Advice to taking pictures tonight

[OpticalPrime]

First off, id like to say thanks to everyone for commenting on my last thread. I think I have a better basic understanding now of shutter speed, aperture, etc..

Tonight my little nephew has his first basketball game. He is 8 years old. My wife and I are gonna go watch and I thought Id take the camera and take some pictures. Instead of just going and putting on AUTO and snapping a few pics from whereever I am I thought Id ask for some advice...

I havent been there, but Im asuming the light is the same as any other gym. The bleachers are prolly not too big. So where should I take the pictures from? Do I want to get high, get low or maybe even get on the floor??? What settings on my camera should I use? Im assuming I will want fast shutter speed so there is no blur right.?? And since it will probably be fairly bright, I wont need a big aperture right? And maybe an ISO of 50 or 100???

would love some advice so I can possibly come out with a few good pictures... thanks again


ohhh and one more thing... should I use the flash?? Im not certain but Im wondering if manually changing all these things mean you dont need flash anymore or what???

Here is what I have to work with on my Canon S2 IS.. I dont have any filters or extra lenses yet so Im a little limited..

aperture is F2.7 - F8.0
Shutterspeed is 1/3200 - 15 sec
ISO - 50,100,200,400
Flash - range from -2 to +2
Exposure - range from -2 to +2

[xjben]

Gyms are typically dark...if it was outdoor soccer or something like that, you'd have more light (assuming a sunny or bright day), but not indoors. Hard to say without being there, but I'd recommend ISO 400, then try locking the shutter speed (Tv mode) at around 1/400 of a second. Take a few test shots. If you have enough light and can go faster, do it...if not, you may have to back down off that speed a little (1/250 maybe). Anything in that range or slower is pushing your ability to freeze the action, so the faster the better. I've seen plenty of comments of people shooting ISO 1600 in gyms, so no way you're getting away at less than 400.

For location - the lower you can get the better. I think most pros prefer the floor area, behind the backboard and off to one side...that way the action is coming at you, you can see faces when they're shooting, etc...

Good luck!!

- Ben

[OpticalPrime]

thank you, that gives me a starting point at least. What about aperture? All way down to 2.7 ??

[OpticalPrime]

Im at work right now and my office is full of flouresent lighting. I took 2 pictures. One in auto mode and one in manual with settings of F2.7, ISO 400, 1/400

the auto picture came out bright but my manual one was really dark. I looked at the settings of the auto picture and it had 1/60 speed. So I messed around with it a little and if lighting was exact same as my office I could go up to about 1/125 but thats about it...

assuming lighting is exactly same (hoping its brighter so I can go with faster speed), is 1/125 fast enough to capture fast movement like a basketball game without any blur?

[Spec A!]

You can be pretty much guaranteed it will be darker in the gym. It may look brighter to your eyes, but in terms of sensitivity it will be darker solely on the fact that the lights are way up in the ceiling in the gym. The difference in height between your office ceiling and the gym ceiling would be large (I would think), so think about how much throw the lights in each are able to give, regardless of the gyms lights being higher powered than the typical 40w office flourescents.
Stick with f2.7, and ISO 800 to try to give you a faster shutter speed. It's okay to use the flash too, but keep in mind it will only throw it's light maybe 10-15feet. I would only use it on close up shots. Another thing you can try is a slow sync fill flash- it will freeze the action but give a little motion blur, and the backround ambient light will also be exposed a little better than straight flash.

[OpticalPrime]

unfortunately I do not have ISO 800. 400 is my max.

[Daniel M]

My first attempt at shooting my daughters basketball game was last night and it was terrible. The lighting in the gym and I suspect alot of gyms is not good at all. I was shooting ISO 1600 and still could not get enough light to get my shutter speed high enough. A shutter speed of 1/125 is not fast enough to freeze action shots such as the ball being dribbled. My lens only allowed me to get f/3.5 at is widest point. I would experiment before the game and see what the largest aperature (smaller number) you can get with a shutter spped of 1/250.

Let us now how it turns out - Good Luck!

[xjben]

1/250 is definitely as slow as you can go...so try that or faster, with ISO 400 and see what happens. If there's still not enough light, you can try flash to see if that helps. Don't worry about the aperature for now...if you use Shutter Priority (Tv mode) then the camera will take care of that, or you could manually set it as big as you can get it (smallest number).

[Cerbera LM]

The bad news is your gear is limited the good news 8 yr old b-ball doesn't move very fast. Don't try to stop the action, look for shots when your nephew is standing around, timeouts, throwing the ball in bounds, playing defense, etc. If you're feeling adventurous slow the shutter down and try some panning shots. The good news is pictures are free so fill up the memory card, there will some keepers.

[mmcaleer]

I shot my son's basketball game today at an indoor gym and shot Tv mode set to 1/160 ISO 1600 with my 70-200 F2.8L. The exposure was dead on with that. Sure, at 1/160 I did have some motion with dribbling but that is what I wanted. When my team was shooting at the end I was sitting I changed my lens to a 50mm F1.8 and could get away with a faster shutter and lower ISO to 1250. Still I never got above F3.5 or F4.0. Never used flash the entire game.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[Stephen H]

Use fastest ISO, widest aperture, and still don't be too surprised if you can't freeze motion- and you'll likely be out of flash range anyway.

The moral in that case is to go buy a $2000 camera and a $2000 lens and you'll be all set.

[Mark McCall]

I shoot my daughter's basketball games all the time.

I usually shoot around 800 ISO.
Shoot the widest aperture you can.
Aperture Priority mode.
Fast lenses help....I use the Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS "L", at F2.8 or F4

Shoot from the area under the basket of the team your trying to shoot.
Move off center of the basket 5-10 feet.
This way, you'll get the players coming at you.
During the 2nd half, switch baskets.

[mmcaleer]

Thanks Mark. I'll give that a try next time. At the games, what shutter speeds do you end up with using ISO 800 and Aperture Priority Mode at F2.8?

Mike

[iCe]

I just got home from shooting in one of the worst gyms that I've ever shot in. It had really crappy old mercury vapor lights and huge glass windows on both sides of the court that could not be avoided. I gave up on Av mode before the game even started. I try to shoot the team warming up so that I can figure out what the lighting is going to do to my images. I had to go to ISO 3200, manual, f2.8, and 1/320 to overcome the extremely harsh backlighting. The images came out decent enough but the windows were blown out big time.

It took about 4 or 5 frames shot at different angles and a little chimping to get the exposure right but it's easy enough to do. Just get there a little early and shoot the team warming up. And- Don't be afraid of using manual mode.

[engstrom]

Originally Posted by Stephen H

The moral in that case is to go buy a $2000 camera and a $2000 lens and you'll be all set.

Hey now. A Canon 30D camera body ($1060) with a Canon 85mm f1.8 lens ($330) makes a very good basketball combo and is much less than the $4K you mention.

Or a Nikon D80 ($930) and a Nikon 85mm f1.8 ($380) is also great.