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Post Processing: Basketball Images

Lesson 27 from: Taking the Fear Out Of Low Light Photography

Jared Polin

Post Processing: Basketball Images

Lesson 27 from: Taking the Fear Out Of Low Light Photography

Jared Polin

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Lesson Info

27. Post Processing: Basketball Images

Lesson Info

Post Processing: Basketball Images

All right, here we go. First off, how do you guys think the results turned out from being there? Some of you were there. Really? Well, good. Yeah. Good. Absolutely good loved it. All right. Good job, guys. Thank you. Here we go way. Have him up on the screen. This is this to me is very good. One five hundredth of a second. It have three point two four thousand. Eso won seventy millimeters at the seventy two with the seventy, two hundred. This is what I'm looking for. Trevor got caught flat footed here. We could see that he's flatfooted and harlow is going to go around them. This is a great place where the ball is. You could see the movement, you can see the defender in there. This is as tight, almost a size that can be without having tio to say that you would want a crop. I like this shot and it works better in color. This is ok. I like to see the ball or to have more context, but of course, keep in mind. That this was just made up we didn't have an actual game going on so when the gam...

es going on it's a little harder to follow the play but you have to follow the ball around there's going to be more people on the court so there could have been a defender in her face trying to block the shot and in that way I may have had a different composition or a different thing to capture but this is okay thiss will show you that she's frozen in the air right there this is almost peak action it is peak action I think she's at the top of her jump s o so that works for that and that's how atlanta how she landed while a fadeaway shot not so much don't like it so you don't like it should be cropped or should be shot tighter I should say yeah, not so good there but they're here with the defender shots this is good I like seeing the defender in here and if you're gonna isolate just harlow on the on the floor coming up the floor you want to make sure that the ball is in a great place because there's some shots up here where the ball is on the floor and it kind of looks awkward when when you're doing that so keep that in mind but when you're shooting you're not just motor driving in sports there was one of the early motor drives that came out with the nikon maybe it was an f three I believe it was during one of the olympics maybe was eighty four when the skater what was her name? Hamel? Was it hammel? Dorothy hamill anybody? The hammel camels, you that's what they would call it when she did the spin, there was a photographer that just started to unload rapid fire on her spin and guess what happened with every single photo? What do you think happened? They were in focus. The guy got her back every time it was timed in such a way that every time the shutter went because I don't know how he frames a second it was it was at her back, so he missed every shot because he's like I'll just rely on the motor drive. So it's still part of that anticipating the action there's no reason to motor drive through most of this stuff just feel it. You see that the balls in the hand bam as they start to turn the corner you saw me run around the floor. I think when we did this run around the floor as I turned, look for that action, same with hockey as they turn around the dots in the circles that is a great motion where they're at, so I like this shot same thing going and look she's pushing off she is really good she knew what she was doing. She was pushing off in the ref didn't call it and we called one found I only called one foul during the game harlow did it and by the way I was wrong. You should have been shooting too because you were in you were already shooting. It shouldn't have been one in one. All right, I'm sorry. It was a bad call. I verified it with my dad this morning. I like these. I think this is too high up in the air. I think he needs it to bring the frame down lower. Also shooting this horizontally would fill the frame. Mohr on get harlow in there as trevor is turning the corner with his left hand. That's pretty good. We've got a lot of the action going on. She's reaching over there. This is cool she's about to go up for the block that's filled that's tight that's really? I like that you guys have any questions while I'm doing this? Is this pretty good? All right? And by the way, I'm not going to sit here and edit these because they're all going to be very similar it's the same thing and that is that's pretty good when it comes to editing because the lighting hasn't changed the edit they're pretty much going to be the same every single time maybe some subtle tweaks here and there depending on where they are out on the floor and if the lights aren't hitting them from up above so that's why I'm not really there's no need to go in and edit these because we're focusing in on on the composition in the action so this is during the free throw if it's loud in there you can take pictures during the free throw if it's silent in their wait till after the shot goes off because you don't want to be distracting the shooter that's for the people with the big foam hand to do this in the background can you guys see like is this distracting over the backboard so this is cool the balls a little too high there but it's still fine here there we go there's your horizontal right there that's cool and again you would have more people on the floor defending and we were just making this up on another thing that I noticed look at the light coming in in the background that was throwing me off in a couple of shots let me see if I have the not good ones here because as you look into the background doesn't it become more distracting to have that garage door with the bright light so that may be a good reason to sit where we were sitting and shoot that way, so we're not shooting that way unless it's dark at night. If it's at night, then you don't have anything to worry about, but where you sit may come down to what the situation is. I haven't seen a gym with a garage door in it like this that was clear, but it was there. So what that's going to change your settings the other way? If you're sitting on the other side of the floor, you have all of this extra phil light coming in it's going to be much brighter because it's not just using the lights that are up above all of these things you need to keep in mind when you're shooting, I would put this at my back. I'm going to get better contrast with this daylight coming in from outside than I am with like that are up in the sky. This is pretty good, so that's, just something that I saw in the background that I thought was distracting not a good shot, but not a good shot because of me, it's just that you're going to get shots like this where you don't get the face, I'm always looking for the face oh, well, that wasn't a good shot, that's why wasn't starred now that I'm back into not all of those, this is cool it could be a double dribble he may be coming over the top on that or taken too many steps again but that's a really good action shot I'm very happy with myself with that one I'm going to look at it now that's cool because harlow is fully in and you could see that she's playing defense is my separation between both of them trevor's going to the basket really cool action shot I like that one a lot not as much because you see the difference here trevor's faces up jervis faces not up that's a winning shot you don't have control of this all the time that's why you shoot when they come down and you focus on doing certain things if people are asking about different lens choices you like I said spend a quarter focusing in on just tighter shots of them coming up the floor if there's a c also when you're shooting youth sports, one of the teams may be really terrible so all the action maybe at one side or the other so you may want to find out which side is going to have more action and hang out down there so that you can get the shots that you need all of these mentalities or things that go through your mind or go through my mind that should go through your mind when you're trying to capture the best images not as good, but still ok going up cut the ball off, they're not a big deal could go a little wider on the twenty seven millimeters twenty fourth could be cool and also if I broke out the fourteen millimeter it would be very difficult there won't be too many shots but there's a lot of stuff that happens right under the basket where you can get some really good action some really good action shots with ones that have multiple subjects in it three four of the defender's going in there maybe there's one guy's going up for the shot or the girls going up for the shot you've got somebody trying to block you've got somebody moving this way, you got somebody crossing this way, it causes a really cool image to show up when you capture it like that look for those different action shots cause isolation is good, but action shots really tell a cool story. This was when we were just running up and down the floor just trying to play with that. This is good action that's a good frame that's filling the frame as much as you can without having to crop I can live with this one all day without cropping either this was when we were doing suicides five hundredth of a second, right three point two four thousand s so where every camera can pretty much handle it and we're frozen right here in time once it loads once it loads there we go right off the floor frozen I think that's what most people are trying to figure out how to do and that's that's what we did then that's what we did questions from you guys out there no I have a couple more images here and then we'll we'll go back to rust so that's feeling the frame let's keep going then we then I tried to focus in on the wider shots that's all right but uh that's cool I like that one it's cool yes it's good I think it could be better this is where I talked about knowing that the subject the players air left handed or right handed as they get older they get better going up with layups with either hand so that could change but yeah it works I would love to see more more of the face but if there were defenders here and there would be more action I still have the basket in there so you see the context of where the ball is hoping to go that's important that's all right as a terrible fate away that probably missed those was at an air ball oh yeah all right did you just fade away no I thought I was shooting like I don't I thought she was shooting for that basket tonight oh then you realize that you had the ball all right? This is good. Well, no, not super good. I rather have his face up there in there. But in terms of composition framing, getting him on all in there is better. See you see how he's rounding the corner here that is rounding it to come to the net or to drive the net right there. That's the angle. You see, it's just pretty cool. The background light not so much distracting here, it would have been more if I had the garage door in the background. I think it would have been a total distraction and ruin the image, but that came through really, really well, this is thick and nice contrast. I love this because I've seen so many people have so much trouble shooting in a gymnasium and keep in mind in a gymnasium. It's, not just basketball. And I know I mentioned this earlier, but it's not just basketball, there's, indoor soccer, there's, indoor tennis and that's a hard thing. And volleyball is one of the hardest things to shoot. This is these are the settings for voluble that I would shoot in a gym, maybe even try to go two six, fortieth of a second, if not more, because basketball is very hard to follow and they're very tall generally. You have a lot of other things that happen in janie's. Um, so it's, not just basketball, you got to take everything that I'm teaching here and apply it to everything else. I applied a lot of this stuff today with the kid running around new I wanted that faster shutter speed fuzz on the table, it always it distracts me. This is all right. I wish that the ball was fully in there, but it's a really nice it's a nice moment, it fills the frame very well, and then we moved on to the side of the force. Anybody think about doing this when I was out there shooting you guys all weren't there, but this is something to think about when you're on the bench, but this is where you dropped the sharp speed. We went toe one one twenty fifth of a second at three point to a two thousand we went from four thousand to two thousand, so what did I do here? I stayed at three point two, but the only thing I changed was the shutter speed here throughout a one one twenty fifth of a second, they're not moving on the bench, what's something that you want to do, what autofocus motor we're gonna get into, we're gonna get into single now because they're not moving on the bench this action happens all the time you have the coaches you have the players, the zahra winning shots, these air shots that parents are going to love if you're trying to get shots of the entire team if you get each one of the kid on the bench they look this way they look this way all game because there's always action going on so find these frames find these compositions and sit there on the baseline and get those not on the base and get to where you can be to shoot those shots then bring out what I was talking with her I was making her smile so we have that and that works very well that's a beautiful shot composition wise I don't like it so much I should have had her off to the side a little bit more all right that's calling myself out but then hey, I did it on the next frame say self critiquing in my own mind as I'm shooting I love doing these especially if there's two friends on the bench you know you get or their brothers or sisters or whoever's playing siblings you have one of them out of focus with the other it leads you in or the parent is the coach and the parents in the background out of focus hopefully not yelling at somebody with the kids smiling or into the action in the foreground those air the images that people hang on their wall that they that they love almost on a few more like that like this you look really good here traffic did you get a haircut? No, you didn't it looks like your hat. You have great hair. Give me a bieber flip there it is that's a cool shot oh, by the way, I self critiques my self did it here I didn't like this composition as much but I thought that one felt a little better so that's why I made that quick change and then that was just one of those happy things that happened like it was well she wide angle so went to seventy millimeters and I have the whole bench that's a really good shot that's like an advertisement for oh come on give me something that's good for now and advertise could be an after school special I'm not going to come up with anything right now so that's what? I have russ let's go to questions well, let us do that indeed, that is a great idea let's see k medina wonders does focusing on the chest tend to lead to missing focus on the face? Well, that's what we talked about during the shoot didn't way let's say in something like this I don't think it really I've been doing that for years and I don't think it really you don't miss that often, and then don't forget how far resumed in look at this square box up here, that's showing you that were one to one, and it and it works, because, look, this looks to everything looks to be on the same plane. The seattle, to her face is pretty darn close. Also, I went to three to that gave me a little bit more leeway. Sometimes I do worry about it, but when you're further away at a distance, it really all ends up being on the same plane. It's. Not like we're shooting at one point eight, and we're this close to their face because no one, you're further away. You have a little bit more leeway there to get away with it.

Ratings and Reviews

Rusty Shinault
 

I'm a huge fan of Jared Polin; love his humorous and relaxed style of teaching. I love that he's passionate about photography, and that he is willing to share his experiences, opinions, and knowledge. I really enjoy Creative Live classes, and really enjoyed watching Jared teach in front of a live class. Hope to see more of Jared teaching on your platform.

user cf5d2d
 

Jared did not disappoint! He shared his knowledge of composition, exposure, and capturing the moment - all while engaging his audience and keeping things light and fun. I absolutely LOVE when how he sets up his equipment so that we can see each snapshot he takes, and then tells us why it's a good shot or why it's not a keeper. It's so easy to learn that way. I'm a second grade teacher (a.k.a. an educator) who, thanks to Jared can call myself a photographer. Jared is a photographer who is also a great educator!

a Creativelive Student
 

I've seen a few CreativeLive sessions and this was one of the best. It was very unique and engaging I liked the onsite shooting and review and critique. I have done teaching and I know how hard it is to teach WHILE you are doing and I think Jared did a great job of balancing that. I'm quite familiar with his FroKnowsPhoto podcast and website so I knew what to expect and both HE and CreativeLive EXCEEDED my expectations. Thanks much also for letting him use use studio for Raw Talk on the Road (my suggested name for it), I could see a real opportunity for CL to provide access to their facilities for others wanting to record training, etc.

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