Shooting in a Gym setting

Discuss photography techniques, equipment, etc. here.
.
User avatar
Posts: 1660
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 3:09 pm
Location: Traverse City Michigan

Shooting in a Gym setting

Postby marmart » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:41 am

OK, here is a question for all the fabulous photographers out there(: Although I have a great DSLR camera (D70S), I typically shoot in Auto format as I know pretty much "nothing" about the other options. I just wonder if someone can tell me what setting is best (camera settings for dummies), for shooting my grandsons basketball game in a gym with fluorescent lighting. I have gone to 2 games now and as you can imagine, the pix are pretty lousy using the auto setting. Lots of blur and the color is awful. While I can PS the pix to correct the color, I prefer not to if possible. He has a playoff game tomorrow and I would love to get some good pix. I do have the SB-400 flash also – if that helps.

Not sure if what I am asking is plausible, but thought I’d give it a shot !!

Thanks everyone!!

Mary

.
User avatar
Posts: 9321
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:37 pm
Location: E. Greenbush, NY

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:32 am

Each make and model camera is different, but don't you have a light-balance setting for fluorescent on your camera?

As for blur, I think it's time you got off that auto setting. :D It sounds as if you need to crank up the shutter speed, and you sure aren't going to do it on auto. Digital film is something you pay for just once, and after that, you can take all the pictures you want for free. Get out that manual and start playing with the controls, taking a million lousy pictures until the pictures suddenly stop being so lousy. You can do it, Mary!

Barbara

.
User avatar
Posts: 1660
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 3:09 pm
Location: Traverse City Michigan

Postby marmart » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:02 am

Thanks Barbara for the vote of confidence(:

I did try some shots cranking up the ISO and switching to the different lighting, but the pix were so dark. But, you are right, I will just play around I guess!

Thanks for your response.

Mary

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 1670
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2005 7:50 am
Location: Idaho

Postby MG - Admin » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:20 am

Mary:

What lens are you trying to use to take the photos with? You may not like my answer if your lens' widest aperture isn't at least 2.8. The lighting in gymnasiums in general is very poor for photo taking. You really need a fast lens and high ISO capabilities. The settings most likely to work for you are going to be 1600 ISO, fstop of 2.8 and a shutter speed of at least 1/200 in order to avoid motion blur. I'm not familiar with your camera and lens setup to say if this possible or not. Perhaps if the lighting in the gym is bright enough you might get away with an aperture of 4.0.

You might try setting your camera in TV mode. This is a shutter priority mode. Adjust the ISO to 1600 and set your shutter speed to 1/200 and see what the results are. The camera will set the aperture based on these settings with the available light. You can try a bit slower shutter speed, but you take the chance of motion blur.

Outside of that you're only choice is flash. In general flash isn't looked upon favorably for sports because it's distracting to the players. For high school sports you might be able to get away with it. I'd ask first, though.

You'll probably want to run the photos you take through a noise reduction program such as Noise Ninja or Neat Image.

Good luck, and like others have said, just play with the settings and shoot away!

Mike

.
User avatar
Posts: 7501
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:35 pm
Location: Kirkland,Wash, USA, Earth

Postby gpsmikey » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:33 am

What MikeG said -- Gyms are typically very poor/odd lighting (only the Pro sports can afford
the bright lighting). Shoot at high ISO and look at using one of the noise reduction programs
like Noise Ninja. Put the camera in continuous autofocus, not the single focus and lock
the focus zone on the center one so you KNOW what the silly thing is focusing on. I also
have the D70s and while I use it mostly outdoors for my daughters soccer, the method is
the same. Also, try and "track" your target rather than simply point it and shoot - the
more of a chance the camera gets to lock on the subject (and the less relative motion
you have to the lens), the better your chances are for a good shot. I shoot in "aperature priority"
mode so I can get better depth of field when it is bright (and I can go up a couple of stops)
or wide open when it is darker and let it pick the best shutter speed it can for wide open.
I also find my monopod really helps - it still allows me to comfortably swing side to side,
but does a lot to stabilize the up/down motion in the lens. As far as the white balance goes,
it may be a case of try a couple of test shots under different settings and see which look
best in the display (those lights can have strange colors sometimes). The other option is
to shoot in raw (the camera, not you :wink: ) and then play with the color balance
after. Take lots of memory cards and shoot lots of pictures - that way you are bound
to get some that are great.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

Honorary ProShow PHD
User avatar
Posts: 717
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:31 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Postby Tarafrost » Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:37 am

I've done a fair bit of gym photography (gymnastics and karate) for my neices/nephews, and it's definitely challenging due to the circumstances and typically poor lighting.

That being said, it can be done!

You typically can't use flash, since that would be distracting or even dangerous to the participants, so to handle the poor/weird light you have some choices:

1) Use the fastest lenses you own, as wide open as you can to suck in more light. Pro glass (f2.8) is best, if you can afford it. I like the Nikon 70-200 AFS VR for action sports stuff indoors. Vibration Reduction (VR for Nikonians, IS for Canonites) buys you a lot in these circumstances, if you can handhold such a big rig. Big lenses and a pro looking rig also lets you get away with a lot in where you can shoot from....you can fake that you are "press" rather than just a relative/parent with a point and shoot, and lots of time get closer to the action. ;-)

2) Up the ISO as far as you can, to keep the shutter speed high enough to stop the action (unless you are going for the blurred speed shot effect). I shoot in Program mode mainly, since then I can quickly adjust the shutter speed, and be sure that the exposure is still OK. Invest in a good noise reduction tool/plugin like Noise Ninja.

3) Shoot raw so you can fix the flourescent or other colour casts after the fact (eg. White Balance changes).

4) Have your camera set to shoot images as fast as possible. I set my D200 to continuous/fast so I can get 5 frames per second.

5) Use big CF cards so you lessen the chance of being in the middle of a card change when the action heats up.

6) Try using continuous auto focus with center weighted focus as GPSMikey said. Though often I find I want more control over focus and off to the side framing so I don't always use the continuous mode.

7) And probably most important: Practice and experiment! That will teach you what you and the camera rig you own is capable of.
....Andrzej (aka: the curmudgeon)

Tarafrost Photography: Specializing in Wild-Life
http://www.tarafrost.com

Esteemed Member
User avatar
Posts: 155
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:33 am
Location: Colorado

Postby toad » Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:52 pm

Thank you for all that information. My daughter is about to start her basketball season and this will be very useful for me.

.
User avatar
Posts: 1660
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 3:09 pm
Location: Traverse City Michigan

Postby marmart » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:56 am

Mike, Mikey and Andrzej – thank you all for your invaluable information! My 11 year old grandson had 3 games on Saturday – this was the championship series, and I was able to get some really good photos (: I did end up using my 70-300 lens for most and they were better than the others. I wish I understood more about my camera, but the info you all provided worked wonderfully…..thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Isn't this forum an amazing place??? Where else can you get such great information about so many different subjects.

Mary

PS Mikey - I did shoot some in the raw - but I didn't want to embarrass Colton, so I stuck to the camera setting only - thanks for your humor, it made my day.

.
User avatar
Posts: 7501
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:35 pm
Location: Kirkland,Wash, USA, Earth

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:16 am

Glad it worked for you !! The trick is to experiment and practice - the
multiple pix setting often will get you a good shot - if 1 of 5 or 6 shots in the
sequence is good then it was worth the shot. The nice thing about digital
(although it takes getting used to) is the ability to shoot LOTS of shots for
virtually no cost. sort through them and keep the best.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

.
User avatar
Posts: 7501
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:35 pm
Location: Kirkland,Wash, USA, Earth

Postby gpsmikey » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:49 am

For some more information on the subject, I came across an interesting site I
had bookmarked a while back with some good info on the subject (and some
great sample shots).

http://www.spotmetersports.com/ has some good info and comments

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

.
User avatar
Posts: 208
Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:46 am
Location: Pembroke Pines, Fl

Postby iromero » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:27 pm

Thanks for all the tips guys (and gals). I just picked up the Nikon D60 last week with the 18-55 kit VR kit lens and purchased the 70-200 F4-5.6 VR lens with it. I was fortunate enough to have a friend lend me a SIGMA 70-200 1:2.8 APO macro lens. Man, that lens was awesome. I was taking photos outdoors on Friday night of my daugther's soccer game. That SIGMA lens was awesome. It is very apparent that I will have to invest in some serious lenses if I want to continue to shoot in low light situations. I am still trying to learn all the bells and whistles as I am pretty much an amateur. I did head out to the nature preserve today but was not very impressed with the photos I took. Oh well that's the beauty of digital; I can shoot til my heart's content or the memory card is full, whichever comes first.

Ivan

Honorary ProShow PHD
User avatar
Posts: 717
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:31 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Postby Tarafrost » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:35 pm

Ivan wrote: I can shoot til my heart's content or the memory card is full, whichever comes first.


Memory Card?

I have 3 x 4GB cards and 4 x 2GB cards, and that is just for my D200, not including the cards my wife has for her D70. And they are all Extreme 3 SanDisks.

Cards are cheap...buy lots.

They are also like Lays Potato Chips...you shouldn't have just one!

'nuff said... ;-)
....Andrzej (aka: the curmudgeon)

Tarafrost Photography: Specializing in Wild-Life
http://www.tarafrost.com

.
User avatar
Posts: 208
Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:46 am
Location: Pembroke Pines, Fl

Postby iromero » Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:15 pm

Interesting you mention that. I just picked up 2 Extreme III 2GB cards for $54 and there is a $30 Visa rebate card. So i actually got them both for $24. Not a bad deal. Memory is cheap.

Ivan

.
User avatar
Posts: 9321
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:37 pm
Location: E. Greenbush, NY

Postby BarbaraC » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:26 am

Andrzej, I haven't gotten cards in a while, and I've been wondering about these newest ones. Is the difference in speed very obvious? Also--and this question comes from a lack of knowledge--wouldn't the card's speed be affected by the camera's own processing speed? I'm asking this because mine is an older dSLR that is probably pokier than a newer model.

Barbara

.
User avatar
Posts: 7501
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:35 pm
Location: Kirkland,Wash, USA, Earth

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:01 am

It is like a computer and disk drive - if you have a fast system and slow drive, the drive
is the limiting factor, but if you have a slow system and a fast drive the system is the
limit. Putting a 132X card in an older camera probably would not be noticed, but some
of the newer ones can indeed use the write speed of the faster cards. Just to add to the
confusion, most cameras have a buffer of some size in them where they buffer the
shots to RAM before writing to the card. As long as you don't exceed the capacity of
the RAM buffer with fast shots, you will not notice the difference. If you are shooting
with a 10mp camera at 4 frames/second, you will rapidly fill the buffer and then the
camera will only shoot as fast as it can write the buffered data to the card. Here is
where a faster card helps if the camera is able to write that fast. I did come across the
information on my D70s as to what speed card it needed for best performance although
I don't remember just what it was now. It is only when shooting lots of pictures fast
that the speed of the card becomes important (and it has no effect on the shutter speed
or anything like that )

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

Next

Return to Photography

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests