It was a gray and gloomy weekend in Kansas City. No good photo light. I took the opportunity to wrap-up my Christmas shopping and some other year-end tasks.
A week-ago I posted some basketball photos from the McPherson - Ottawa games. Those images were quick grabs after some initial post-processing. I took the time this weekend to do some more processing, primarily color- and better exposure correction and cropping. They can now be viewed through the original blog post. Follow the link to see them.
The men have done well since last week. They went 2-0 for the week, and go into the break 10-2. The ladies dropped their two games and are now 4-7.
Thoughts on Life and Photography by Dale Grosbach
Showing posts with label Ottawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ottawa. Show all posts
Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sports Shooting: McPherson - Ottawa Basketball
Our weekend schedule this winter does not line up nearly as well with basketball as it did with the football season this fall. We took advantage of an alignment of the stars to spend the weekend with our daughter and younger son. This gave us the opportunity to see the Neil Simon play "Rumors" put on by the McPherson College theatre department, and the McPherson mens and womens Basketball teams play Ottawa University.
Shooting indoor sports is a challenge. The light in high school and small college gyms is dim and spotty by photographic standards. In the McPherson Sports Center the baseline of the court is darker by a full stop (or more) than the mid-court area between the two free throw lines. I've shot in this gym before and I knew the challenges that I would face. Even when you start with a good f/2.8 lens the compromise you often have to make is tp underexpose or shoot at high ISO settings in order to freeze action. This results in noisy (grainy) photos.
The womens team opened the evening with a 69-61 victory over the Lady Braves. This was one of the Lady Bulldog's better efforts from the field and on defense this season. The Lady Bulldogs are 4-5 overall and 1-1 in conference.
The McPherson mens team has a good season underway. They earned a 69-56 victory over the Ottawa men. They are now 8-2 overall and 2-0 in the KCAC.
I had done some research into changes that I could attempt to make my images better. The change in process that made these images come out as well as they did was a change to my post-processing workflow. The originals were underexposed as mentioned above. The raw files were processed through a software package called DXO to raise the exposure and remove the noise. DXO has recently come out with a new version (6.0) that I used for the first time.
Update 12/14: the images you see on this post now have been further processed. I started with the DXO processed images I originally posted. One or two of the originals were re-processed using DXO 6.1 to raise the exposure a little more. Then all were cropped, black- and white-point adjusted, and sharpened in Capture NX2
Shooting indoor sports is a challenge. The light in high school and small college gyms is dim and spotty by photographic standards. In the McPherson Sports Center the baseline of the court is darker by a full stop (or more) than the mid-court area between the two free throw lines. I've shot in this gym before and I knew the challenges that I would face. Even when you start with a good f/2.8 lens the compromise you often have to make is tp underexpose or shoot at high ISO settings in order to freeze action. This results in noisy (grainy) photos.
The womens team opened the evening with a 69-61 victory over the Lady Braves. This was one of the Lady Bulldog's better efforts from the field and on defense this season. The Lady Bulldogs are 4-5 overall and 1-1 in conference.
The McPherson mens team has a good season underway. They earned a 69-56 victory over the Ottawa men. They are now 8-2 overall and 2-0 in the KCAC.
I had done some research into changes that I could attempt to make my images better. The change in process that made these images come out as well as they did was a change to my post-processing workflow. The originals were underexposed as mentioned above. The raw files were processed through a software package called DXO to raise the exposure and remove the noise. DXO has recently come out with a new version (6.0) that I used for the first time.
Update 12/14: the images you see on this post now have been further processed. I started with the DXO processed images I originally posted. One or two of the originals were re-processed using DXO 6.1 to raise the exposure a little more. Then all were cropped, black- and white-point adjusted, and sharpened in Capture NX2
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Sport Shooting - McPherson Bulldog Football vs. Ottawa University
The McPherson College Bulldogs traveled to Ottawa University to play the Braves Saturday evening. Both Ottawa and McPherson came into the game undefeated and ranked nationally in the NAIA coaches poll.
It was a beautiful night for football game. The game was a see-saw battle that saw McPherson holding a lead at the end of the first half. In the fourth quarter the Braves tied the game and then scored a go-ahead touchdown. McPherson came back to tie the game and send the game into overtime.
The overtime was marked by offensive errors for both teams. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs made last turnover and Ottawa Univ. made a clinching field goal to win the game 44-41 in two overtimes.
It was a beautiful night for football game. The game was a see-saw battle that saw McPherson holding a lead at the end of the first half. In the fourth quarter the Braves tied the game and then scored a go-ahead touchdown. McPherson came back to tie the game and send the game into overtime.
The overtime was marked by offensive errors for both teams. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs made last turnover and Ottawa Univ. made a clinching field goal to win the game 44-41 in two overtimes.
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