I need basketball tips

[Normcar]

First of all, I'm hoping for tons of input on this question, no matter how much your experience. This is an all-out, open-ended, go for it question, so please don't be afraid to offer what you might consider to be the least of opinions, tips, or suggestions. Thanks! I'm going to be taking some basketball photos in about a month, for a major basketball tournament. I want these photos to be the best possible shots. My goal is to get the best basketball shots at the least possible investment. Devotion and dedication I have loads of, now I need as many tips and tricks as I can get in the areas of:
- general position
- lighting (e.g. how to set up flash slaves at the least cost or overhead strobes, or other...)
- best lenses
- shutter speed, aperture manipulation
- best way to focus (manual? AF? Single point?)
- attitude
- how to organize the kit
- any helps in the field, especially from the pros
- other

I would dearly appreciate any help that anyone here can give me, even if your ideas may seem a bit redundant or foolish. Hey, I'm willing to listen to your ideas because I want as much ammo as I can get to tackle the next bball season as well as the major tournament that's coming up. I need to be prepared to do the best I can with what I've got. Any help would be printed out, read, reread, pondered over, reread, considered, pondered over, reread, and attempted.

Thanks

[cowboy43]

Can you post your equiptment? and what you have to work with.

[bradg]

i always use continus focus, and and about f/4.5 or some where around there shutter speed should be no less than 125th
also, get there about 1/2 hour or so before hand, to set all your settings because every place has there own requirments for settings
position, i sit under the basket, not directly under maybe of to the left or right about 5 or 10 feet

and if you have strobes you need to setup, get there like two hours early



i hope this helps

[bradg]

also manual focus might be a good idea if you want only dunk shots, set focus on the net and i would use the highest apature i could to avoid being off in focus

and watch out for the ball, there is nothing like haveing your 80-200 2.8 lens hit with a ball

[NHL]

FYI

http://www.stevesforums.com/phpBB2/v...=100350#100350

[BillDrew]

Check out today's Broom Hilda comic at http://www.ucomics.com/broomhilda/

[Normcar]

Cowboy...

I've updated my signature so you can see what I'm working with. However, I've just purchased the 50-500 and have not yet received it, so don't take that into consideration. Thanks to y'all for your input so far

Bill...

yeah, but did the photographer get the shot before being crushed? That's the main thing, isn't it?

Brady...

I hear you and have found myself stopping down a bit on the aperture to increase DOF, but hate doing it because it's almost a confession that I can't focus properly and quickly enough. Oh well, practice makes better.

As for manual focus...well, I tried that but don't seem to be able to do as well as the lens. Again, practice on that will probably help as well.

Nice to hear from you and to see that other people are working out the sports problem in a similar way, with similar attempts to solve the dilemma.

[bradg]

also you might want to read some of the ss forums

www.sportsshooter.com

it a great place to use to get help, but it is $25 and you have to submit 10 of your images and members of the site have to vote if your images meet a certin level of quality that is needed for the sports photography business

but it is a great place to learn new things about sports photography

[PrmseKpr]

Originally Posted by BillDrew

Check out today's Broom Hilda comic at http://www.ucomics.com/broomhilda/

What was it about? Comics more than 14 days old go to archive and you need to pay to access them.