Gym Photos

[Emma]

What kinds of camera settings compenstate for the weird lighting in gymnasium photos? They always turn out so yellow and grainy.
But some photographers know how to take them and they look normal. What's the secret?!

[andyapc]

Oh my gosh, Emma, I can't believe you asked this question - I just posted the very same question on somebody's layout (can't remember whose, now!) because her gym pictures were pretty good, even though she had to edit them in her program because apparently they weren't good to start out with. EVERY SINGLE gym picture I have taken is yellow - it doesn't matter what setting I have my camera on. It is so frustrating. I can't wait to hear anybody's advice on this!!

[Karen]

Not sure with digital cameras but with film its done with the use of filters, do you know what type of lighting it is? If you haven't already you could alter the white balance of your camera, I'm not sure which setting would work, but I guess with digital you could try them all until you get something that looks about right:)

[Emma]

Hmmm...white balance...good idea.

I don't know what kind of lights they use in there, but they take awhile to come on. They're really dim when first lit, and gradually brighten, sometimes "snapping" on when warm.

Would a filter correct the grainy texture as well?

:D Andrea, I saw that layout for my class, and your post is what got me thinking about this. All my gym photos are yellow and grainy too.

Thanks Karen! I'll try that, though it'll be awhile before my kids are old enough to have gym photos at school ;)

Anyone else have more ideas? Would love to hear more

[u.k. lady]

This is definitley a white balance issue ,I can custom set my white balance on my Nikon d70 with a grey card .Not sure about the drebel, I would imagine you can do that .You should have options on your white balance, experiment and do it when it's not an important game :) .
The grain issue is due to low light.I am going to suggest that to get pictures such as you see the pros do, you need a really good lens with a large aperture and possibly an external flash ,what do you think Karenj?.
The Iso is what is producing the grain if your digital it's trying to compensate because of the bad lighting and if fidelis were here she would explain the process of what happens in film far better than I could(see if I can drag her on later to explain;) )
Check out emurph2 on two peas, she produces some awesome shots with her sports lens .She does hockey shots of her kids .I think we need to drag her over here too :)


Jacqui

[emurph2]

This is definitley a white balance issue ,I can custom set my white balance on my Nikon d70 with a grey card .Not sure about the drebel, I would imagine you can do that .You should have options on your white balance, experiment and do it when it's not an important game :) .
The grain issue is due to low light.I am going to suggest that to get pictures such as you see the pros do, you need a really good lens with a large aperture and possibly an external flash ,what do you think Karenj?.
The Iso is what is producing the grain if your digital it's trying to compensate because of the bad lighting and if fidelis were here she would explain the process of what happens in film far better than I could(see if I can drag her on later to explain;) )
Check out emurph2 on two peas, she produces some awesome shots with her sports lens .She does hockey shots of her kids .I think we need to drag her over here too :)

Thank you so much for the kind words Jacqui and here I am. I have no idea how to use this site, so please excuse any mistakes I make.

In my experience the whole issue is the speed of your camera and your lens. WB is a good thing to look at too, but if you don't have the speed you're going to get the grain and the yellow or green photos. It's all about light. I did some basketball pictures once in a small gym with my little 50 mm, 1.8 portrait lens. This lens worked great for these shots because in the AV mode at 1.8 I was able to get shutter speeds up around 500, which is good for sports. Always avoid the flash, it just doesn't make your pictures look as nice. You can get some funky reflections and red eyes and it just doesn't look natural. I would also recommend that you try the free download of Neat Image (www.neatimage.com) which will remove grain from your high ISO pictures. I take my hockey pictures at ISO 800-1600 and with Neat Image you can remove all that ugly grain and end up with a fantastic picture. They are using one of my hockey pics over on that site that I took with an ISO of 3200. These pictures don't print up as grainy looking as they look on the screen. So my advice for gym pictures is to raise your ISO, turn off your flash, and use a low aperture lens. Also remember with your low aperture lens the closer you get to your subject, the more blur you'll have on your subject. It shouldn't be an issue in sports but with a close up you might get the nose in focus and nothing else ( speaking from recent experience with a 1.2 aperture). They can be tricky to use. You might also want to use a tripod. It's amazing how much a tripod helps you in low light situations.

Good luck, these pictures can be tricky and I would do some testing with your WB before you shoot. Don't forget to try the tungsten and flourescent settings. I used Auto WB in the gym, and my camera, who is smarter than me, figured out what it had to do to get it right.

I hope I'm posting this right. Sorry if I made a mistake.

Erica

[Emma]

Thank you Erica! THAT MADE SENSE! WOWOWOWOW! I must have learned something from my sister because THAT MADE SENSE!

My camera only goes to 2.8 aperture (Nikon Coolpix 5700) but I'm pretty sure there's an override function to get it bigger. The speed goes up to 1/4000.

Should be fun to play with. I'll have to try this out with the bat bridge here in Austin: an urban bridge that bats roost in, then fly out every night to eat bugs. It's similar low light, and fast moving, far-off subjects, with some articial light from surounding buildings. Won't be quite like a gym, but now I have an idea of how to proceed.
I've always wondered how photographers get their shots of these little creatures to turn out. MY TURN!

Thanks so much!

[u.k. lady]

Erica,
I am soooooooooo excited you made it over here .Please post some of your fantastic pics so people can see how great you are.You really can help people with your knowledge of sports photography ,this girl is class, check her photos out
speak to ya soon


hugs
Jacqui

[emurph2]

Thanks Jacqui, you are sooooooooo sweet! I did post a pic for the DOF challenge. I wish I still had my h2o polo picture, but I can't find it! That was one of my favorites and I have no idea what I did with it.

Erica