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Tips for Photographing Basketball

Does this sound familiar? “Can you take a few pictures of my son/daughter’s high school basketball game?” Or, perhaps one of your own is out there on the court but you have little or no experience with this type of action photography? Here are some tips that will help increase the number of “keepers” along with samples I have taken for a New England prep school in my town. 

Lighting and Camera Settings

The light in high school gyms, especially older ones, will require using a high ISO setting of ISO 1600+ and lenses at their widest apertures to get a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. That is, 1/125 second as a minimum with 1/250 and faster whenever possible. Using 1/60 second typically produces some blur of faster movements but this can sometimes be effective in conveying a sense of motion. Just a few years ago, ISO settings of 1600+ would have produced a snowstorm of noise. But today’s DSLRs are delivering much better results. In addition, there are now many effective noise reduction programs such as Nik’s Dfine, Noise Ninja, Imagenomic’s Noiseware Professional, or DeNoise from Topaz Labs.

As for color balance, it is not uncommon to encounter a mix of warm and cool light coming from overhead fixtures and even some daylight through windows or skylights. While a custom white balance off a neutral card taken on the court may seem like the best choice, I prefer Auto WB (auto white balance). The custom approach locks in one white balance level and does not provide for possible variations across the court. Still, you might find the need to do some color correction later in the computer. 

The best auto focus choice is “Continuous AF” (C-AF) which on most DSLRs means the focus will constantly change in response to a moving subject. This is provided you keep the shutter release button half depressed and the AF marker in the viewfinder is kept on the subject. Depending on the camera model, there is also a dynamic form of C-AF in which the camera is able to more precisely maintain focus on a moving subject. Check your owner’s manual to see what form of continuous focus your DSLR can deliver. Super high frames per second (fps) rates such as 8-10/fps are certainly a plus but I find that a burst of 3-6 /fps shots is just fine for most situations. Also, remember the old adage among sport shooters: “If you see a great shot in the viewfinder during a series of fast exposures, you have missed it because at that moment the mirror is down for viewing and not up for the exposure.” 

Shooting Positions and Lens Choices

If you check out a college game on TV, notice that the photographers are near the court line behind the basket. Most referees will not bother you taking such a position in a typical high school game as long as you do not get right under the basket. That’s where players driving to the hoop could end up in your lap. Also, coaches don’t want you anywhere near their benches. Focal lengths between 50mm to 85mm are good choices along the basket line to get anything from full body compositions to tighter waist up captures as the players come nearer to you. One of photography’s best and least expensive fast lenses is the 50mm f/1.4. Using this lens wide open should allow you to photograph at 1/250 second or faster over an ISO range of 1600 to ISO 3200 in most gyms. Also, remember that if you are using a camera with a sensor smaller than 24mm x 36mm, that “normal” 50mm is really a short telephoto. 

I typically use the following: a 50mm 1.4 and a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom in Aperture Priority when positioned along the court line as close to the basket as the refs will allow. It is also my practice to take a position at the corners of the court or at half court using a 70mm-200mm f/2.8 zoom. Some photographers prefer Shutter Priority but I want the lens locked in to deliver the minimum depth of field for maximum subject isolation from the stands. If I can get access to the court before the game, I will switch the camera to all-manual exposure based on a reading from a handheld incident meter. This is on a 12mp camera with a 24mm x 36mm sensor that delivers very low noise images at ISO 3200 and ISO 6400 for shutter speeds of 1/250 second and faster (See examples for specific settings). 

I press the shutter button half way to lock the C-AF focus on a player as soon as the action starts unfolding. Ideally, this is when that subject is filling at least 50% of the viewfinder. My preference is to then crop tight in Photoshop and still be able to print or publish an 8”x10” image @300dpi. I can even get fairly tight cropped shots of the opposite basket at 200mm from the opposite corner or at half court. If I am fortunate enough to be in a newer gym with even illumination and the same white balance fixtures, I will use a reading from X-Rite’s Passport http://xritephoto.com for a very accurate color management. This saves me having to do any significant amount of WB tweaking later. Finally, RAW capture is my preference because of the tremendous post-production control such as the ease of correcting for color temperature as well as such unique Photoshop raw file treatments as “clarity” and access to curves adjustment on a raw file. 

Composing the shot

Basketball is very much a predictable sport in terms of the players’ moves and that really helps when trying to compose. I played my share in high school and college and so I have a sense of the action. But anyone who has watched basketball over time knows that there are obvious patterns to the play on the court. For example, one of the easiest shots comes when players will seem to hang in the air while going for a rebound or taking a jump shot and also at the end of a layup especially if they are going to dunk the ball. In all three cases, once they begin such a move you have a reasonably good idea where they are going. Thus, you can anticipate the flow of the action and anticipation is really the key to all sport photography. 

Very important: I wait for the action to come to me rather then trying to photograph everything on the court. Basically, I am waiting for the players to come into one of my designated “picture zones” based on where I am and the distance from my camera. So, along with learning to anticipate what is happening on the court, there is the need to be patient. Typically, I take several different positions around the court during the course of a game. I also alternate from a standing position to kneeling or sitting down position and even occasionally hold the camera right on the floor for a low angle shot usually with the lens set at 35mm to 24mm. These different perspectives add variety to the body of pictures taken in each game.

The harder shots are those when players do not follow a pattern. For example during a collision at full speed or anytime there is a loose ball and players are after it. It is such unpredictable moves that are a real challenge but these are also the times when you can get something quite different. One final cautionary note: When the game really gets intense you may find it difficult to remain detached in order to completely concentrate on getting the picture. To this day, I still occasionally lose my concentration during such adrenalin pumping moments. So stay focused while taking full advantage of the superb automatic features in modern DSLRs. Finally, don’t forget the crowd’s reaction, especially at the end of an exciting game when they enthusiastically pour on to the court to congratulate their team. 

For more examples of Joseph Meehan’s sport photography, see: 

http://salisburyschool.smugmug.com/Athletics