Strobing my first HS Basketball Game

[leyva62]

Not sure I will have enough battery although I have not tried bouncing. Base on placement mentioned on the original post, how do you suggest I bounce?

Straight up? At an angle? at 1/1 power?

I would be concerned about cycle time although at this point, I am most concerned with the quality of the shot even if I end up with less of them.

I tried some sample shots with bouncing once, and there wasn't enough light at all. Maybe I have to try again.

[Bob_S]

Why not bump the ISO up to 1200 or 1600, shutter up to at least 400 and then the strobes?

[Flea77]

I know almost nothing about Canon equipment, but for BB I have no problem with my D7000 shooting ISO 3200 with a little noise reduction they look fantastic. Here is what I would try, before the game while they are warming up should give you at least 30 min to see how it works.

Point your strobes at an angle to hit roughly the center of the court on the end you are shooting, about 10-15' in front of the goal should be the center of the spot created. Put the flashes on 1/4 power, full zoom (because of the distance), run your max ISO you think you can pull out good images with, then try it. If it doesnt work out well, reset the flashes and go on with business as usual.

Now there are LOTS of people here with more experience than me strobing BB so if one of them chimes in and says I am full of it, they are probably right :-) But barring that, I would try my suggestion above and see what happens. With a descent flash you should be able to pop off shots at 1/4 power pretty dang fast. Heck, at ISO 3200 at f1.8 you may even be able to hit 1/8 power!

Either way, good luck!

Allan

[Dobick]

the 1d Mark II should easily push to ISO 1000 or 1250 without any real noticable noise (it'll be there but it won't be super nasty.) Then you can turn the power down just a smidge on the strobes (or maybe keep the power set the same but bounce them) and that will do a lot to bring up the ambient as well.

That is if you are worried about the deep shadows...

I don't think these look too bad other than the white balance that does not look very natural

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by Dobick

the 1d Mark II should easily push to ISO 1000 or 1250 without any real noticable noise (it'll be there but it won't be super nasty.) Then you can turn the power down just a smidge on the strobes (or maybe keep the power set the same but bounce them) and that will do a lot to bring up the ambient as well.

That is if you are worried about the deep shadows...

I don't think these look too bad other than the white balance that does not look very natural

It has been a while but I thought my MKIIN was bad above ISO 800 but I would take the noise in this case over a really dark back ground.

[leyva62]

Originally Posted by Bob_S

Why not bump the ISO up to 1200 or 1600, shutter up to at least 400 and then the strobes?

Bob, my 1DMarkII is noticeably noisy above 1000, that is probably as high as I would consider going. As for the shutter, I can sync up to 320, no higher.

Thanx for the suggestions though!

[leyva62]

Originally Posted by Flea77

Point your strobes at an angle to hit roughly the center of the court on the end you are shooting, about 10-15' in front of the goal should be the center of the spot created. Put the flashes on 1/4 power, full zoom (because of the distance), run your max ISO you think you can pull out good images with, then try it. If it doesnt work out well, reset the flashes and go on with business as usual.

Now there are LOTS of people here with more experience than me strobing BB so if one of them chimes in and says I am full of it, they are probably right :-) But barring that, I would try my suggestion above and see what happens. With a descent flash you should be able to pop off shots at 1/4 power pretty dang fast. Heck, at ISO 3200 at f1.8 you may even be able to hit 1/8 power!

Either way, good luck!

Allan

Allan,

I think I will try going up to 800 or 1000 ISO but I really want to leave my SS at about 350. In the past, I shot at 200SS and did get some blur in their hands / fingers / ball. I will lower my flashes to about 10ft and shoot more towards half court.

As for shooting at 3200, no way, that would be maxing out my capability and the noise would be too much. Also, my lens doesn't go below 2.8.

Thanx for your feedback.

[leyva62]

Lonnie,

I agree that the dark background is not ideal. My next attempt will include lowering my flashes and shooting more towards half court. I will also possibly lower my strobe power to 1/8 so I don't totally blow out the shot with the higher ISO. If necessary, I will lower my SS to 300, but want to avoid going below that for fear of some blur.

Thanx for your comments.

[brewercm]

Can you try out different setups during team practices or anything?

[leyva62]

Clifton,

I can try a different setup for practice but it won't be the same time of day and some outside from the windows lighting will affect the shot.

My next time out, I plan on lowering the flashes to about 10 feet and aim them a little higher across the court and not down to the foul line.

I am also going to shot at about 800ISO and possibly even slow down my shutter speed to about 250 if I don't get any blur.

I hope to be able to get some more gym light in the background and also get a little more of the court lit in order to get some shots close to half court. All of my recent shots were at about the 3 point range or under the basket.

I may also try a different placement of the lights, behind the baseline aimed down court. The only problem is that in order for me to secure them, I have to be against the wall which is about 15 yards behind the baseline so I will have to shoot at perhaps 1/1 power and go out the full length of the flash which is 105.

I shot at 1/4 power and at 85 zoom this last time.

Thoughts?