I recently photographed the Austin Toros, a D-League team for the NBA. I felt like I got some good shots, my favorite being an “in your face dunk” by former Duke player Lance Thomas. After I posted the pictures I got a few questions about the settings I used and any tips I may have. Here are some of the details about how I took these shots; hopefully you find them useful.
CAMERA
I have a Nikon D90 with a MD-80 battery pack. Unlike some cameras, there is no increase in FPS with the battery pack, but I like shooting vertical without having to contort my arm to do so. I believe that you don’t need a top of the line expensive camera to produce professional looking pictures, but sports photography is one place where those cameras give a huge advantage over the consumer level cameras (like my D90). From the full frame sensors, which give a better crop factor, better sharpness and less noise to the increased frames per second and more granular settings the more expensive cameras can offer invaluable advantages during fast moving action. Having multiple memory cards is a MUST.
GLASS
Choosing the right lens plays a big role in enabling you to get great sports shots. I knew ahead of time that I would be shooting the Toros basketball and Texas Stars hockey games the same weekend so I rented a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 from borrowlenses.com. I have used them twice and they are great, I totally recommend them. The 24-70 was a great focal length for behind the glass hockey photography. It is a FX lens but will work on a DX camera like the D90.
From the baseline near the free throw lane I quickly noticed that shooting at 24mm horizontally was not allowing me to get all of the action from the floor to the rim in the shot. I don’t think this would have been an issue with an FX camera.
The rest of the game I shot vertical when the action was on my side of the court.
BE EARLY
Unless you do this all the time you never know what to expect when when you show up to the arena. I suggest being there 90 minutes prior to tip off. In my case I spent about 20 minutes at will call while they tracked down my media pass. This will give you time to get oriented, set your camera up and get in position when the game starts. In my situation I was the only photographer on the baseline so I was able to choose my spot. If you do shoot NCAA or NBA games you will likely be assigned a spot where you must stay the whole game but in the case where you can choose your spot the early bird gets the best spot.
SHUTTER SPEED, APERTURE AND ISO
Shoot in manual mode. Unlike outdoor baseball or football games your shooting conditions will not be changing. Your biggest variable will be the speed of the players. When you arrive early some players will likely be warming up on the court giving you a chance to take a few test shots and figure your settings out. I suggest keeping your aperture wide open. Shallow depth of field is pretty standard in professional sports shots and getting more light in is more important than a few extra feet of DOF. Even professional arenas are not real bright so you will need to bump up the ISO to stop the action. Shoot the players as they drive to the basket or shoot a jumper, zoom in on your LCD screen and look for any motion blur. If you see some raise your shutter speed and ISO until everything is frozen.
The first few test shots
ISO 800, f-3.5, 1/125
Then I made a few Changes
ISO 1250, f-2.8, 1/640
Knowing the speed would pick up a little more I chose ISO 1600, f-2.8, 1/800 for the rest of the shots. I probably could have gotten away with some lower settings but I didn’t want to risk having blurry shots. Once the game starts check your first few shots and make sure there is no blur and adjust accordingly if needed.
COLOR AND WHITE BALANCE
Unless you enjoy spending unneeded time in post set a custom white balance. Since you are shooting indoors you don’t have to worry about dynamic lighting conditions. There are many products to help you set a custom white balance. I am a fan of the X-Rite Colorchecker Passport.
It’s durable, portable and can help you set a correct color profile per location in addition to a correct white balance. It only takes about 30 seconds to do all of that discretely since it’s about the size of a wallet.
FOCUS AND FPS
The exact terms may vary with some brands or even models but the concepts are the same. You might find varying opinions but these settings worked well for me.
– Shoot in high continuous mode so you can shoot a burst of continuous shots at the cameras top frames per second setting.
– Set the focus mode to continuous. The camera continuously changes the focus according to the subjects movements as long as the button is half pressed.
– Set the to AF area mode to dynamic area. Some cameras will allow you to set the number of AF points used in this mode. This will also allow you to move the focus point using the multi-selector button on the back of the camera. What about 3D tracking? What the difference between 3D tracking and dynamic area mode? In dynamic area mode you choose the starting point to focus, once focus is obtained the camera tries to maintain focus on the selected point. If the selected point goes out of focus the camera will check the surrounding points to attempt to guess if the subject has moved and may use one of those to keep focus. In 3D tracking mode the camera uses the RGB metering sensor to attempt to follow the subject around the frame.
– Set the center focus point to wide zone. This will give you an advantage when trying to get a focus lock on a moving object.
You will develop your own style on when to track the ball or focus off the ball, that is where the real fun starts. If you arrive early and take care of all of your settings before the players come out it will set the mood for the rest of the game. You don’t want to be fumbling with ISO and white balance settings after tip off. Most of all have fun. Unless you do this professionally this is likely the best seat you have had at a basketball game but be sure not to get caught up as a spectator, you are there to take pictures.
