Before and after - Post processing sports in Lightroom

Here is a quick look at a few images from high school basketball and how I adjust them for newspaper, as well as how far you can take them with a quick edit in Lightroom.

Terrell played hard but lost to Carrollton Newman Smith Tuesday night... It was not a great night shooting for me as much of the best action took place on the opposite end of the court, regardless of where I went.

However, when looking through the images, I was pleasantly pleased to find that the players were very expressive.  When players are really hustling, it shows on their faces.  That, in turn, makes much better pictures even when you don't get the best action shots.

OK... here is a quick 1-2-3.

Camera setup was Canon 1D mkIV, 50mm, ISO2000, 1/1250, f2.  That turns out slightly underexposed.


Same picture, as sent it in to the newspaper...  Bumped up the exposure a bit, sharpened and with some noise reduction.  It makes a big difference for the newspaper press, which tends to print dark on most days.  If the images will run in black and white, I bump the exposure even more because anything dark gray prints black, and white is the color of the paper itself.


I do more than 90% of my normal processing in Lightroom, and really 100% of the work for newspaper.  But even in Lightroom, you can go pretty far into the realm of 'edgy magazine feature' with just a few clicks.  Oh the drama.


Here are a few more with a basic edit and an over-the-top version based on Matt Kloskowski's "Game Day" Lightroom presets.

This one is with the 70-200mm lens, iso3200, f2.8, 1/1000






Another boring shot but with nice expression in the eyes.

SWCC Basketball

I was a little bit worried about the lighting situation at Southwest Christian College when I left with Cliff to go get a shot of the SWCC homecoming game vs. Mountain View College. I had only seen the gym from the outside, and it is a pretty old building.

The pleasant surprise was that there is a large row of windows along the top of each side, and it was a 2:30 p.m. tip-off. It was a beautiful mix of hard light from the windows and soft light in the shadow areas.

Even better was the game action. If you are within driving distance to Terrell and you want to see some great basketball from up close, these guys put on a show. You won't be disappointed, and the atmosphere is just the opposite of the over-commercialized college sports in the big schools.

I only took the 40D and a 14mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.4 lenses with me, knowing that no matter what the light would be like, I could sit under the basket and get a shot. I only had about 20 minutes to get it before going to another assignment.


This is a better shot of the atmosphere of the gym, with some adjustment of the drama in Lightroom..


Have a wonderful weekend,

Don J.

A favorite for all the right reasons

Out of 1,987 photos that I brought home from Peru, it is a very unlikely one that has become one of my favorites.

We were in the middle of a tour in Lima when I saw these four musicians walking down the sidewalk. I had a flash of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road in my head and lifted the camera above the window sill of our tour guide's van.

As with much of the trip, I was carrying the 5D, this time with the 24-70mm. It was a complete grab shot, no time to frame it well as we drove by rather quickly.

The bad...
It is way out of focus, exposure was off (hence the color wackiness I created in Lightroom for this version) and the composition could be better.

The good...
Four musicians with an unlikely (at least for N. America) combination of instruments walking in unison down a street in Peru. The building makes a nice and interesting background... a hint of crosswalk stripes (a la Beatles)..

As a personal trip photo, I love it. The fact that I got a frame at all surprised me, and after playing with it, I found a color setting that fits the mood...

Go figure.

So remember, while proper composition, lighting, posing, metering, lens selection etc. etc. etc are great, the real essence of photography is capturing a moment that can be kept, inspected and remembered in detail. Sometimes the beauty is in the imperfections.

And, sometimes it really pays off to have a camera at the ready.

Happy Shooting

don j.

Random Fun Shoot - BMX Racing

My Brother-in-Law and Nephew wanted to check out some BMX racing, which sounded like a fun photo opportunity to me...

In the Dallas area, Metroplex BMX seems to be the place to go for such a thing. Racing was on a Friday night, and other than the website photos, I had no idea what to expect...

I did not want to take "too much" gear, so I packed for versatility... the Canon 40D and two zooms, 24-70, and 70-200. I was really banking on the facility having good lights. In retrospect, it would have been wise to bring at least one faster prime lens, because the lights were not very bright. High ISO is my friend, but the photos could have been much better. Most of these were underexposed in the camera and required pushing the exposure in Lightroom to look OK. Image quality isn't great, but it was a fun shoot so no worries!

First up was round after round of practice starts, then the riders would slowly make there way to the finish. Practice for me too... and looking for backgrounds.

One section of bleachers was almost empty... not bad.. can I move your trash can?

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

Looking down from the top row let the dirt of the track be the background.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

Of course, I wanted to try some slow-shutter panning shots. The dirt was quite good for this, although my technique still needs work.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f8, 1/25, iso3200

Long range panning is harder... I was pretty happy with this one. Most of the riders were not getting any air, so that was a bonus.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f3.5, 1/30, iso500

From ground level, the tops of the jumps are quite high. I wanted to catch a rider's head peering over the top to show the size. I was surprised how hard it was to get focused and get a frame before they popped up the jump, and I never did get a good focus on a face. The helmet makes an easier target for the camera to catch.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

From the other side of the track, you could look over and come face-to-face with riders exiting the final turn...

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

When racing finally got started, there were usually 3-5 racers per class/heat. After the start and first set of jumps, there was not a lot of tight racing action. I did like this formation of riders hitting a jump early in one race..

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

This guy would rather be racing than watching..

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/250, iso3200

From the finish line, you can look back down a long line of jumps that make up the final straight. I was hoping to get one rider down in the valley and another jumping.. this worked out nicely with a bonus rider in the middle.

Canon 40D, 24-70mm, f2.8, 1/250, iso3200

And another with four... this is about as close a finish as we had all night.

Canon 40D, 24-70, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

I look forward to going back, it was a lot of fun, and there are lots of other shots I want to try now that I have had time to think about it.

Happy Shooting,

Don J.