The Sports Photo Guy

Reviews, Technique, Portfolio, Prints

The Sports Photo Guy header image 2
← →

Camera Settings – Basketball (D300)

January 13th, 2008 · 26 Comments

To complement the article on the gear I pack for basketball season, here’s a rundown of the shooting and custom settings I use for that sport on my D300.

Only settings that differ from default are shown below; settings in bold, explanation in regular type:

Shooting Menu

  • Quality: JPG Normal - Really more than enough quality; I find the D300′s out-of-camera JPGs are just about perfect.
  • Image Size: L – Make every pixel count!
  • JPEG Compression: Size Priority – I’ve found that the ‘Quality’ setting can affect high-speed shooting so I try to avoid it now.
  • White Balance: Auto A2/M2 (varies by location, of course)
  • Picture Control: Standard – I like this for sports, natural yet bright colors and decent skin tones.
    • Sharpening +6
    • Saturation +2
  • Color Space: Adobe RGB – Of course, be sure to convert your images to the color space appropriate for your output medium; most often this will be sRGB.
  • Active D-Lighting: Normal – Active D-Lighting is the bomb!
  • High ISO NR: Off – In-camera NR is better than the D200′s “cartoonish” look, but I still prefer NeatImage for high-ISO images.
  • ISO auto sensitivity control: On – Thanks to a Secret D300 High-Speed Auto ISO Trick, this is a very useful setting!  I allow ISO to float all the way up to 3200 depending on the lighting conditions.  Be careful about those lighted advertising panels that are found courtside in some venues; if they’re in the background, they will throw your metering off.

Custom Settings

  • a3 Dynamic AF area: 21 points – I sometimes use 51 points.  It’s kind of a toss-up for basketball; the action is fast and unpredictable enough to warrant 51 points, but the number of bodies in close proximity can make 51 points problematic at times.
  • d2 Viewfinder grid display: On
  • d4 CL shooting speed: 1 fps – I use 1 fps shooting for strobes, White Lightning UZ1600′s set to quarter power.  Normally, I now use a D90 with strobes and shoot the D300′s with arena lighting.
  • d10 MB-D10 battery type: FR6 – I keep a battery tray loaded with AA lithiums as a long-term backup power source.
  • e1 Flash sync speed: 1/250 (Auto FP) – Gives me maximum flash flexibility.
  • e2 Flash shutter speed: 1/30 – If I’m shooting shoe-mounted flash I will likely have a VR lens mounted (18-200).
  • e7 Bracketing order: under/meter/over – It only makes sense…
  • f1 Multi-selector center button
    • Shooting: Select center focus point – Especially with so many to choose from, I need to get back on center quickly!
    • Playback: Show histograms – I like my cameras to behave consistently with one another.
  • f3 Photo info/playback: On – See above.
  • f4 Assign FUNC. button: FV lock (button press) – Consistently use function button for this function.
  • f9 No memory card: Lock – Yes, I’ve shot games with no card (or no film) in the camera, so I always set this function!

Tags: Cameras · basketball

26 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Aqualung // Jan 16, 2008 at 10:56 am

    Chuck, thanks for this info. I’m gonna give Active D-Lighting a try based on your experience. Is there an impact on FPS rate?

    I recently starting using Neutral on my D300 and so far I like it, did you try it at all?

    What do you do w/ Focus Lock On? Off? I’ve tried a variety of settings and haven’t been happy w/ it.

    Interesting that you like 21 pt Dynamic; I dropped to 9 pt Dynamic for the very reason you mention w/ regards to 51 pt.

    Finally, I stumbled onto your site today w/ regards to your Sigma 30f1.4 vs 50f1.4 comparo…I recently bought the Sigma but found the DoF was too great…I was getting the crowd in sharp focus, even at f1.4/1.6/1.8 for my liking. This while shooting under the basket. But, I still like the HSM speed, so may give it another try and just live w/ the DoF. What’s your take?

    What metering are you using? Matrix? CW? Spot? I’ve been using CW almost exclusively….does it matter w/ D-Lighting?

  • 2 The Sports Photo Guy // Jan 16, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    I’ve found no real impact on FPS rate yet, at least in JPG mode, though I’m sure the potential is there for either long bursts or series of shorter bursts.

    I use the Neutral setting for portraits and ‘people’ pictures (subject of a future article). I find Standard, with highest saturation, provides a good compromise between reasonable skin tones and bright colors for uniforms and the like for sports.

    I leave Focus Lock at the default setting – never have found changing it to have much effect the way I shoot.

    I’ve been using matrix metering with great success. I don’t think metering mode has an impact on Active D-Lighting (beyond differences in the exposure setting itself).

  • 3 Steven // May 13, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Hello, Great post. I primarily photograph football and looking to see if you happen to have your recommended custom settings for football for the D300. Thank you!

    Steven

  • 4 The Sports Photo Guy // May 13, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    I’ve had a chance to shoot some spring football with the D300, and am starting to figure out its optimal settings for that sport. In particular, I’m finding 9-point AF seems to be the way to go. Football action is a bit more predictable, and with all those bodies on the field you want fairly precise AF point selection.

  • 5 Michael // Nov 12, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    I see that this article was written back in February.
    Have you tested this technique with the new Firmware 1.10?
    Would you change your settings in any way?

    Thank you

  • 6 The Sports Photo Guy // Nov 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    Basketball season begins for me Friday night – November 14. I’ll be comparing the firmware upgrade vs the original firmware as well as testing out the new Sigma 50/f1.4 HSM. Stay tuned.

  • 7 Chris // Dec 15, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    Am curious to see your Siggy 50 shots, I just got the Nikon 50/f1.4 G AFS and shot a game yesterday. So far, so good, liked the lens. Disappointed it wasn’t a quantum leap (AFS performance) but it did track very well; I feel like I had less OOF shots than before.

  • 8 Anonymous // Dec 15, 2008 at 10:41 pm

    Chris, curious – do you have a D300? Also, what focus modes have you been using? I have a D300, want to get the new Nikon lens you have, and generally find that Dynamic area focus is so so and have to use single point with an 11 point grid. With those setting in soccer and baseball I can be >80% in focus. With 51 pt AF or 51 pt 3D-AF, or even 21 point dynamic AF I am at >50% OOF. I assume at low DOF at f/2 I would even have my single point in focus percentage drop.

  • 9 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 16, 2008 at 5:49 am

    Just for fun, I shot an entire basketball game with the Sigma 50/f1.4 mounted – cross-court shots and everything – and was pretty pleased with the results. I’ll be adding a few samples to that article shortly.

    Oh, and I got over 90% of my shots in focus at f2 using 21-point AF-C.

  • 10 Steve // Dec 16, 2008 at 8:42 am

    Hmmm – I must use that 21 pt AF-C incorrectly. I get so much out of focus. Maybe it is the lens. With the 18-200 mm VR lens I can only use single point.

  • 11 Chris // Dec 16, 2008 at 10:48 am

    I am shooting a D300…I’m just not a big fan of Dynamic, tried 9/21/51 and w/ sports like BB I find there are too many shots w/ focus on an arm, ball, other player, etc, instead of the player’s face that I *know* I have the focus sensor planted on.

    Some do like it, but I’m just a Single Pt guy. I’ll give it another go. And, I find this the same for Field Hockey and LAX too.

    I think if I was shooting say a race car, then maybe it would work better for me.

  • 12 David // Dec 22, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    Hello:

    can you help me understand the best D-300 autofocus setting to use to capture crystal sharp horse jumping event images (head on-s and sides)? I’m using the AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm VR 4.5.

    Thanks!

    David

  • 13 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 22, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    David:

    Never shot horse jumping, but I would think 9-point dynamic AF would work best. The horses are moving in a pretty predictable manner (i.e., from one jump to another).

    Remember, though, that equipment settings are only part of the equation. More important is your skill in tracking a moving subject, which requires good fundamental technique and a lot of practice!

  • 14 AR // Dec 22, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    What autofocus mode to you use in basketball? Single/Dynamic/Auto-area

  • 15 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 22, 2008 at 9:20 pm

    Umm…that would be Dynamic, like it says up above. :)

  • 16 Gary // Jan 25, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    Any thoughts on shutter speed? I generally use 1/320 which generally freezes most of the body when shooting layups and at max height during jumpshots. Still, I often find arm and leg movements to be a bit blurry. While that can add to the effect, I’d prefer to keep blur out of the initial capture. Of course, this could also be a depth of field issue. I shoot at 2.8 and at ISO 1600 or below.

  • 17 The Sports Photo Guy // Jan 25, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    I’m fortunate enough to be able to shoot in an arena that allows me to achieve 1/500-1/640 @ f2 and still remain at ISO 400. When I’m shooting in a darker arena I’ll drop as low as 1/400 if necessary. That’s where shooting with a fast prime vs an f2.8 zoom really has an advantage.

  • 18 Gary // Jan 26, 2009 at 12:26 am

    Another technique I use to compensate for low-light conditions while keeping ISO reasonable (800 or below) and shutter speed high (<1/400) is to shoot RAW and purposely under-expose the image. Using Capture NX2 or other RAW processing software, you can then adjust EV to compensate for at least 3 f stops perhaps more, with no image degradation. Extra work compared to shooting JPEGs but another way to optimize settings in low light.

  • 19 The Sports Photo Guy // Jan 26, 2009 at 2:31 am

    I don’t know if I’d call that “no image degradation” – you’re going to get noise in the shadow areas that you wouldn’t have otherwise. But what you’re doing is more or less the concept behind the Active D-Lighting that is part of the D300′s feature set.

  • 20 The Sports Photo Guy // Mar 24, 2009 at 7:48 am

    A user posted the following comment to another post, so I’ve moved it over here:

    I used your indoor basketball settings to shoot indoor cheerleading competitions and volleyball games and am finding that the uniform color (red, royal blue) seems almost cartoonish, very exaggerated, how can I adjust this?

    Colors are always subjective and affected by lighting, materials, and end-device properties (monitor and printer characteristics) in addition to camera settings. If these settings don’t produce colors to your liking, reduce saturation or even select a different picture control setting altogether (such as Neutral or Portrait if you think Standard colors are “cartoonish”).

  • 21 Bill // Apr 5, 2009 at 3:00 am

    Re camera settings for basketball what metering do you use, centre weighted or 3D colour matrix 2

  • 22 The Sports Photo Guy // Apr 5, 2009 at 3:58 am

    With the advent of the D300, I use matrix. In the past, I’d meter with a Sekonic handheld prior to the game and shoot 100% manually. The D300 does the best job of metering of any camera I’ve owned.

    The only time I will revert to manual metering with the D300 is if I’m in a relatively dark arena that sports those lighted advertising panels around the edge of the court. They will throw the metering off.

  • 23 Jenna Johnson // Aug 15, 2009 at 10:12 am

    Loved how listed exactly the set up for basketball. Would you be able to do the same for outdoor portraits for the D300

  • 24 Carl // Aug 31, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    I love hockey and shoot it quite a lot. Always trying to improve my shots. What setting do you like? Thanks.

  • 25 The Sports Photo Guy // Aug 31, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    Honestly…I have never shot hockey. Hell, I’ve never even SEEN a real hockey game. Just not my sport.

  • 26 Billy Townsend // Feb 3, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    Thanks for the shooting tips with the D-300 with respect to inside event shots! Although I am shooting a cheerleading competition this weekend (not a basketball game) I will use most of theses settings and let you know how it performs!

Leave a Comment