Ohio Volleyball History - Camera & Picture Info

I usually shoot in the highest quality JPEG format and each picture is stored as a 4.0 MB file. The JPEG files are originally 4288 x 2848 pixels, so as long as the focus is good, you can see great detail. I use a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 on my computer and edit with Nikon Capture and Adobe Photoshopfor post processing. I resize each file to 299 x 450 for upright and compress them using jpg quality of 4 to produce a file size of 40 to 80 kb. I might adjust the color and sharpen the picture before saving. I might make a quick crop of the the photo. I keep the original JPEG, so that I can create high quality prints, screensavers, CDs, etc.

Camera	Start	End
Nikon D100	2-14-2003	1-24-2006
Nikon D200	1-25-2006	3-26-2008
Nikon D300	3-27-2008

Pictures on the site

People are free to save and use these photos for their own personal use. If you plan to publish or put photos up on your own websites, then please give proper credit to to www.arcticferret.us. You can also provide a link to the homepage or any of the picture pages, if you so desire.

Lousy Pictures on the site

People are generally nice and do not tell me that some of the pictures on the site suck. There is no need to tell me, I already know. I figure that most people would rather see a lousy picture of their team, than no picture at all.

My Equipment

Nikon D300 85mm F1.8 Nikon Lens, 70-200 F2.8 Nikon Lens

Photo Tips

Many parents have asked about my camera and how I shoot pictures. Here is a little bit of info that you might find helpful.

Try shooting at the highest ISO that you can. I use 1600 ISO.

I usually shoot with the aperture wide open at F1.8,depending on the lens that I use and the available light at the venue, and let the shutter automatically set depending on the light. If you have shutter speeds of 1/125, you can get some good shots but might have hand, arm and ball blur.

One thing that sets the professional cameras apart from the pack is the speed of the autofocus. Try tracking your target, with your shutter button partially depressed, before you want the shot. I usually take one shot at a time, trying to time the action, whether it is a spike, set or dig. I used to be frugal and choosy waiting for the right moment to shoot, but now I try to just let it loose and just delete the bad ones.

There is always post processing that you can do to improve photos that are not quite sharp enough or underexposed. I would recommend a commercial program called Adobe Photoshop Elements . It has quite a few of the features that are in the expensive Photoshop program. Check out Amazon for the 2nd newest version and it will be pretty cheap.

I suggest that you check out this website, as it has tons of great photographers who post hints and tips in the Forums.

http://www.dpreview.com/

Special Thanks

I am continually blessed with with some special people that help support this hobby of mine. I have received some very generous help from a few people and jut wanted to thank them here.

NKYVC Volleyball Club

Warren and Nicole Stewart

John Tawa

Hope that I have been helpful.