Single strobe Basketball

Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

Sports Corner Rules
Sports Corner Resource

FM Forums \| Sports Corner \| Join Upload & Sell
1 2 end

Archive 2012 · Single strobe Basketball

kwhitt
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · Single strobe Basketball

Don't shoot a lot of sports, but I have two young boys coming up so I thought I better start practicing. These were lit by a single AB400 bounced off ceiling. D700/85 1.8. I only shot from one end and one side of the court. Taking my second strobe next outing to give myself some room to move.

1)
This image is copyrighted by the owner

Thanks

Jan 11, 2012 at 10:29 PM

SCOTT SHIN
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #2 · Single strobe Basketball

Nice!

Jan 12, 2012 at 01:29 PM

ishootsports3
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · Single strobe Basketball

very very clean set, keep at it you seem to be on the right track

Jan 12, 2012 at 02:05 PM

jmcaverly
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · Single strobe Basketball

They look very nice.

Jan 12, 2012 at 02:09 PM

Matt OHarver
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #5 · Single strobe Basketball

that gym must be pretty dark for a single AB400 to do that kind of work. Either that are you are a genius at aiming it.

Jan 12, 2012 at 03:16 PM

kwhitt
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · Single strobe Basketball

I have a couple of advantages in this particular gym. 1st - It's small 2nd - There are raised platforms behind both goals that allow me to get the strobe really close to the ceiling for some great bounce.

Thanks for the replies and I'm gonna stay at it. Pee-wee tournament Sat. in the same gym.

Jan 12, 2012 at 03:48 PM

lwrnclightner
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #7 · Single strobe Basketball

kwhitt wrote:
I have a couple of advantages in this particular gym. 1st - It's small 2nd - There are raised platforms behind both goals that allow me to get the strobe really close to the ceiling for some great bounce.

Thanks for the replies and I'm gonna stay at it. Pee-wee tournament Sat. in the same gym.

kwhitt, these are very nice and clean, I intend on using ab's to bounce for hs wrestling, and this is pretty much the same look I am aiming at. I was told that I could not use them in the manor I invision, which is to just have them fill a little and gain a little lattitude in reducing down from maximum iso. I was thinking I would achieve the look I want which is a natural ambient light look, not strobed look. I was planning on trying to achieve this with iso 800-1600 and shutter around 200-250, whatever max is with my trigger/ab combo.

If you don't mind, what settings were you using to achive this beautiful balance of strobe and ambient(or so it seems there is ambient still around), and what f stop were you using. Should you be so curteous to share your knowledge, I thank you in advance... and please keep sharing, I am inspired that I can achieve the desired look I want.

Jan 13, 2012 at 09:32 PM

kwhitt
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #8 · Single strobe Basketball

lwrnclightner,

Let me start by saying that this was my very first attempt strobing in this area of photography. Now, to begin I set my strobe on a platform behind the goal and to the left if you are facing it from the court. Then I aimed it to where I thought the bounce would fill from the top of the key to the goal, placed it on full power.

Setting the camera, i set aperature at f4, ss 250 and took a shot of the gym without strobe at ISO400. I could barely make out the players. This is where I started shooting but didn't like the depth of field (I am a Portrait photographer) so the pictures posted here are actually at ISO 200, F2.2, SS 250. I didn't change anything at the Strobe. I was careful to watch for ghosting which will creep in as ambient light increases.

Like I said earlier though, at this gym I can get the strobe within 12ft of the ceiling and it is white, I can't imagine every instance to be the same. What I've learned more than anything is "Don't be afraid of failure and go for it."

Jan 14, 2012 at 04:41 AM

Caleb Williams
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · Single strobe Basketball

lwrnclightner wrote:
kwhitt wrote:
I have a couple of advantages in this particular gym. 1st - It's small 2nd - There are raised platforms behind both goals that allow me to get the strobe really close to the ceiling for some great bounce.

Thanks for the replies and I'm gonna stay at it. Pee-wee tournament Sat. in the same gym.

kwhitt, these are very nice and clean, I intend on using ab's to bounce for hs wrestling, and this is pretty much the same look I am aiming at. I was told that I could not use them in the manor I invision, which is to just have them fill a little and gain a little lattitude in reducing down from maximum iso. I was thinking I would achieve the look I want which is a natural ambient light look, not strobed look. I was planning on trying to achieve this with iso 800-1600 and shutter around 200-250, whatever max is with my trigger/ab combo.

If you don't mind, what settings were you using to achive this beautiful balance of strobe and ambient(or so it seems there is ambient still around), and what f stop were you using. Should you be so curteous to share your knowledge, I thank you in advance... and please keep sharing, I am inspired that I can achieve the desired look I want.

As mentioned in the thread you posted, keep in mind that strobes don't work to "fill in shadows." The only scenario I can think of that still wouldn't applicable to 99% of sports photography is to use it for fill flash when shooting outside.

However, you're shooting inside and you want the strobes to provide a new light source that overpowers the ambient light.

Many sports photographers dial in their strobes so if they take a shot without the strobes, they get a complete dark, or nearly dark frame. I don't have an example handy, but I'm sure someone has one where their strobe didn't fire to show you.

Here is an example of possible strobe locations. Keep in mind that not every possibility is up here.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Jan 14, 2012 at 07:22 AM

SCOTT SHIN
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #10 · Single strobe Basketball

Very educational stuffs here. Thank you for sharing.

Caleb, what do you mean by "dial in strobe"? I appreciate some more explanation on that.

Jan 14, 2012 at 08:13 AM

Jonathan Huynh
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #11 · Single strobe Basketball

Scott Shin Wrote:
Caleb, what do you mean by "dial in strobe"? I appreciate some more explanation on that.

What he said is Set Camera aperture priority mode according to the strobe.

Jan 14, 2012 at 03:36 PM

Caleb Williams
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #12 · Single strobe Basketball

SCOTT SHIN wrote:
Caleb, what do you mean by "dial in strobe"? I appreciate some more explanation on that.
What I mean is that you don't just setup strobes to full power and start shooting.

There are two reason: One is Flash duration, what truly stops the motion:

For those that use Speedlights, here is an example of Canon's 580EX's Flash Duration: http://www.photosbykev.com/wordpress/2008/07/12/canon-580ex-flash-duration/

Take a look at a video about Flash Duration on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPbxp6IdkyM

And a bit of more technical details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_%28photography%29#Flash_intensity

The other reason has to do with the Inverse-Square law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law

Basically, the higher you put the strobes as to power, the greater the difference you'll see as to brightness on one side of the court vs. the other from a certain strobe.

Other factors to consider are where you point the strobes, whether you bounce them or not, where you actually place them (the farther you put them away from the court, the less the difference in light between one side of the court to the other, ie the Inverse-Square Law).

I could show you some bad examples of strobe-use, but I don't want to bad-mouth potential clients.

Here is one setup I found on Flickr that uses 4 strobes:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobistforsports/discuss/72157612619042848/

Jan 14, 2012 at 08:02 PM

SCOTT SHIN
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #13 · Single strobe Basketball

Thanks Caleb

Jan 15, 2012 at 06:58 AM

Caleb Williams
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #14 · Single strobe Basketball

You're welcome, I'm glad someone can learn from my meager knowledge

Jan 15, 2012 at 11:57 PM

kwhaley29
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #15 · Single strobe Basketball

Often when photographers use multiple strobes you'll find images where one light source feels hotter than another, or you get a mix of shadows on the floor from direct light. In your case the one light bounced feels very natural. Nicely done! .

Oct 09, 2012 at 08:53 PM

Marty Bingham
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #16 · Single strobe Basketball

The lighting is good in these. The horizons, not so much.

Marty

Oct 09, 2012 at 09:31 PM

Jeff_Stapleton
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #17 · Single strobe Basketball

Marty Bingham wrote:
The lighting is good in these. The horizons, not so much.

Marty

+1. Good captures, but use vertical lines in the background to line up your images.

Oct 09, 2012 at 11:45 PM

Russ Isabella
Online
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #18 · Single strobe Basketball

I would add to the most recent comments that it's helpful to get at least some small part of the basket/net the player is shooting at into your photos. Just adds a bit of context that can strengthen the image. It's not necessary for every shot--probably wouldn't add anything to #2--but really could add to #s 1 and 4.

Oct 10, 2012 at 12:07 AM

Caleb Williams
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #19 · Single strobe Basketball

Wow, I remember this thread. What brought this up from the dead?

Oct 10, 2012 at 12:17 AM

Jeff_Stapleton
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #20 · Single strobe Basketball

Oh...wow. Didn't notice the date. I thought it was odd to see HS basketball this time of year... I assumed it was a Northern thing

Oct 10, 2012 at 08:05 PM

1 2 end
FM Forums \| Sports Corner \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 end