volleyball

I would like some C&C about pictures i took at a volleyballtournament recently.
I use a Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200, iso 2500 (mostly) shutterspeed 500 or 640.
Thanks in advance
Seine

Hi Seine,

Not sure what level of experience you have shooting volleyball (ie., are you just starting out?) so a little hard to judge what level of feedback to provide. Given that, here are the biggest things to work on for your shots:

General:

• Need to straighten your horizons on almost all of the shots
• White balance is all over the place. The color cast of many types of indoor lights cycles and you've got to fix those in post processing.
• Watch out for cropping at the joints (ankles, knees, etc.)
• Several are underexposed

On the positive side of things, you've got the ball in all of your shots and your timing looks to be ok (room for improvement, but not bad).

Specifics (w/o restating the general items on each one)...

1. 1 - Player hitting the ball is out of focus. Delete

1. 2 - Subject is soft. It looks like the focus is on the back wall.

1. 3 - Good if you were shooting the green team. Shot would be better from the end-line, but you can see her face so it is fine.

1. 4 - Nice timing. Unfortunately if you fix the horizon, you are going to amputate the hitter's left arm

1. 5 - Good shot. Minor nit about cutting off her foot.

1. 6 - Nice timing, but no face == delete

1. 7 - badly oof unless you were going for an "artistic" shot. Really doesn't work for me in that way, but that's heavily personal preference

1. 8 - This would be improved significantly with a vertical crop. Lots of extraneous stuff on either side. When you do the vertical crop, fix the joint crop at the same time. Should be a nice one

1. 9 - Depends on what you are looking for from this one. The blocker got a touch, but missed the block...

1. 10 - Focus is a little soft and her ankle is chopped off.

Hope this is helpful and what you were looking for.

Regards,
Jay

Seems like you'd selected "All Area Focus" for those shots, "All Area Focus" is good for casual group shots but not for action shots like these, perhaps you should use "Single Point" AF-C and follow the subject closely next time.

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http://www.fotop.net/DonaldChin

Thank you both for the help. I do'nt take pictures of volleyball games that long. For me any help is welcome. I will try to use the advice af you two .

Would you typically go with Evaluative or Partial Metering?
Thanks.

MMACory said:

Would you typically go with Evaluative or Partial Metering?

Click to expand...

Neither. For indoor sports like volleyball, shoot in Manual mode.

Ignoring the cycling that you can't really do anything about, the lighting is consistent so shooting in Av/Tv (or whatever the Nikon equivalents are) only provides the opportunity for the exposure to be wrong.

Dark vs. light jerseys can throw off metering significantly. If you are getting low and shooting up, the lights on the ceiling or any windows in the gym will also cause problems.

Best way to do it is take test shots during warm-ups and check the histogram. Most likely you are shooting wide-open with whatever lens you have, so it is a matter of figuring out the shutter speed vs. ISO (ie., image quality) trade-off that gives you a good exposure.

Minimum shutter speed you need depends on what level of play you are shooting plus your tolerance for motion blur on the ball and hands/arms.

VERY important to get the exposure correct. If you underexpose the shot and have to fix it in post processing, you will have much more noise than if you get the exposure correct in camera.

Jay

When you are taking pictures from the back of the court, focus "manually" on the girl on the other side of the net. If you autofocus from back there you will almost always get the net in focus and not the player on the other side. I try to stand in the middle of the court (side to side) and then manual focus keeps most of the players on the other side of the net in focus.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

Bill

Indoor gym lighting is the toughest to get correct. Auto color doesn't seem to handle the "flicker" effect as it changes from point to point around the gym. Use manual and don't change it. This way all your corrections are the same in post edit.

Secondly, Chin is correct. Use a single point AF on conitinous. My trick is to use the AF point below the net so the focus is on the player not the net. For this shot, my AF point is on her knees.

Lastly, it's tough to follow the ball back and forth, up and down, try following a player and then anticipate the peak moment.
Good luck and send more from the next game!
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thanks,
apice
http://apicephoto.com/