Gymnasium white balance

I've been shooting some indoor sports recently. During the last game, the gym appeared to be brighter than average. This is a good thing. However, the white balance and light (brightness) varied greatly from shot to shot even in the same frame.

I assume this is due to the cycling of the lights. To freeze the action I need to be at 1/500 or better, so choosing a shutter that gets an entire cycle is not an option.

Any tips on how best to deal with this?

--
-Dan Rode
http://rodephoto.com

Ask the good folks who own the gym to install new photographer friendly lights

Seriously, you have a number of options, none of which will be easy.

1) Shoot raw and adjust each photo individually in post. This of course takes lots of extra time at the end.

2) Meter different spots on the floor, calibrate for them and then put your camera on manual and only take photos of the section you have the camera set for. Of course this means lots of missed shots because you are not set up.

3) Set up your own flash. It is expensive to do right and will give you flat and high contrast photos if you use on camera flash.

4) Go for slower shutter speed and pick photos at the peak of action when the motion is not so great.

5) Set your camera on manual and then adjust for the different lighting as necessary in post. On auto or program your camera's meter may be causing great changes in exposure just because of the spot that is behind your sensor. I do this for hockey. It is not as bad as it sounds.
6) Give up and let someone else to it.
--
Arlyn DeBruyckere

Shoot RAW and adjust in post. Shoot flash above ambient. Or shoot/convert to BW. Gas charged lights go from green to red in cycles. No way around it.

Tommy Coulter
http://www.coulterphotographic.com

Sodium Vapor lights and those similar were once described on this forum as "The work of the devil". I could not agree more. Forget RAW vs Jpg as it makes not much of a difference. When you get multiple cycles in the same frame i.e some parts one color some parts as much as two others, nothing but manual post processing can help. Try using the Clone Stamp in "Color" mode. Then you can re-paint the bad colors out. Just sample a "good" part of the court and work from there. I've done this with grass(football) and ice(hockey) and it works OK.

Flash is the best option. Last year I had good results using just available light. My D3 and D700 are great at ISO 6400. They are WAY BETTER at ISO 200 with either SB-900's or Alien Bees. If you can use flash, it's the way to go.

God luck... Paul D.

animal78 said:

Sodium Vapor lights and those similar were once described on this forum as "The work of the devil". I could not agree more. Forget RAW vs Jpg as it makes not much of a difference. When you get multiple cycles in the same frame i.e some parts one color some parts as much as two others, nothing but manual post processing can help. Try using the Clone Stamp in "Color" mode. Then you can re-paint the bad colors out. Just sample a "good" part of the court and work from there. I've done this with grass(football) and ice(hockey) and it works OK.

Click to expand...

Sodium Vapor...?

I think you're confused, as everyone that I talk to knows them as Satan Vapor lights. (Sodium is just a marketing ploy BTW...it's actually sulphur...well, that and brimstone.)

animal78 said:

Flash is the best option. Last year I had good results using just available light. My D3 and D700 are great at ISO 6400. They are WAY BETTER at ISO 200 with either SB-900's or Alien Bees. If you can use flash, it's the way to go.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's your best bet. Depending on the sport and your use of flash it shouldn't bother the players and can still look "natural."

Satan Vapor - very fitting, I like it...

By and large, I'm getting light that is consistent throughout the frame. Flash would be a great equalizer but I can't really use it. I don't have the time or space to set anything up and I'm not sure if they allow flash.

I'll have to check. I have 3 SB600s at my disposal. If I had my way, I'd probably set at about 20 degrees in front of the basket at each end and maybe one at center court as wide as I can get.

I wonder if I could run ISO 800, f/4 and 1/100 and get a burn in of the ambient and still still be able to freeze the action with the flash?

Never tried it... yet.

--
-Dan Rode
http://rodephoto.com

By and large, I'm getting light that is consistent throughout the frame. Flash would be a great equalizer but I can't really use it. I don't have the time or space to set anything up and I'm not sure if they allow flash.

In this case, I'd work on your whitebalance and clean it up as best you can - dont forget your fine-tuning with the sub command dial.

I'll have to check. I have 3 SB600s at my disposal. If I had my way, I'd probably set at about 20 degrees in front of the basket at each end and maybe one at center court as wide as I can get.

Assuming your shooting from the end of the court, my setup is place flash as high as you can, bleachers/lightstand/etc.; as close the the baseline as possible-you dont want them too far in front of you; angled toward the foul line which keeps them out of the players eyes and covers a lot of the court. The sidelight makes a nice ring around the players. Unless it's a small gym, it's a lot for one sb600 to cover. At full power, recycle is long too. Try using 2 together, maybe triggered by the same pocket wizard or something. 2 units at 1/2 power =1 at full and you cut recycle times down.

I wonder if I could run ISO 800, f/4 and 1/100 and get a burn in of the ambient and still still be able to freeze the action with the flash?

I've shot as low as 1/100 sec and it's fine as long as the flash duration is short. Remember your flash exposure needs to be at least 3 stops less than ambient or you'll get ghosting.

It ain't perfect, but anyway...

Set your camera's advance mode to high speed continuous and shoot several frames of everything.

Chances are pretty good that you'll get a combination of acceptable color and acceptable action over the five frames you can get in a second.

I remember a few years ago someone took a few sequences of basketball foul shots, and during the sequences the color chaged amazingly.

BAK

If you're having issues with the color cycling, your best bet is to fix it in post. In the editing process, before doing adjustments, try to group them "these are all roughly the same amount of too red, these ones have roughly the same green cast" so you can apply the same adjustments to them (either copying-and-pasting/syncing adjustments in your RAW converter, or if shooting JPG and adjusting in Photoshop, copy the adjustment layers or make a couple actions and batch process.)

Another rather simplistic option that I'll just throw out there... converting to B&W eliminates color problems.
--
~K

The best solution would be to do what the top magazines do that have the NBA's blessing. Install studio lghts in the rafters that are remotely triggered.

I'm sure they're doing it a little different now but I remember S.I. had a couple of Hasselblads mounted over the rim, amazing captures.

Overpowering the problem lights and using your own light would be ideal imho.

Those mags still have amazing captures with all of the background support imho. Just watch a NBA game sometime and watch for the intermittant flashes at key play moments.

Regards,

Roger

'Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.'

Cartier-Bresson 1957