When I saw this photo on the camera's LCD screen I was so excited. I knew it was the best I was going to get all day. It's one of those photos where I felt like I was only going to ruin it in postproduction — but hopefully I didn't?
Personally I love the lighting, which was a huge system more appropriate for lighting cars in studio. Downsides are the cut off arms from view (I think?) but I'm also not well versed in sports photography. It also took me a long time to decide on the best crop, but I think this is it.
Looking for people's thoughts on it overall. Thanks!
Looks good. Background is a little distracting, could you have shot a larger aperture? Did you try any with slower shutter speeds?
This was with a 24-70mm f/2.8 at 2.8, so I was wide open. The other settings were all cranked since this was at a Sony a9 media event and that generally involves a lot of unnecessary camera settings in order to actually test high ISO and whatever. So this was also at ISO 8000 and 1/5000 s for no real reason.
Looking back on all the images I shot it was clear that the backgrounds were one of my biggest issues. I guess I know now that indoor sports plus wide angles don't mix unless you are gifted with interesting backgrounds.
Lucky dog getting to go to that event. Totally true about the backgrounds. They can either help tell the story, or kill an otherwise great photo. This is a photo I took last week, where I tried to make the background work for me. Showing the players team/school on the bright sign, and the opposing team's banner in the crowd to tell the complete story, without even needing to see any other players in the scene. It's only the 4th B-Ball game I've shot, so I'm still experimenting. Sorry for the little banner across the image, it's the only version I had on my phone.
On a partly cloudy day outdoors this shot would be mint, but the background is too distracting for this to work. I’m surprised that at f/2.8 you can still read the banner in the background. Would of thought the bokeh would be better.
This is the right idea though to go low and capture the excitement in a different way. I applaud you for doing that. Just watch your backgrounds.