For those who shoot HS sports with flash I 'd like to know if you can get multiple bursts of flashes for low-continuos shots. If you do, how far can you shoot and what kind of set-up do you use. I was using my old sb-24 flash and my turbo quantum. For some reason, I never can get the two work together.

I might be a little off here but help me out folks. I dont want to use PS to resize my image and I have an Epson Photo Inkjet (say 820).

I use E-10 camera and shot images at SHQ (2240x1680) or TIFF (same res). When I open the images in PS, the sizes are set at 144 (p/i) resolution and the physical dim. are set at 11.6 x 15.5 inches automatically. If I open a new 8x10 at 300 dpi file and move my image over, of course, I see a much smaller image in that setting.

 

 

a) if you said the file p/i need to be resized in PS or other program before you can get a larger size print then..I dont need a 6MP camera to do the job, right?

b) The maximum res on a D100 is about 3072x2048. Assuming it is set at 144 dpi, it is still a smaller image in that 8x10 at 300dpi setting. How do I get a decent 8x10 w/o having to resize in PS or other Program?

c) what is the recommended pixels/inch file setting for Epson?

 

Thanks