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Action Shots in a Gym
The main reason we upgraded to a Canon Digital Rebel is because we've never been able to take really nice photos of our daughter playing volleyball inside the gymnasium. Some gyms are better than others though... but I am always battling the poor lighting conditions vs. the fast action.
Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions? Volleyball camp is the next 2 weeks, so that will give me a great opportunity to practice before the season in the fall. Thanks in advance!
:
Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions? Volleyball camp is the next 2 weeks, so that will give me a great opportunity to practice before the season in the fall. Thanks in advance!
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Comments
It's expensive, but the 70-200 2.8 IS L is superb. The IS will help a lot in lower lighting that causes the slower shutter speed.
First of all, learn to master custom white balance or shoot raw (adjusting
the WB in photoshop)
The challenge of lighting in a gym are many. The lights often "cycle" meaning
you'll sometimes have different white balance between two or more sequential
shots. The amount of light varies from place to place too. You'll find that
shooting between 800-1600 ISO (and using a fast lens) is the only thing that
will give you fast enough shutter speeds to capture the action.
I don't know too much about volleyball. But do try to shoot as many
different angles as possible--watch your backgrounds.
There are a couple of ways to set the custom white balance. The cheap
way is to use a white paper coffee filter, set the lens to manual focus and
shoot a frame in the general direction of the best light. Then select that
frame as the frame to use for WB. The second is to buy something like an
Expodisc and use that. Same technique. Add it to the lens, shoot a frame
and set the WB. Keep in mind that if you arrive when the lights are first
turned on, WB will change until they warm up completly--it will change if
the lights "cycle" too (shoot raw).
I would think a lens between 70-200mm would be good for volleyball.
You will need something between 1.8 and 2.8, the faster the better, to
maintain fast shutter speeds. Canon makes a very nice 85/f1.8 that's
reasonably priced. The 70-200/f2.8ISL is a nice lense too--though
expensive. The advantage a zoom offers is the ability to frame shots
both near and far. The disadvantages are cost and of course, speed.
When you arrive courtside, shoot a couple of frames after you've set WB,
look at the histogram and make any final adjustments and then enjoy
shooting the event.
Looking forward to seeing your shots!
Ian