When you are using strobes for indoor sporting events, are you trying to overpower the ambient light with the strobes to stop the action?
Where do you start with settings.....Say without the strobes I am at 1/400 2.8 3200. With the strobes I've got 2 WL x800's at full power bouncing off the ceiling.
First drop your SS to you sync speed, lower your ISO down say around 800 - shoot a photo without the strobes on, and your photo should look almost black. Then introduce your strobes and adjust them to your likings... That is just a starting point. Take a look at drbob's photos and that should get you to what you want. His shots have that 'noflash' look, or if you want that 'flash harsh look' take a look at Carl's photos - your preference.
Hope that helps, and maybe post some when you get a chance and then we can help to tweak...
JFreeman wrote:
without the strobes I am at 1/400 2.8 3200
FMarquart wrote:
drop your SS to you sync speed, lower your ISO down say around 800 - shoot a photo without the strobes on, and your photo should look almost black
Dropping SS from 1/400 to 1/200 xsync is +1 stop
Dropping ISO from 3200 to 800 is -2 stops
So this would only put OP at -1 below ambient.
I recommend at least -2 (ISO 400), ideally closer to -3 (ISO 200) for strobes to overpower ambient enough to prevent ghosting.
Yes....Don't really need them, but it nice to shoot at 200-500 iso instead of 3200. Especially because we make large posters and they tend to get noisy.
If I up the F-stop isn't that going to affect how the light the camera see's distance wise?
Is there any way to get a higher shutter speed? I am using the TT1 and flex5's on the strobes. I have the ability to run it in TTL mode but don't know the benefit there would be if any. Thanks for your help.
JFreeman wrote:
If I can't get my image to go black with 200iso and 1/250 2.8-3.2 should I up the fstop?
You don't need go totally "black"; I'd try for an image that shows shadowy figures. It's not unusual to shoot with strobes and be at f/5.6 or even stopped down further.
dmwierz wrote:
...It's not unusual to shoot with strobes and be at f/5.6 or even stopped down further.
True.
Many people who are new to strobes remain stuck on the "wide open" mind-set from shooting ambient. Get out of that mind set when shooting strobes. And all the goofy reasons for shooting wide open like bokeh, blown out backgrounds, etc. really should be tossed out the window, too. It's basketball. The backgrounds are often going to stink because of the lenses used and the proximity of the players and backgrounds to the camera/lens.
You do have insurance, correct? And permission to strobe?
JFreeman wrote:
Yes....Don't really need them, but it nice to shoot at 200-500 iso instead of 3200.
My point is, if it isn't dark enough to prevent ghosting at those settings you can more than likely get SS 400/500ish at well below iso 3200. Someone can probably whip out a calculator and get some theoretical settings but please spare me. Just eyeball it in by the methods already shown and you will be fine. Here's a shot of mine when the strobes didn't fire. http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/snaptie2002/DSC_3503copy_zps9c03ec61.jpg
Marty's shot is precisely what I meant by "shadowy".
Expose at this level, then bring up the strobes to get your image exposed properly. If you can't get the strobes to a high enough level (and you're bouncing), you'll need to beam them direct on the court. If you still can't get the exposure bright enough (hard to believe any but NCAA and Pro arenas would have ambient that bright) you'll need to move the strobes closer, or get more powerful strobes, or one trick I used it get sports reflectors, which I found added almost one full stop to the intensity of my Alien Bees. If you still can't overpower the ambient, you're shooting in daylight and what the heck are you doing using strobes in the first place?
Great! Yes we have insurance and permission.....and I am shooting hockey, but same general lighting problems.
And I assume that If I set my exposure without the lights to that and then with the strobes (they are bounced off ceiling)I can't fill the arena with light(some light and some dark areas), that it is a lack of power issue. (strobes aren't big enough)
My point is, if it isn't dark enough to prevent ghosting at those settings you can more than likely get SS 400/500ish at well below iso 3200.
Except I am shooting hockey so to expose for the faces correctly I need to be +1-2/3 over exposed.
Here is a with/without strobe comparison of mine. It is pretty much on the limit. On the strobed pics at these settings, if you look close enough at something moving fast enough, you can just start to see a hint of ghosting.
Sorry for the confusion. I shoot in manual, But I can't expose as if I was shooting another sport because of the Ice throws it off. Thus why I have to shoot at 400 3200 wide open without the strobes. That's all I was saying sorry for the confusion.
My point is, if it isn't dark enough to prevent ghosting at those settings you can more than likely get SS 400/500ish at well below iso 3200.
Thought you meant without the strobes.
Anyways thanks for the help. I am closer to getting it than this morning. One thing is though that when the athlete is closer to me(and the camera) and the Strobes on my side they are much brighter than if they were on the other side. I know they are closer to the light (even though I am bouncing it off the ceiling) But is there a way to compensate for that. I was switching my Fstop on the fly but defiantly wasn't ideal. Thanks for the help.
