HS Basketball (56K Caution)

[Tim_axe]

I've been having tons of fun with my Canon Digital Rebel (300d) with my 85mm f/1.8 lens. I've shot a lot of basketball for my high school's yearbook (although my section is officially hockey; I can't find the team playing *any* home games).

I'm also shooting basketball for my town's highschool (I go to school in another (larger) town, and also haven't lived here long) and they're thrilled to have me. I'm getting a pass made to get into their games for free. I'm doing it to satisfy my school's curiculim requirement of community service (which not doing so far has effected my grade by as much as 2 letter grades) and to hopefully get some extra spending money in the future. It might also help on my College Application that I'm doing this week, although I'm confident my GPA and the ACT test I just took will admit me quickly. (I should have started earlier...oh well)

 

[Tim_axe]

I'd like some feedback on the images, such as cropping and post processing. I'm experimenting with how to post process (shooting Fine JPEG) and haven't really settled on anything. I'm mainly doing some color correction (also shooting w/ Custom White Balance), playing with levels to get a nice histogram, and some large (10-20) radius, 20-30 percentage USM.

Most were shot at 1/400th, F/1.8-2.0, ISO 1600, Manual Mode, Ambient Light. No noise reduction. Custom white balance. Some were shot in Adobe RGB (1998) but PS Elements can't convert color spaces, so I'm using sRGB from now on.


1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

12)

13)

 

[synergyo1]

Hmm you have some pretty good shots there. #1 seems a tad blurry but maybe its just me. #13 is the best

 

[maw]

that last one is awesome. his expression cracks me up!!

 

[Karandras]

Yeah no kidding. nice Shots. That last expression is damn funny ;-) Wish I could have a rebel :-/

 

[Tim_axe]

I'm glad #13 is well liked since I've e-mailed the school small versions of #13 and #11. Having no pictures of their own, they're thrilled. I'm delivering the full-sized images tomorrow, and will also shoot Girls Basketball.

Yes, the first picture is somewhat out of focus. I tried to sharpen it up, but I guess it didn't work that well...


I really need to do something about storage now. So far my December Pictures folder weighs in at 9GB, and tomorrow it will weigh in at 10.5GB after I'm through shooting and processing in photoshop. 6MP files are definately disk hungry...

 

[mdude85]

I like 11 the best, and I also like 8, 7, and 3. I don't really like 13 -- the expression on the guy's face is kind of creepy, almost like he is crying. Some of your pictures are not the same color as the other ones -- did you switch the white balance on some? If you have Photoshop, you might want to consider doing a color match on these so they're all the same tone. I like that the backgrounds are fairly undistracting here, except in shot 12 they are pretty distracting. good luck on your application!

 

[mdude85]

I really need to do something about storage now. So far my December Pictures folder weighs in at 9GB, and tomorrow it will weigh in at 10.5GB after I'm through shooting and processing in photoshop. 6MP files are definately disk hungry...

maybe you should consider shooting in a lower resolution?

 

[pistola]

its aparent that people make strange and funny faces while playing basketball.

 

[Tim_axe]

I'm trying to figure out my color issue also. These were taken in two different gyms, and I tried to set a good custom whitebalance at both gyms. I'll be sure to read-up on how to properly Custom WB before my next game.


In pictures 9-13, I had a really poor picture for custom white balance, but I didn't have time for another one. I borrowed the back of the AD's shirt But overall, the gym has a really weird, mind boggling color -- it looks green, but the camera says it's orange. At the next game I'll take a pic of the wall with the electronic flash to figure out if it is the color temp of the lights, or the color of the wall that is so messed up, and then proceede from there. I'll also bring printer paper or something else to Custom WB off of. (No pringles lid in the house )

In pictures 1-8, I shot in a different gym with I think a good custom WB, but for some reason I think I got a few brownish/orangish reflections from the court. I think that playing with levels in PS Elements, exposing further to the right, and extra PS Elements WB correction should help in the future. There seem to be two color temps going on through - the court is a hot orange color, while up above I have some shots where the temp is cooler and bluer. I don't have the benefit of layer masks in PS:E, but I might bring the images into the GIMP to manage these dual temps in the future.


For picture #12 I was up in the bleachers (yes, they're tiny bleachers in an equally small gym). I was shooting wide open (f/1.8), but I'll look into getting closer in this gym because of how small the gym is. I don't feel comfortable shooting as tight as I did for #9 (hardly any cropping done) but if I need to do it to get better background blur, I'll try it out.


Thanks for the tips/comments so far. (I'm going to see if I have any luck with this meteor shower thing tonight...although I should probably finish my Govt. Take Home Final to turn in tomorrow...)

Edit: The sky is too cloudy now. I got some star pictures a few hours earlier, but no meteors... I did find an airplane though...

 

[Tim_axe]

I've been taking better white-balance shots recently. Hopefully the WB issue is more consistant now, but I have noticed that when I shoot in bursts (with custom white balance set), the first frame is WB correctly while the rest are off a bit. Luckily the focus problem keeps me from acturally shooting continous bursts, but it is becomming more annoying how many shots I delete because from the moment the viewfinder blacks out I can already tell it is out of focus. I tried manual focus some times, but the game moves a bit too quickly to accurately focus when they get close.


Anyways, here are the latest pictures:


#14

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19

#20

#21

#22

#23

#24

#25

#26

#27

#28

#29

#30

 

[PS-RagE]

I always shoot RAW with AutoWB and do the WB correction during the PS import

 

[bobsaget]

nice pics...

Just wanted to say Hi from Sandpoint...

 

[bobsaget]

I think we play you guys soon...

 

[IdentityFaux]

Are there only white guys on your high school basketball team? Not to be racist, but that's kinda weird...

 

[HorsePunchKid]

Are there only white guys on your high school basketball team? Not to be racist, but that's kinda weird...

Totally off-topic: I don't know how common it is, but there weren't any non-WASP kids on the high school team in the town I grew up in (Mahomet, not Champaign). I fortunately didn't have to go to high school there, but through my whole experience from kindergarten through 8th grade, there was only one black person and one Indian person that I can remember. Quite a long time ago now, but I'm pretty sure of it. Mahomet isn't openly racist, but I can't imagine it's particularly friendly to non-whites or non-Christians -- despite being named after the prophet Muhammad and being a stone's throw from a major university with a lot of ethnic diversity.

 

[mgw24]

Totally off-topic: I don't know how common it is, but there weren't any non-WASP kids on the high school team in the town I grew up in (Mahomet, not Champaign). I fortunately didn't have to go to high school there, but through my whole experience from kindergarten through 8th grade, there was only one black person and one Indian person that I can remember. Quite a long time ago now, but I'm pretty sure of it. Mahomet isn't openly racist, but I can't imagine it's particularly friendly to non-whites or non-Christians -- despite being named after the prophet Muhammad and being a stone's throw from a major university with a lot of ethnic diversity.

And Hi from moscow.... I had to doubletake to realize those teams were familiar.. Nice pick of the pullman dance team...

 

[Tim_axe]

Just wanted to say Hi from Sandpoint...

I think we play you guys soon...

And Hi from moscow.... I had to doubletake to realize those teams were familiar.. Nice pick of the pullman dance team...

It's a small world after all

I think that I will be at the Jan 14th Sandpoint vs Moscow (Varsity) games @ Bear Den. Hopefully I'll get more "keepers" from the better lighting and color temps (compared to Troy's Gym).

I have one more game left this year and it's on December 30th (Bear Den). I think that after I get those pictures processed, I'll post more here. But something makes me think that I won't be taking any more pictures until then, because there is a tremendous lack of snow to take pictures of this year...