15 fps burst at basketball game

[Chris Summers]

Love the R7 for sports photography. I shoot my granddaughter's 8th grade girls basketball games, the pictures I edit get put on a Flickr album that the girls and their parents can view and download if the want. Most of the parents take pictures with their phones from the stands so my pictures will be a lot nicer.

The middle school gyms have pretty crappy lighting, only a few new schools have bright LED lights and most older schools have fluorescent lighting high up so I'm typically shooting at 20,000 ISO and 1/1600 sec. at f/4. I do some noise reduction and sharpening in Lightroom but most of the kids will just use the images on their social media accounts or share with friends on their phones so it's not such a big deal. I usually do a color correction on the first image and then match it by syncing the others to the first. The camera WB is close but the yellow of the wood floor throws it off a bit.

Anyway, here is a burst of 10 shots at 15 fps with mechanical shutter. I don't do ES due to the warping effect on the basketball and players as they move and 15 fps is fine for the speed they are moving at. I'm impressed with the Servo focus following the action. I use the #2 choice for what the camera follows and focuses on. I don't use eye detection as too many eyes might get into the focal field. I use the center focus with 4 dots around it for the focal point, seems to work well for following the players I want to.

By the way a fantastic game, they won 32-8

 

[Resqu2]

I shot some NCAA dev 2 basketball, I shot between 800-1000 for shutter speed and even dropped down to 500 or so. Going slower still freezes the shot and should really drop your ISO. Not being critical at all so please don’t think that. Your photos capture the action and look great. I absolutely love shooting this game. keep up the great work.

 

[Normware]

Love the last 5 images.

 

[Lost In Vermont]

Love the R7 for sports photography. I shoot my granddaughter's 8th grade girls basketball games, the pictures I edit get put on a Flickr album that the girls and their parents can view and download if the want. Most of the parents take pictures with their phones from the stands so my pictures will be a lot nicer.

The middle school gyms have pretty crappy lighting, only a few new schools have bright LED lights and most older schools have fluorescent lighting high up so I'm typically shooting at 20,000 ISO and 1/1600 sec. at f/4. I do some noise reduction and sharpening in Lightroom but most of the kids will just use the images on their social media accounts or share with friends on their phones so it's not such a big deal. I usually do a color correction on the first image and then match it by syncing the others to the first. The camera WB is close but the yellow of the wood floor throws it off a bit.

Anyway, here is a burst of 10 shots at 15 fps with mechanical shutter. I don't do ES due to the warping effect on the basketball and players as they move and 15 fps is fine for the speed they are moving at. I'm impressed with the Servo focus following the action. I use the #2 choice for what the camera follows and focuses on. I don't use eye detection as too many eyes might get into the focal field. I use the center focus with 4 dots around it for the focal point, seems to work well for following the players I want to.

By the way a fantastic game, they won 32-8

Hi Chris, another fine series. Thanks for the info on focus type chosen - I'm new to R series and still trying the options.

Concerning the WB, get a WhiBal and chuck it on the gym floor before the game. Zoom way in. It gives white, gray, black reference you just key off in Lightroom or Bridge or ACR, and apply to the whole series. Works like a charm.