Gym Lighting Help!

[achua00]

I finally got my Canon 85mm 1.8 lens today. I tried it out in an elementary school gym for basketball practice session and still found myself frustrated with trying to figure out why some of the photos came out grainy with a yellow-ish tint. Can anyone tell me what is the best mode to shoot and best white balancing option to use inside a gym with poor lighting? I shot in the manual mode, turned my ISO up to 1600 (which is probably the main reason for the grainy results), shutter speed I believe was in the 300s and aperture around around 3.5 (sorry these are estimates I don't have my camera right next to me). I tried to custom white balance but when I chose the image to use the images shot had a horrible blue cast to it so I switched to fluorescent ... some of the photos came out sort of yellow-ish. Should I have shot in AWB and Aperture? I have read that if you want to be good with your photos then shoot manual..... Thanks all.

 

[enzodm]

Put a sample. Anyway, white balance can be adjusted also after (it is only applied to JPEG, not RAW pictures).

 

[cnutco]

What type of lighting does your gym use? (bulb)
What camera do you have?
What shooting mode were you shooting in?
Where were you standing/ sitting in the gym in relation to the court?
Why were you shooting with the aperture at F3.5?

Shoot in aperture mode. Start somewhere around F2.0 with that prime. You can try a lower aperture, but due to the quickness of the lens, you will miss focus.

For WB, I use the kelvin scale. Not sure about your gym, but try shooting at about 4000 kelvin and adjust from there.

As for ISO, not sure what body you have, so try it at about 600 and go from there. Just keep it as low as possible. Your body may not be able to handle that type of low light.

You will not be able to shoot manual with sports. There is not enough time to make adjustments. You WILL miss "The Shot" if you do.

 

[Big Mike]

I have read that if you want to be good with your photos then shoot manual.

Only if you have a good understanding of exposure.

 

[Bram]

What was your ISO at?
What setup are you using?
The 85mm 1.8 should be fast enough to capture what you want.
Crank your ISO

 

[KmH]

You will not be able to shoot manual with sports. There is not enough time to make adjustments. You WILL miss "The Shot" if you do.

I must be doing something wrong then. I don't have any trouble shooting sports using manual mode and have plenty of time to make adjustments.

A good understanding of the game and being able to antisipate the action is what keeps you from "missing the shot", not using aperture priority, but aperture priority is a good choice for an inexperienced sports shooter, but you have to keep a close eye on the shutter speed as it changes to be sure it doesn't get to slow.

Image noise can be reduced at high ISO settings by nailing the exposure. Any under exposure will make any noise worse.

The auto focus needs to be set to continuous focus, and shutter priority so expect to get some blurry shots until you gain experience. The better your technical understanding of how the camera and lens work, the better your photos will be.

 

[imagemaker46]

Like some have said it all depends on the camera you are using. High end gear you have that latltude of shooting at a higher asa, 1600 will get you the grain, but again it depends on the camera, I shoot at 3200 quite often. Shutter priority will get you way too much motion, you have fast enough lens to get away with shooting at around 2.8. As for shutter speed for basketball like most sports you'll be needing 400-500th sec to stop the action, however, basketball is also a game of standing still, you should be able to shoot alot of it at 250th sec and this should also help with the light and colour, depends on the lights. There are factors that you will have to play around with. But if you can shoot 250th at 2.8, 1600 you should be able to come away some fairly clean images, Stay away from any of the auto features, sports isn't an auto feature world....other than auto focus most of the time.

 

[cnutco]

You will not be able to shoot manual with sports. There is not enough time to make adjustments. You WILL miss "The Shot" if you do.

I must be doing something wrong then. I don't have any trouble shooting sports using manual mode and have plenty of time to make adjustments.

Very true, you have no problem, but could you imagine the OP trying to shoot manual? My post is directed to the OP. This is obviously a person that is more of a "P" shooter and would not be able to handle manual for sports.

Hell, I'm not sure I could for the faster sports. I do shoot sports in manual half the time, but for basketball and football I still shoot in good old "A".

One day I will be in full "M" like some of you!:thumbup:

 

[mikehaugen]

Shooting in manual does not give better results. It gives the photographer the ability to make better photographs, with more control of how the image will look. If you aren't comfortable enough with the settings to make quick decisions, shooting in M will probably give worse results.

 

[imagemaker46]

If the light condition does not chnage as it really wouldn't in a gym, setting the camera at 250th at 2.8 will give you consistant results, the only thing you have to deal with is autofocus and watching the action, and waiting. There are no quick decisions to deal with as long as the light isn't changing. If you have a bit of an understanding at how the camera works and how the image on the back of the camera looks then you should be able to figure out what the correct exposures are. It's really not rocket science.

 

[redtippmann]

The gym at my school has really bad lighting. The WB changes every few min., so I over power everything with mono lights. Because of that I am stuck in manual mode. But when I shoot volleyball (can't use flash there) I use a 50mm 1.8 -set at 1.8- ISO set at 3200 and still in manual mode because if any lights come into frame I don't want the camera to meter for that.

 

[Destin]

As fat as the yellow cast and grain, SHOOT RAW!!!!! Then leave the WB on auto, and adjust in post. Raw files also make it easier to control the noise (grain) in post.

 

[KmH]

Very true, you have no problem, but could you imagine the OP trying to shoot manual? My post is directed to the OP. This is obviously a person that is more of a "P" shooter and would not be able to handle manual for sports.

Hell, I'm not sure I could for the faster sports. I do shoot sports in manual half the time, but for basketball and football I still shoot in good old "A".

One day I will be in full "M" like some of you!:thumbup:

I'm an old fart. I learned how to do photography back when manual mode/manual focus, manual film advance, and changing the roll of film every 36 shots was the only way someone had to shoot action sports.

I write replies with the understanding the audience far exceeds the OP, or even other TPF members.

 

[imagemaker46]

I've been shooting sports for 35 years, just came off an 18 day, 24 different sports shoot, I also went through the film generation, I also know how to read light and work in low light conditions. I find it easy to offer advice on how to shoot in different venues, but also realize that what suggestions I do offer may very be over the skill level of some on this forum, I hope that it is understood though.