I am forced to use a high ISO on all of my indoor sports shots. There is no way around it. If I want to stop action and get a good exposure it is a must. Using lighting is not usually feasible do to the restrictions of most school administrators and just finding a spot to put strobes that will not be in the way of everybody. I use Lightroom 5 which is very similar to Adobe Camera Raw which is in CS6. First of all, try to shoot in RAW, it handles noise better. Try to keep your subject fairly large in the frame when shooting. A current full frame sensor camera handles noise better. Finally, this is the "recipe" that I use in the "Details" panel. Under "Sharpening" Amount=90, Radius=2.8, Detail=0, Masking=60. Under "Noise Reduction" Luminance=30, Detail=50, Contrast=0, Color=45, Detail=50, Smoothness=50. I will usually tweak Sharpening and Masking the most and increase the Luminance ever so slightly if needed trying not to get the melted crayon look. Hopefully this helps. I have included a sample that was shot at ISO 6400.

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Here is my attempt. I did a combination of using Lightroom, tone mapping, and Photoshop.

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How close was the lens to your subject? I think the minimum focus distance of that lens is almost 5 feet. If you are inside of that, you may not get your subject in focus. I had seen that you shot that at 155mm. Maybe stay back a bit and zoom to 300. That way you won't have to crop and loose detail. Just a thought to go along with all of the other good suggestions.

Not sure why people tend to bash auto iso. It is just another tool like aperture priority or shutter priority. All three can be adjusted by using exposure compensation. The key is to know which mode is the right one for the situation. I probably shoot in manual mode more than 90% of the time, but if the lighting is continually changing on me, I will switch to auto iso because I usually know what aperture I want to use and what shutter speed. Like I said, it is just another tool to use.

I drive by this place quite often, usually in the afternoon or evening. The morning sunrise gave it a completely different look.

Thanks

Horse racing in the area is getting closer to opening. Horses and trainers have started coming in and have begun workouts. I had a chance to slip out and grab a few shots of the horses going through their paces.

I like the idea, but to me, the back lighting seems a bit strong and creates areas that are too bright and become distractions.

Very nice, nothing I could add.

I like the image but it has an unfinished quality about it. It looks like the cloudy sky was added due to the halos around the church and trees. The concept is wonderful but just needs a bit of cleaning up.

Excellent photo. The colors along with the sharpness of clarity add a strong, masculine sense to a powerful machine.

Thanks for the comments and critiques, much appreciated.

Nightski, it was a bit windy. There was not much movement in the stocks since they are fairly low to the ground and pretty much frozen (temp at time of this shot was 12 degrees Fahrenheit).

Billyspad, I did do a five shot bracket of this image but used only one image to produce this. I shot in RAW, so had a little room to adjust the exposure and shadows of the sky and ground.

Great timing, nicely composed, beautiful light. Not much to complain about in this shot.

Great black and white. The lighting really makes your subject pop. Shooting from the lower angle shows that you are engaged with the subject rather than looking down on him. I really like the background. I might have moved your subject more to the right of the frame to allow the lines on your background to lead to him rather than away from him.

Any thoughts on this. I don't do landscapes very often but would like to improve. Any critiques would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.