Hey folks! I shot our huge rivalry game (Biola vs. Azusa Pacific) and it was amazing. Our tiny gym was PACKED! So intense. So much fun. It was my first time using the 7D for sports videography. Are there better tools for the job? Of course, but I wanted to try my luck and see what happened. You guys can judge the outcome for yourselves on the blog.
Anyways, on with the show. As always, C&C appreciated and more goodies on the blog.
Scott - They look pretty good on my (decently) calibrated monitor, but I might be running it a little bright. I was also editing these in the dark (roommate was asleep) so that probably didn't help. I'll take a look at them on a few different computers. Do they look a little underexposed to anyone else?
And yeah I was standing for a few action shots. I was moving around a lot for video, so if something came my way I often didn't have time to kneel.
I can see how #4 doesn't work for you Bryan, makes sense. The video did get a little shaky at times. At first I was often having to compromise steadiness for focus tracking, although I think I got smoother and quicker at focusing as I went on.
I'm glad you're diggin' the blog! Just got it up and running last month and finalized all my branding. I'm really trying to push myself as a "brand" and have a style that's recognizable in everything from my photos, to my videos, to my design.
Details on the video:
Really pretty simple. Just running around with a 7D and a 5DmkII. Most of it was shot on the 7D in 720/60p. Lenses I found myself using the most were my 35L and 50 1.8. I think their focal lengths worked well for the video. The wide stuff was shot on the 5D2 with a 16-35L in 1080/30p (hurry up with the firmware Canon!). Both were gripped (which I've discovered I really like when shooting video) but no other stabilizing/focus aids.
Footage was pretty much straight out of camera. I just made sure the white balance was where I wanted it and tweaked the picture styles a bit.
Mike, I have to agree with Scott on the pictures BUT the video footage is smokin'! Reading your posting here, I now understand why they look the way they do.
Are those D2 Schools? In your blog I saw the girls playing and in D2 schools in my area, men and women travel together and play doubleheaders; ladies first, then men.
I enjoyed the pictures and the video as well. I agree with Scott that in general there is an under exposure to most and checking the histogram in PS seems to show this. I think I would have forsaken a bit of shutterspeed, and ISO say down to 1/800 and up to 2500 for a little more exposure as it sounds like, from all reports, that both cameras can handle the higher ISO's fine.
I do however like a higher "standup" perspective for this level of basketball. I find shooting from a "close" baseline while kneeling or sitting results in too many "up nose" shots, and no eyes as the players tilt thier heads up towards the hoops. The fan shots are great and for action I like 5 the best while 9 is great protrait.
The video is very well done. Nice camera work to get the shots. I thought even with the f2 stop, the short lenses had enough DOF to keep the importent bits in focus. I even noticed on one free throw where you panned from the shooter to the hoop, that the focus changed and *almost* kept up. Nice job of editing to get things somewhat synced to the music as well. I know how challanging that can be.
I have been looking at the 7D long and hard for the exact reasons you show here and I think this puts me over the top for making the choice. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together and present it here.
Thanks Ron. I'm going to give the stills another look right now. 5 is my favorite as well.
I shoot mention that for the video, I started out shooting around F5.6 and as I got more comfortable with focusing and tracking the players I gradually opened up to F2.8. I'm pretty sure I didn't go any wider than that. I'm glad you noticed my attempts at trying to keep stuff in focus! It's dang challenging, although that's why I did it in the first place.
I highly recommend the 7D. It continues to impress me (even coming from 1-series autofocus). Glad you enjoyed it!
Well, you guys were right. Woulda thunk it? Turns out the "automatically dim display brightness" function of both computers and cameras is actually handy. I'll be leaving that turned on from now on (although stupid me for not checking histograms in the first place).
Photos are updated now and should hopefully look nicely exposed. On another note, it's good to see that 7D files push and pull nicely at ISO1600-3200
mikethevilla wrote:
Thanks canonet. So the stills look a little underexposed to you too?
We're not even D2, we're NAIA (the division under D3). And yeah we do the same thing, girls at 5:30, guys at 7:30.
We had 4 NAIA colleges in my area until the NCAA came along with D2 and D3 schools. 2 went to D2 and the others , D3 . My guess is more money was possible to attain with that status.
