Action photography in Gymnasium

maryjohoerman · Jan 19, 2009

I am fairly new to digital photography. I have a cannon XTi Rebel. My outdoor sports shots are awesome, however I cannot seem to get the proper settings for indoor, basketball and volleyball. Can someone help me with the proper settings to get the best quality photos?

Big Mike · Jan 19, 2009

Welcome to the forum.

This has been covered before, even as recently as the last week or two. Try the search feature.

The basic problem is a lack of light. Our eyes adjust pretty easily but most gyms are really quite dark for photography.

You don't mention what lens you have, but I'll guess that it's probably not a 'fast' lens (large maximum aperture). This is the number one thing to upgrade if you are shooting in these situations.
Also, you other option is to turn up the ISO on the camera.

Both of those will allow you to shoot with a faster shutter speed, which will help to freeze the motion of your subject.

Lastly, the lighting in some gyms has quite a color to it, so it would help if you used an accurate white balance setting or just shot in RAW mode so that you could adjust it afterward.

maryjohoerman · Jan 19, 2009

I have been using the Cannon 75-300 mm f4.0-5.6 lens. I have the speed set to 1600. The pictures are not blurred but they are so dark it is difficult to adjust them after the fact and improve the brightness.