Photographing in a Gym

[Lance Warley]

A friend just asked me about setting for photographing his son's basketball games in gyms.

I have no experience with this at all.

Can anyone provide suggestions for white balance, iso, aperture, exposure compensation? Please assume the hw is a zoom lens (something like a 100-400) and a dSLR (something like a 40D/50D).

Thanks.

[Doug Brown]

Unless you have fast glass (f/2.8 or faster), it's going to be a struggle. Then use whatever settings it takes to get 1/500 or faster.

[Mike Tracy]

I concur with what Doug says about using fast glass. I shoot a adult league hockey in a rink that is dingy lit but still better then most high school gyms I have photographed in. I have to shoot at either f/2.8 or f/3.5 with the ISO 2000 or above to keep my shutter at 1/500 using the 70-200. I have tried a custom white balance numerous times only to end up adjusting it during my conversion process. I think the lights flickering which you can't see with your eyes constantly changes the temp. Just shoot raw and don't worry about a custom AWB setting.

Edit : One from last week. MKIII, 70mm, 1/500, f/3.2, ISO 2000, EC +.3, noise reduction applied in Neat Image

[Jim Poor]

I've got a similar shoot coming up. Canine Freestyle in a warehouse that has been converted to a doggy gym.

I went and did some practice shots there (no flash allowed for the event) and found I was up around ISO 2200 with my 70-200 @ f2.8.

I've since added an 85 f1.4 to the bag. I'll shoot two bodies one with each lens I mentioned.

The recommendation to shoot raw is really spot on as you'll never get the WB correct with the type of lighting used in most of those type places.

Funny side note: I can actually see the flickering and it drives me nuts. I also can see the older monitors refreshing and have had to adjust many to a higher refresh rate to keep from getting sea-sick while at the computer.

[Lance Warley]

Thanks very much, guys. This is exactly what Iwas looking for.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I covered an annual event this year. All kinds of coloured lights were used. I could not use flash. Shot with 1D II and 70-200 f2.8 L IS. The AWB was pretty bad. I had to do a lot of tweaking to all the RAWs. At ISO 1600 the Mark II is not good. Seems from Doug's experience that 50D is better at low light.

[Doug Brown]

BTW I use the 70-200 f/2.8 or the 85 f/1.8 for my kids' sporting events at gyms.

[Michael Lloyd]

I've shot tons of football and quite a bit of basketball. F2.8 is pretty much a must have. The 50D will give you the ISO that you'll need. You'll want to be at 1/500 or faster. I shoot in manual. Some people like AV. If you've got enough light to play with you can get away with that. AWB is a total waste of time in more ways than one. The every changing color temperature of the lighting makes the processor work too hard and that uses time that it would be writing to the card or calculating exposure. That's what I was told by someone that shoots pro sports for a living anyway... You have two choices. (1) Add your own light which is doable but not practical a lot of times. I know some people that set up Alien Bee 500's and bounce flash off of the gym ceiling. The flashes are fired with Pocket Wizards. Personally I'm not that dedicated :D (2) Set your WB by whatever means you are used to (NOT ONE OF THE MODES. Select a temperature) and then leave it alone. For night high school football I'm usually around 4800°K. Shoot RAW and correct the color casts that occur in ACR. Typically I process 600 -1,000 images. Step one is to delete the garbage in Bridge. I rate them at the same time. Then I select only the 5 star images and open them in ACR. I correct and crop in ACR. Depending on what I am going to do with the images I'll save as TIF or JPG in ACR. Both are batch processed in CS3 (now 4) with a couple of actions that I use for noise removal, contrast enhancement, and sharpening.The TIF files get an additional action (Save Level 10 JPG). Depending n how I feel about them I'll usually go back to the images ranked 4 stars and run them through as well.

Underexposure is your enemy. No matter what camera you shoot with underexposure = noise.

Shooting sports and wildlife is the only time I'll grudgingly shoot in high speed mode. Sometimes a 3 or 4 frame burst will yield an image that you would have otherwise missed.

BTW- If you want to see how bad the color temperature changes, set your WB to something other than one of the modes. Point out to center court and fire a 5 or 10 frame burst. You'll be able to see the difference in the LCD but it's even worse on screen.

[Lance Warley]

Thanks so much, everyone.

[Stefan Minnig]

For what it's worth. I know a newspaper photographer who shoots indoor basketball games with the 85 F/1.8 on a 1Dmk2N. Of course, being a fixed lens that could mean a lot of moving around. For one on a tight budget though, it could be just the thing.