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Shoot: Basketball

Lesson 26 from: Taking the Fear Out Of Low Light Photography

Jared Polin

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Lesson Info

26. Shoot: Basketball

Lesson Info

Shoot: Basketball

So what you're going to see now as we went out to the basketball court on trevor was one of the basketball players and harlow was another basketball player and she was tremendous and I actually lost to her when I played, but my goal out there was to get the settings right because the scene isn't changing, the scene is not changing in there, the lights were all going to be the same. You're going to hear me talk about this again, but because the lights were the same, we can lock in our exposure in manual and all, we have to worry about his focus and composition and getting the shots that we need to get. So why don't we let that one role and get into the basketball playing mode? Okay, so we're now at a basketball gym that's, right? This is one of those situations that you get into where it's, low light and there's echo too there's no echo, you have to worry about echoes in your photos because we're not really shooting video. Well, we're shooting video, but so low like this is still consid...

ered low light situations go back five, six, seven years before a lot of people were shooting digital or even with the early digital cameras when they tried to shoot. In a gymnasium they got terrible results part of the terrible results were from the fluorescent or metal halide lights that they had up in the ceiling but the other parts where they just didn't understand what they're setting should be now today we don't have to be afraid of the eye so as much because we have the ability to bump that up for here but what are the key things we want to keep in mind when we're shooting say a basketball game now this is basketball could be volleyball it could be indoor soccer it could be any type of indoor sport or even dancer recital something that's taekwondo it could be something like that anything that you're shooting indoors in a gymnasium which is a ton of things this stuff holds true we know with basketball that they're going to be running so there's action you've gotta have a faster shutter speed when it comes to action and when we have to figure out what we want to do with it, what lenses are we going to use? What cameras are we going to use in this case? I'll probably break out the d thirty three hundred again but I also have the d six ten on here for the full frame nature of that so what do we want to think about when we're shooting this in here? What do we want to go to? We want to figure out what freezing action freezing action is one important thing that you want to do when it comes to this. If you were to leave your camera in aperture priority or shutter priority or auto mode, the settings they're going to be so thrown off a lot of times auto mode will take you and put you in, say, f five six or f eight, which means you're sharp speed's going like one one hundredth of a second and it's going to mess with your eyes. So that is not something that you want to worry about that's, why we're shooting all of this in manual and as you've seen in other shoots manual just makes things so much easier once you lock your settings in what what is this? Do all the whites look even in here to me? They look even they're not changing so again once you lock in and get your settings right, then you can focus on doing what you need to do, which is shooting the pictures and getting them right because composition is still important so let's, just get a base setting in here. If I had to guess back in the day I would shoot, say, eight hundred eight hundred speed film at about four hundredth of a second it's a three five was probably where I used to be so let's let's just guess that out three five what I say how many hundreds of a second eight hundred s so how many four hundred about let's see let's see if that even works so they're not moving but four hundreds of a second would end up doing it. Oh, great job. Great job that is one of the worst exposures ever. If anybody could never see that this is what it looks like it's horrible it's way, way too dark I messed up but that's what we do when we figure this out we see that it's way too dark and now we instantly know what do we need to do to make the corrections? So we're not gonna mess with shutter speed just yet because we know we want that four hundredth of a second because that's going to help freeze the action in the motion that we're going to do I could go from three five to say two point eight or we could just sit here and just bumped the I s o this is taking the fear out of it. We could go up to fourth a thousand in here at four hundredth of a second of three five the reason I like to shoot a three five and not always at two point eight is that it gives me a little more leeway with the focus especially for something like this so let's take another picture let's see how that works out and that's a heck of a lot better and if I paid attention to the meter right off the bat that is what it would have told me but this is something I don't mind taking those sample images and then figuring out what to do from there I like to visually see what's going on and yes, the meter is going to be good and now the meter is right in the middle at the proper exposure which were at four thousand s o four hundredth of a second at three five if I want to go to five hundredth of a second I could go to five hundredth of a second and go toe f three point two and we're basically going to have the same results there but did you see how we got the proper exposure in two shots that's pretty simple and you guys out there you can get the exposure right and I venture to say in three shots or less we did it took one shot it was so wrong so underexposed it wasn't even funny but by making a quick change to the eye so it got us right where we needed to be in two shots with one shot to spare right what question do we have that is thie shutter speed to freeze action what's the lowest you you need to go well a lot depends on what action it is in this situation in the old days, when I say old days, you know, when I was a kid, I used to think one twenty fifth was it that's tough? One twenty fifth of a second is very hard to freeze the motion, but that's, what we did in eight hundred s o at two eight shooting wide open in a situation like this, it depends where you capture the action. If they're shooting in the midst of shooting when they're jumping and they're there at the peak of their shot, you can freeze them a hundredth of a second, because if you get it at the peak action that's boom, you stop them before they come down. So that is that I like being at four hundredth of a second and being that we could be a tie. So for even with the d thirty three hundred with any camera on the market today, any new camera on the market today you have no problem being at four thousand s o and anything and I didn't talk about yet was glass yes glass, glass, glass, glass, glass that is one of the most important things that you can do. I mean, I have in the bag a thirty five one point eight that's a two hundred dollars lens can and makes a fifty one point eight, which is a one hundred nine dollars lens not very expensive but it's a faster piece of glass in terms of how much like they let in, I'm going to use my hebrew trinity my fourteen to twenty four, twenty four to seventeen seventy two, two hundred you can pick up a sigma a tamron they're not that expensive, but when you invest in quality glass, you're going to see that your results are going to be much better over time. And when you go ahead and sell that lens, you're going get almost as much out of it that you put into it so I've I've had enough talking are we ready to shoot? We're ready to just shoot. All right, can I get some lamps? Baseline baseline this is the bass line this is a good place to be when you're shooting a game on and usually it's sitting on your butt you know when you figure out what's going on continuous focus right now on one single focus that's not where I want to be I want to be in continuous focus and I want to zoom in and I may not end up using this lens. I may want something longer but um you ready? Here we go and I was a little late on their getting my zoom right let's ah let's see how we did well she's frozen that's it it's pretty good I just have to be quicker on the on the gun all right and hold it hold it go for it boom and another thing the notices that she's coming in on c how's that look good look good looks good that's a little too soon I mean this all comes down to getting the settings right and then figuring out what to do from there can you come in from this side now not normally normally or not to be able to tell the basketball players where to go but that's what we can do here all right come on in crash the basket boom boom very nice want one challenge that I have for you guys is tio focus on not rapid firing not spraying and praying too much for this I want you to anticipate with one shot one single frame to try and get what you're shooting I'm going to switch right to a seventy two two hundred for this because I think that's going to give me a better look than what I'm getting with this twenty four to seventy so I'm switching off to that not that I got this you guys want to play a little one on one real quick all right so they're going to play a game just so I can figure out what to do from here because I'm just going to let it happen I'm going to sit back down here and just let them go and do their thing because we already have our settings locked in and you see that I don't even take a shot there because I didn't. This is much tighter, so why don't we go when we go down to centre court and just drive towards the basket as if you would? You don't have to defend him too hard, I'd like him to get by. We'll go good. See that house right there. As he turned as he turned the corner, I got a cool shot with the bounce it's not the best you can see with a shot like this. Where? She's out of focus and it's drawing right in on him. That's. A really good shot. All right. Let's, let's go this way as well. Crossover dribble going to the basket puts it up and let's see how our results looked. That's, that's really good that's. Really good balls on the floor that works out that's really good to all right. So aa lot of this is just figuring out the action stuff. We have the lighting set and like I've said before, once the lights are set. Once you're that's not going to change, none of this is changing so now you just get to focus on shooting a game and it's not as easy as me just sitting here and saying run up and down the court a couple times it's about a matter of feeling it out as we go on so no matter what, what sport you're shooting it's good to get a feel for playing that sport if you understand basketball or you understand hockey or taekwondo you know where the action is going to happen so you plant yourself in a location and you try to own that location until until you get what you need I see a lot of people shooting look we have stands over there if you're a parent get off the stands especially if you're going to shoot photos get into position that is a real photographers position not on the stands with the rest of the crowd that's just not where you want to be when you're shooting something like this get into position at the baseline is great in the corners coming up the floor and just stay out of the way don't yell it the rest don't yell at the kids when you're shooting this close there's no cheering from the baseline you could cheer from the stands but you can shoot from the floor that's really what it comes down to all right let's do that again let's see what we come up with here all right all right. Just let let's do some shots from uh from inside that about the foul line but right about there hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it on and go for it. All right, hold on one second. I mean, I'm happy I'm happy with the results that we're getting so far this is good. I go for it all right let's drive that let's drive the net again so play play a couple points and you got to take it back to the top of the top of the half court to get it back good defense not bad I'm happy with that. I like those results so here I'm looking for the he's going around the edge I think you got him on the risks shoot one she wanted one right there on the risks you get him on the wrist you did see she admits it it's good that she admits she got him on the wrist. I saw that. Hold on, hold on say, I'm sure I'm scooting over here from the s fallon move up a little bit there you go so foul shots you want to be careful about um you want to be careful about foul shots because you don't wantto click the shutter if it's silent and somebody's around you don't want to interfere with the guy shooting or the girl shooting that's just common courtesy like in golf you don't wantto hit one during the backswing you don't shoot you know all right, here we go let's go again. All right, that looks good. Is it my turn yet? I think it's my turn see, I think I got her down she goes she goes to the right she's right handed right exactly figuring this out here we go now I know I have an afro but that doesn't mean I'm very good at basketball hockey has always been the case you're ready? I'm going play I'm gonna play you can I play you know, in boots to all that's great d she's got good d where am I supposed to go here this way or this way all that was a terrible shot I deserved to be oh, that was a terrible shot. All right, I'll play dionne wants europe that was great defense. You know what you're doing? Uh okay, that was good. That was good. I knew you're going to go to the left though, so do it. Getting a feel for the game is what it's all about. I've watched basketball. One of the first things I ever shot was basketball in high school and junior high schools so that's tiring here take that back I don't want to run anymore I'm going to switch lines is back to the twenty four to seven because there's a lot more action that goes on underneath the basket here we go all right let's play again you two and then we'll we're just shooting a little wider because we got the tight shots down now we want to get a little bit wider uh double dribble just a little bit so here's here's the thing to keep in mind when you go and start shooting wider if the action is happening up by the by the foul line it's most likely not going to fill the frame you want to fill the frame as much as possible so there's a trade off you use the long land seventy two hundred when they're breaking up down the floor around the basket is where you switch over to a twenty four to seventy but what my suggestion is that for something like this you shoot the first quarter with a long lens you shoot the second quarter with a wider lens and then you just figure out which one you should put on during the game based on the type of game that it is if you're going for the action around the floor around the around the key that's what you're looking for so that's why we're gonna shoot with the wider stuff that's good there you go let's let's go again and I think those do look pretty good too she's got good d almost there's some good stuff in here too so let's switch over to the er shall we switch over to the thirty, three hundred now I don't want to either and nobody and any questions while we're here questions questions, questions nothing at all yes we got a question over here you want to capture some would you just slower your shutter speed and then also lower your eyes so at the same time you can't do that contain the same adventure you can also work on panning panning it so you can get a slower charge me to contract them as they come that's where you want to stand over here as they're running up and down the floor then you're able to pan and go like this to try to get a shot at the slower shutter speeds it takes a lot more practice because you're you're moving your aperture up, you're slow on your shoulder speed down to compensate for that and then you have to go and do stuff like uh tested out when you're shooting these guys and they're moving all across the screen are you constantly refocusing? Yeah that's a good question you mean moving the focusing point correct? Yeah, I'm I'm constantly moving the focusing points this is one of those things where because I manually change the focusing points you could get into they have in here in this nightgown they've got like dynamic area and then there's group focus on cannon has different group focuses a I serve on all that I'm moving it around, but I'm trying to focus as much on the baby on the chest or on the face because it's kind of be on the same plane when they're running up and down the floor the chest in the face or pretty close so that is one of things that I focus in on when I'm shooting because if if I put the focus at the top of the frame when they're standing there as soon as they go into a dribble they duck and you're going to miss it in the background so that's why I try to keep it just around here when they're running up and down the floor and that's in any sport whether it's soccer indoor soccer, whether it's, taekwondo, any of that stuff because if you try to focus in on the head you're and you're gonna end up missing it because it's just going to be all over the place because they're moving around good, we have another question. So my question is when they're running up and down doing the game and everything and we're got our exposure right? We got the action where does composition fall into this? I mean, you can't really tell him hey stood over there for the rule of thirds or whatever you're looking for well a lot of times when you're shooting sports the rule of thirds isn't going to apply during the action where that applies is if the players are on the bench that you have kids sitting on the bench there always looking down the floor so if you sit yourself right here and there on the bench looking this way towards the net you get such a nice profile shot of them now with something like that you don't have to be a four thousand s so you can drop your eyes so down you can slow your shutter speed down but just be cognizant that if you turn from shooting somebody on the bench to shooting the action that your shutter speeds not at sixty eighth of a second when it should be at four hundredth of a second but composition is everything when it comes to photography is all about composition the focus here when I'm shooting is I try not to cut off the limbs when we're running down the floor my goal is not to shoot their back right if they're running up the floor that's just a waste of a shot there's no reason to take it but if they're coming up the floor and in their mid dribble you try to get you know what I'm going to I'm going to take the ball and I'm going to show you I'm going to demonstrate this boom thank you there's things like this so a lot of times they start up here you're gonna have players all around the floor but in this case you know they're going to crash the net so they're going to come this way well I should dribble and not travel they're going to come this way and then they're gonna stop and they maybe they'll be turned like this but if they're gonna come this way you see how they turned like this and they squared up and if you're sitting here as I come around on the dribble that is a perfect point to get that shot and you try to get the whole body in there because that works you don't want to cut off limbs at the legs and stuff like that and it is harder to shoot tighter but one of the challenging things that I did when I first started was used a three hundred two point eight to shoot basketball it's a fixed lens I couldn't zoom it so I had to anticipate the action where it was going to be and that was somewhere right over mid court where I could fill the frame top the bottom because you're not going to be able to shoot under the net so that's you know composition it's a it's a feel for it fill the recommendation if you have the ball in there and you have multiple people in there that's cool action but with that said when you're shooting tighter a single person in the frame coming up the floor is great if there's a defender in there that's maybe five feet while two feet away from them here you want to come defend if she's sits standing right here and I'm right here she is defending this is a great it's a great type of shot you're using shooting over her shoulder you have most of me you have the ball, you have the eyes, you see what we're going to do then when it thank you, we're good and then when it comes to doing a wider shot underneath here that's where multiple people in the frame come into play because action sports isn't just isolating the subject it's also showing the action that's going on, so if I'm driving the basket and I'm going to go up for a shot and there's a defender here and I'm mid air and like running into the defender because they're blocking, well, then that's going to be a nice action shot underneath the basket. So when you're shooting sports, the main thing to remember at the very beginning is capturing the motion. Freezing the action is what you want to try and do now that's not the only way you can shoot sports shooting sports you can get motion, you can pan with the subjects, but once you master the action part first and freezing it, then I suggest getting the things after that so focused on freezing the action and then go from there. So what we're going to do now, I'm going to sit down here, everybody else is going to sit and shoot as well, but I'm just want to focus in on shooting here now that we have the basics and the fundamentals out, I want to get his many shots as possible to show you guys as examples of good shots, hopefully good shots and not so many not so good shot, so I'm going to put the young and toe work here, having them do maybe layup drills and run up and down the floor, maybe suicides and maybe at the end, I'll do a suicide with, you know, probably not not going to happen, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to do seventy two to hundreds, so what we're going to do, we'll call it suicides from the three throw line. You guys can sit if you want feel free to just sit and get ready. Um, so that's, where you'll start and then you'll go to that green line on the other side and you don't have to go all out. I don't you don't have to throw up that we're not going for that were just just run up the court back and forth um and I'll direct you from there so let me switch lenses I want to get on here the seventy two, two hundred because I'm having them at a further distance if you don't have a seventy two hundred that's all right for this we're going to do some laps stuff where we do the layup drills and we get the ball back out here but this is the best way to learn because don't you feel more confident now that we've locked in our exposures and now you don't have to worry about that it's one less thing to worry about it's like one less lonely girl in this world anyway all right let's let's come up this way so you're kind of in front of me and then start start here on the free throw line and they go up to the green line there and just go back and forth selling a plan all right go ahead so I'm not going to shoot them running this way because that's not a usable shot whoa they went really far boom boom boom I'm filling the frame see we're filling the frame top to bottom do we see that right here take a look that's good all right so they're coming back now I'm going to shoot him there we go I'm focusing on the chest which is perfect and we see I get him off the ground that that's a good shot no feet are on the ground which is cool all right very cool you want to dribble and do that? You tired do need water would you like me to take over? No, um just just dribble back you can run half speed that's fine, take your time but just you can go down that way and then just come back this way and I'm making you do laps again no laps just keep running, please. So now we'll get the ball in there the ball is so important and same thing with hockey or baseball having the action in there boom that works I'll make sure you keep your head up like you're going towards the basket the same thing as if you were actually gonna have a defender in front of us to make it seem like you're going to go towards the basket. Cool, perfect that's perfect see isar up that's what you're looking for when it comes tio to this the balls on the ground sometimes that you know you like the ball a little up higher but that works one more time for me and then we'll get back into something else yes see that time I was waiting until the ball was in her hand so that it wasn't see that much better than its it's in her hand instead of on the floor. So that works well, would you like to do some layup drills? Labs? They're fun, they're fun when you're good. I'm no good at this basketball thing. So I'm switching to the wider lens because I know that she's going to be around the basket. Um, and then well, and then we'll switch. We'll have you do lay ups and and things like that. So I want to go vertical for this for a minute. Actually, I'm going to switch the horizontal let's, see how it looks. All right. Good. And I was late. I didn't like that because I got most of her back one more time. I need I need to be earlier on that because I'm going for a wider shot with more actually. Boom, boom, boom. There we go. Much better. See that's? Yeah. That's. Why did if there was action going on here would be much better. Don't miss you, miss. You do laps. Ok. You should have said if I make it, you do laps, right? Would that have been better? All right, dad, one more here we go. And another thing to keep in mind is that they're both right handed. So I may want to sit on the other side if you know that your daughter or your son in the sport is playing a certain way, you know that they're left handed or right handed, you want it sit on that side, the opposite side because right handed means they're going to be going in for a layup here and the hand is going to be blocking their face, so that may be a better opportunity to stand over there. So, like in hockey, if they're playing right wing and there are right handed shot maybe shooting across the way, maybe a better opportunity to get them and that's a thing that people want to like taekwondo if there, if they if they punch with their right hand, well, you may want to switch sides now, of course they're going to rotate a lot, but it's, just those little things that put yourself in the right position to get this to get the shot are going to be better off for what we're doing so let's deal let's do let's come over this way and let's play defense? Or do you want to come in and try to score he's going to play defense and I'm going to do a wider shot, all right, go again, you can, you can go in and drive the basket this time. We'll see how he turned the edge you see a heads up, you see how he turned the corner right when he turned the corner it's like this type of action shot when he's going around the corner this lens of a little that's not tight as tight as I would like to be and I'm not going to crop so I'm going to switch back to the other lens just to do that I spend all game switching I do focus on trying to get the right lens on but it depends on what you're going for in this case we don't have an actual game going on or there would be more action around the base line the basket right switching lenses all right so now here's my focus what I want to see here are tighter shots where whoever has the ball and is going towards the net is in the frame with maybe the person in the foreground out of focus they're going to be out of focus and have three point five there's nowhere at three point to where I'm at so I want to try to fill the frame top to bottom shoes to hair with the ball in there and get some nice cool action shot all right? So we're going toe start from uh just start from the center would be fine yeah that's really good all he left his feet he left his feet see that there we go that's the action we're talking about right? Cnn there we go that that that's great action you see the defender and you also see that she's going around the defender? Yeah that's awesome right there he walked he traveled his feet moved hold on right there other way bringing it back it was that little stutter step you did plus I got a bad shot so it's my fault you're the ball was blocking your face let's go again just all making sense. Yeah, there we go. Look, not every shot is going to be perfect there's going to be times where the defender goes in front of your shot or the ball is blocking the face this is not you're not gonna get a perfect shot every single time but my goal when I set out to shoot is to get a handful of solid keepers every time if you get ten solid action shots from a nice tight shot or you get a nice head shot of them sitting on the bench and you have a nice story that tells fromthe wide to the medium to the type like I say all the time it's all about those photos stories if you can get those shots right and telling my story than ten keepers is a success from a night just don't overshoot overshooting is the death of everything yes, yes it doesn't cost you anything to shoot and fill it but just spraying and praying and not actually going for something isn't going to work out the best there's another shot that I talk about often and we talked about it with the last question that was asked on the bench is a great opportunity to get some pickup shots some great portrait's or they're kind of environmental portrait during action time during the game you have players sitting on the bench as the ball comes down the floor the kids on the bench always look towards the basket so we have the opportunity to get a really nice portrait keep in mind it's okay to walk around the floor you don't want to be a distraction but you're there to get awesome photos ask permission first if you really really want to as long as you stay out of the way when you're shooting I said this earlier if you don't share if you're shooting and you're on the floor you cannot cheer you are no longer a pair of me you're always apparent but you can't hear because you're a fan you're a photographer at that point so you can't be doing that breaking the rules so now that we're sitting here they're not moving there's no action going on so we don't have to be a four thousand s so again we're not afraid of that I also but we can drop it because we don't have to worry about them moving so first things I would do is read four thousand years so I'm just gonna go to two thousand nine s so that's two stops were at five hundredth of a second what's two stops yep two fiftieth down the one twenty fifth at three point two should be perfectly fine so you guys were watching a play right under the basket? Cool. I'm also and in continuous focus which I no longer need to be in because they're on the bench there not moving so now I'm back on the single and it's going to be allowed basketball place so you're not going to hear that be too much that's perfect right there. Okay, you're excited about what's going on underneath not that excited just smiling is fine there you go that's perfect way have that boom that's cool. Go ahead do again hold it and they missed all right, here we go there what's that oh, no, the agony of defeat boom! All right, so what? I'm also gonna work on here is going to shoot for arlo here head back towards the basket. I mean, I'm just a little more for me and yell ok, I'll take it takes step sit back just a little perfect in this case a museum in the front tio to be out of focus to draw us into the image and I'm leaving the rule of thirds going there because I think that works out well, I mean these are these are just simple grab shots but tell me parents don't love shots like that I got what I got hit the button see just stuff like that is that simple? So we're still watching what's going on and I don't like the wide shots as much like this, they just I'll just shoot one it's not it's, not terrible, but obviously you're gonna have stand your people in the stands are going to be cheering there's going to be more action, but these air great shots to keep in mind writes back under the basket boom all right, you're going in and I'm just kidding I was just playing around with you so that's just another simple thing I hope you guys understand that any questions based off of that at all? No, I think it's time to wrap it up pretty much from the gym it's not hard, like I said and you don't have to be afraid of this low light situation like we used to. Like I said, the cameras are very capable of shooting in almost any situation today it's just a matter of not being afraid to get out there and shoot and understanding that you take control of the camera by switching and emanuel and getting the shots that you're looking for we set everything up here in the camera ourselves off of one frame I did a terrible exposure to start, but by the second shot I got the exposure right, and basically once that's all set the lighting in here is even so we're going to get a pretty much the same exposure every single time we set out to shoot. We want the five hundredth of a second because that's going to freeze the action we shot around three to two three five, because that gives us a little bit of leeway with the focus if we need it and not everybody has two point eight lenses, but honestly, it's it's it's not that hard. Once you get the settings right and get rid of the fear that it's going to be hard to shoot inside this area, you're going to get some great shots because it's all about focusing in on the action and what you're trying to capture. So once you stop worrying about those settings and get them right, you're going to be good to go, so thank you guys over there for playing basketball. Thank you guys for sitting over here over here and asking questions and whatever you guys do and thank you guys out there for watching, I hope this one helped you out, so I'm going to throw it back to somebody else at the studio that was interesting. That was fun, the watch that was really good. What questions do we have from these people here? Before we get into editing, we got a few let's start with sam cox and there's, a good one to clarify with reaction time and shutter lag. Do you get good at action shots by working on anticipating when, say they'll be jumping or breaking left, right? Well, anticipate anticipating motion or the moment is the key to all of photography is understanding when to press that shutter button, and there is really no such thing as shutter lag. When it comes to the dsr lars, you're looking at forty milliseconds or less it's basically non existent, and I'll tell you that when I first started shooting basketball, the very first time that I went out and shot as a thirteen year old, I had a fuji discovery one thousand point shoot film camera that I sat down on a baseline because the baseline is over here for anybody does anyway for the baseline and that's where I sat and I shot a game and I had to get past this, this lag where I would press the button, then it would take the picture, but the moments were captured because I started to learn the difference between the time I press the button to the time it shot so with with any sport or anything that you shoot it's all about anticipating the moment and then capturing it? Well, I think that's a really good point to bring up, which is that as we're on day three here and we've shot a number of different subjects, you start to see the that kind of universality of the techniques where you're not really doing much different, from concert photography to basketball, to shooting in a gym to shooting a toddler now it's really the same techniques just over and over again and applied to different subjects. How many people have overcomplicated photography? How many teachers have overcomplicated it? Because they're trying to sell you on the fact that it's so over technical that they go so far beyond it, that you you just think you need to pick everything up that's out there the same thing with accessories, they try to sell you on accessories that are going to get you better pictures if you pick them up when it comes down to fundamentals. Do you understand the exposure triangle? Do you know your cause and effect what to do in each situation when something happens? If the light does this, I'm going to do this if the subject is moving, I need to do this with my eyes, sore, shutter speed or this is what I need to do. With my focus mode a mayan single or am I in continuous it's really just a few handfuls of of the basic information that once you get that down your focus goes right to taking those pictures ah and it doesn't need to be complicated it doesn't need to be more than what it is and again this something let's kind of start tying it back to other things golden once knew any issues with auto white balance in a gym like that you did mention the lights in the video okay no where you will run into an issue is in the older jims that have the sodium this metal allied with sodium vapor lights that air purple over here and pink over here you will get a weird color cast you could in this situation just lock in your white balance toe one single white balance and just stick with it and then worry about tweaking it later if you want but but it would you could sit there said it once and then said it and on ly one guy gets it all right thank you ah angie how do you prevent motion blur again same thing set your shutter speed where it needs to be and then compensate with I so everything else falls into place start with the shutter speed you walk into this situation and I know we've talked about it over the past couple of days for anyone that missed the first a couple of days when it comes to whatever situation you're in, you have to know I am shooting an action sport, so that means it will be faster in turn, cause and effect fast moving sport, I need a faster shutter speed in order to have a faster shutter speed, I need to bump my eyes so in certain lighting situations, especially all the ones that we've done in low light. So those are the first two things that you worry about and then you bought, you know, you get your aperture to where you need it, it's those basic settings and then shooting that helps you get those results. The questions from here in the room, I didn't ask when we started. Yes, the problem when you are shooting basketball or or sports specifically, are you looking for color images black and white, or you just feeling out each one as you go generally swell? Generally speaking, I think you're gonna see a lot more color, but in the photo journalistic aspect of it, I used to shoot the philadelphia flyers. I used to shoot black and white film when I went out there because it gave it a different look everybody was shooting in color, that's what everybody did for sports illustrated and everything like that, I just thought that why not throw some offered thirty, two hundred speed film in there? You want talk about grain? That is the greatest thing that you could use, but I love the effect I was getting I love the thickness of the black and white images that were captured if some of these images maybe the images on the bench looked better in black and white action shots probably are going to look better in color if it's there, but then the details and other things like that will we'll work in black and white or details black and white wonderful a couple questions specifically about sports shooting because that's what we were just doing, austin t has a couple what can you do slash who would you talk to to be cleared to be on the floor and then also would it be okay to bring a friend to help move and protect you during play while your eyes here and there are big people running towards you? It's a good question and I've gotten knees in the face by chicago bulls players I had the pleasure of shooting along the baseline when the sixers were tower terrible. Well, actually it was during the allen iverson year, so they weren't that bad, but the bulls at the time were really bad, so I got a credential to sit down on the floor and what an amazing place to shoot but protecting yourself? I don't really think that you bring somebody to protect you, that's. Just one more person you have to get permission for you try not to get run over. I got run over twice and I thought it was awesome because I became part of the game. I mean that's great. You sit there and you get run over that's. Great. So who do you talk to? Well, one talk to the coaches, but more important than anybody else, talk to the officials. Let the officials know what you're doing and let them know. Look, I am being a photographer today I will not be cheering on the baseline. I will not be cheering when I'm in a place where I shouldn't be cheering that is what the stands therefore you can cheer in the stands and you, khun rip on you shouldn't rip on the officials my dad's hockey sorry, my dad's a basketball raft, my brother's, a basketball ref and I wrapped hockey and baseball. You don't want give them too much crap that's one way to get kicked off the court really quick, but have respect for the game have respect for the officials in the players. If you were the photographer, your job is the shoot photos, so as for permission of the officials first and foremost most of time, they could tell you can't use flash, so that's why in the low light situations you have to figure out what to do there. Where's the best place for me to be? Is it all right? If I'm here? You know what? Maybe I'll get some photos of you guys running up and down the court so that you can have them because not many people focus on the officials and it's funny how many things again are just universal's no flash in the game, no flash of the concert way have larry, who is saying I would love it if you can speak to those that can only be up in the stands versus on the floor when that be similar to shooting from the board? Yeah, well, obviously you have to make it happen, so if you're only able to shoot from the stands, find an interesting angle, pick a place and here here's a good standard photo, you have those ones that pull out in the gymnasiums so that first row is pretty low along the floor. If that is where you're stuck to were relegated the first three or four rows, I think you're still going to get fantastic shots now you're not going to do it with the fifty millimeter lens. You need to be prepared with a longer piece of glass. If you're further away and then that's a great question to really change it up, because if you are forced to shoot from the stands, all the same rules apply in terms of your settings. But you need a longer piece of glass, and if you're saying, sitting at center court, I think that gives you a great way to shoot the defenders defending the players going to the basket. So that's your focus there, there's, the verticals, there's, the horizontal calls for anybody who says that I didn't say it during the basketball thing. You, khun, sit at center court, even along the first two rows, and then shoot down and get those angles. So, yeah, good question.

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.

Student Work

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