Posted by on Dec 20, 2011 | 2 comments

Shooting Basketball

When it comes to shooting sport nothing is easy. Your eyes have to be on players all the time waiting for that second when the magic happens. However, some sports are easier to shoot than others. Outdoor sport in a day light is usually easier to shoot because you have enough light to increase the shutter speed and freeze the action with minimum ISO. But if you are shooting indoor where you depend on the available lights inside, you will need fast lenses and more post processing. Especially if you use a cropped sensor camera.

I’ve been shooting volleyball for a while now. It’s hard sport to shoot. Some says it’s the hardest. The ball is fast and freezing the action isn’t easy. So when I started shooting basketball it was kind of an easy assignment. You just need to choose the right angle. It depends on your style and what you want to capture. In this post I’ll talk about my way to shoot basketball. It’s not necessary works for you but you can get an idea of some tools and techniques.

Some people says you can’t shoot indoor sport unless you have thousands of dollars full-fram camera. It’s not true! You can shoot with a good cropped sensor cameras too. Like Nikon D300, D7000, and D90. I’ve been shooting indoor sport for the Eastern Echo with my D90 for a while and I got a GREAT photos.
Basketball field isn’t big so you can get away with 70-200 f/2.8 and a second wider lens such as, 17-55, 24-70, or 50. The most important thing here, you need a fast lens. Means no more than f/2.8. Your shutter speed will be hight so you need to keep the lens wide open all the time.
It depends on how is the lights inside the arena. Here it comes to you to experiment and see what works for you. Usually, Your shutter speed will be 1/640 or more. Aperture: Wide open ISO: start with 1000 and see if you need more or if you can get away with less. Remember, the more you increase your ISO the more noise you get. RAW or JPEG? Personally I shoot RAW all the time. It will eat your memory fast and make your camera even slower but I like to have that flexibility on post processing.
I use Aperture correct white balance, colors, noise redaction, and add some sharpening. First time post processing you will spend hours figuring out the right colors and look. When you get the the look you want, just save the setting on a preset to use it in the future. After shooting couple games you will know what camera setting you use. So your photos will have the same camera setting and you can apply your saved preset on all your photos right after importing them from the memory card.

Now, for choosing your angels thats depends on your style. But one the most popular shots is that one taking from below the basket. Means, you set right behind the basket with fairly wide angel lens and wait for the action to happen bellow the basket.

You also can walk to the side to take close shots with 70-200.

One last thing, Having a second body with you will make you life easier. You don’t want to change lenses during the game while the action is happening.
I hope this helps…..MTC

2 Comments

  1. 2-6-2012
    Brittany says:

    The blog is cool

    Reply
  2. 4-25-2012
    Samantha says:

    Interesting^^

    Reply

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