Going to the Basketball game! Help!!!!

[Michelle Davies]

I am going to my daughters' basketball game tonight...haven't been in this gym before (away game). Our gym, however, causes the pics to look yellow and I have a real hard time with the speed. Can anyone help with settings and lens? I have a Digital Rebel XT, a 50 mm, 75-300 mm and a kit lens. Also have a 430ex speedlight. Suggestions as to which and how to use would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Jeff Canes]

The yellow look is likely tungsten lighting uses in the gym. Try setting the white balance to tungsten. The other option is to shot in RAW mode that way you can adjust the white balance in your photo editor. Using RAW will require that you edit every image and more memory space.

As for the speed issue that is all so poor lighting. Have you tried using the the flash tilted up?

 

[Big Mike]

If you are allowed to use the flash, that will help with freezing the action. Although, be aware that the light from the flash and the light in the gym are different colors...so mixing them may give you funny colors.

My suggestion would be to use the 50mm and use Av mode (no flash). Set the aperture to F2 or so...then set the ISO to 800. That should give you a decent shutter speed to freeze the action.

 

[Michelle Davies]

Thanks for the advice...I have been a chicken and not shot in RAW yet so I will probably chicken out and try the 50 mm. Thanks! I'll post results!