re: sports shots

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can someone give me advice on shooting basket ball and swimming events...i currently use 400asa and a sunpak flash....can i use a telephoto lens with the flash? any other advice would be helpfull thanks

-- isabella (isabella@photos.com), February 08, 2000

Answers

You might get more response to this at http://photo.net/bboard/q-and- a.tcl?topic=photo.net since this is more of a general photo question. It would be even better to search the archives there.

I'm not into sports photography, but yes, you can use a telephoto lens with any flash unit. Just make sure you don't exceed the maximum rated distance for your flash unit. You can always extend the maximum distance with a more powerful flash, faster film or wider apertures.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), February 08, 2000.


I have to ask you, in what kind of arenas are you shooting basketball photos. High school gyms are notoriously dark and for some unexplained reason principals and coachs think that using flash to take photos will blind their players, resulting in permanent damage to their teams ability to win games. Colleges are more enlighten, especially if their teams have won a major tournament. With that said, my suggestion is to use T-Max 3200 at ISO 1600 and a fast lens, F/2.8 or faster. (I personally like the 85mm F/1.8) I use 1/500 as my shutterspeed. Another important aspect of this is your location on the court. I usually set on the right just behind the basket (if I get there first or the spot is available.) For swimming photos I like a 300mm, preferably with a real fast F-stop. this will get you out to the middle of the pool without alot of getting wet. (Note: the greatest sports lens is any 300mm F/2.8.) Hope this helps.

marcus J. Wilson

-- Marcus J. Wilson (marcus.wilson@dtra.mil), February 09, 2000.


Sunpak sell, or at least, used to sell, Telephoto adapters for some of their hammerhead type guns. For the Autozoom 3600, for instance, they supplied a rectangular affair, like a lens hood with a mirror finish on the inside. I think this narrowed the flash angle down to cover the field of a 100mm lens, and multiplied the GN by 1.4. It might be worth trying to get hold of one.

A lot of mid-priced flashguns are available with built-in variable angle these days, but again the narrowest angle is usually quoted as covering the field of view of an 85 to 100mm lens (on 35mm of course).

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 10, 2000.


Isabella, I have had a lot of luck shooting Fujipress 800 pushed to 1600. At time when needed you can even push it to 3200. As far using an on camera flash at indoor sporting events such as BB, most places do not allow it for fear that you might "blind" the players. Some photographers are able to sync into the flash strobes that are located above the floor. Hope this helps.

-- Ralph E. Foste (aspen4@home.com), April 26, 2000.

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