C&C...a better set of basketball pictures?

Okay, taking everyone's comments and suggestions into account, I took in my D3000 for day 2 of the tournament.

I did post process these in Photoshop CS5 to reduce noise.

To me, the result is a much better set than yesterday (changed the ISO in the camera to 800, not auto)...but of course, I love hearing truthful comments from the pros.

Thanks!

Kristi

With the other shots present in just my memory, I would say these are much cleaner. A little noise reduction goes a long way. These are more enjoyable to view.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/brev00

Perhaps try and isolate subjects more when framing a scene. Rather than show the whole court and all of the players, focus on the action between the ball handler and his/her defender, or just one of the players. I think this type of strategy will make for more exciting shots.
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-Tom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomintaipei/

Try to get the ball in flight to depict the movement of the game. Did you shoot in raw format? Much easier to adjust for gym lighting when you shoot raw.

Thanks all.

Yes, I do shoot in Raw now...I've recently found the benefits of doing so with Lightroom and CS5.

As for tighter shots, I agree, but I had to shoot at the limits of my kit lens.

To get these shots to be cleaner, I had to use my kit lens at 18mm with 3.5 and the bottom 3 are crops from that.

When I get a longer 2.8, hopefully in the near future, I should be able to stand farther away even though, as you can see, I have baseline/sideline priviledge when I choose, but I also worry about my dinky little external flash I bought...how much it can deliver farther away.

Of course, all of this is yet to come, while I'm learning...I figure buy the equipment as I learn, so I know what I really need versus buy everything up front and end up with a bunch of good money out the door for equipment I'll never use, if that makes sense.

Good shots. Looks like flash was used, yes?

oh yeah...they'd have been next to invisible had I not. tried that first. haha

Good action.

If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be to learn how the plays are run and position yourself to avoid shooting players' backs. If you can move around the court, consider standing on the sideline near the top of the 3pt line to catch face-up shots of players passing around the perimeter. That can also be a great spot to nab shots of defenders trying to prevent penetration.

Given that you're using a flash (on your camera, I assume...not a remote strobe), you'll obviously need to consider the impact of blinding these kids as they're playing...so I can understand why you've gone primarily for shots behind the players. To fix that issue, I'd recommend spending $150 on a little 50mm 1.8 prime and giving it a go.

Keep up the good work, no matter what! Shooting basketball is still one of my favorite things to do with a camera.

Much better! I agree with previous posters about for a more compelling photo isolating the players would be much better but I understand how you are limited by your lens. I've been reading recently and if you don't want to spend sooo much money for a 2.8 zoom, you could either get a prime (I'm pretty sure 85 mm would be sufficient here) or you could get a but of a slower zoom (70-300, 55-200, ect...), Although if you plan on mostly shooting sports indoors saving up for a fast zoom would not be a terrible idea.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/67848139@N06/

Oh i forgot to mention, I noticed you didn't use any exposure comp which if you brought high enough you might have not needed flash (although not sure about that).
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/67848139@N06/