Stupid gym lights?

JohnBiggs

I don't shoot many sports and definitely not much indoors. So while shooting a jump rope demonstration I had my shutter speed as high as I could get it (500-1000). However when I got home I noticed several pictures had a color shift right through them. Almost looked like my shutter was going bad.

Is there a in camera solution to this? I assume it's a high frequency colorshift in the gym lights that the fast shutter is capturing. I guess I can try to PP it out, but that's more work than I care to do for these types of photos.

pathfinder

John, I rarely shoot sports also, but I experienced this shooting the gym portions of the Special Olympics on the Indiana State University campus.

The flourescent lights color temp fluctuates as they cycle through a full sequence. To get a full, consistent color spectrum from them, requires using a shutter speed slow enough to capture a whole sequence - less than 1/125 or so if memory serves. Maybe 1/160th. But no faster than that.

1/60th is even better. Even then, you may have some difficulty with flourescent light color balance. Somewhere here on dgrin is a better, more scientific answer than the one I have given here, but it says about the same thing I think.

I'm with Joe McNally about fluorescent lights - the best filter is the electrical switch on the wall. And they are everywhere - tungsten lights are being replaced by fluorescent lights everywhere, even including your own home.

JohnBiggs

pathfinder wrote: »

John, I rarely shoot sports also, but I experienced this shooting the gym portions of the Special Olympics on the Indiana State University campus.

The flourescent lights color temp fluctuates as they cycle through a full sequence. To get a full, consistent color spectrum from them, requires using a shutter speed slow enough to capture a whole sequence - less than 1/125 or so if memory serves. Maybe 1/160th. But no faster than that.

1/60th is even better. Even then, you may have some difficulty with flourescent light color balance. Somewhere here on dgrin is a better, more scientific answer than the one I have given here, but it says about the same thing I think.

I'm with Joe McNally about fluorescent lights - the best filter is the electrical switch on the wall. And they are everywhere - tungsten lights are being replaced by fluorescent lights everywhere, even including your own home.

Ohh the dilemmas. Shoot at 1/125 for jumprope just sounds like lots of blur.

With the color shift I have quite a few images that caught the light in a good spot in the cycle and are acceptable. There is probably no real solution.... Other than shoot black and white.

GadgetRick

JohnBiggs wrote: »

Ohh the dilemmas. Shoot at 1/125 for jumprope just sounds like lots of blur.

With the color shift I have quite a few images that caught the light in a good spot in the cycle and are acceptable. There is probably no real solution.... Other than shoot black and white.

Shoot with flash...

Snowgirl

GadgetRick wrote: »

Shoot with flash...

Depends on the sport. Many don't allow flash.

GadgetRick

Snowgirl wrote: »

Depends on the sport. Many don't allow flash.

Honestly, I've not run into a sport which doesn't allow it. Although I've not shot tennis or anything like that but just about anything inside will allow it.