chef arno Loc: San Diego

i am looking for suggestions on how to shoot my son's basket ball games. i will have several games inside this building and hope to choose the best settings. most of the attached photos are shot at iso 2000, f2.8, 1/640 on a Nikon D90 with Nikon AF-s 70-200 mm f2.8G lens. here are my specific questions:

1. these are all obviously yellow. i have i photo only and it's on my laptop. is it best to adjust white bal on the camera or is there a way to do it batch on the lap top. if on the camera, should i use the color chart or pic a temp range?

2. what are the ideal settings for shooting indoors sports with funky lighting? fully manual, or s priority? any guidelines on those?

3. some of my photos are focused on the wrong subject. for shooting sports, what is the best focusing to use? spot? center spot? etc.

Thank you in advance.

bball photos

Kenneth Pierce Loc: Campbellsville, Kentucky

The color cast is a white balance issue. Ed Pierce at Photovision has a white balance reflector to set a custom white balance for your camera or if you have Breezebrowser or photoshop you can process your images under the white balance that looks best in post production.
For your lens, I would suggest using a shutter speed of about 250 and that would allow you to drop the ISO rating down some which should eliminate some of the noise. Just my 2 cts worth!

treadwl Loc: South Florida

Welcome to the world of middle &high school sports in arena where the lighting stinks. Some venues are little better than caves with candles. Yours is not quite that bad, but it is close. First, the yellow is due to the type of lights being used in the gym. You can correct this by using custom white balance. The best way, and what I do in all the gyms (arenas) where i shoot is to use Expodisk. Look it up on the web. It is a type of filter disk that you apply to the front of the lens before you start shooting and it allows for perfect white balance.

Next the photos you show--two are out of focus and all look a bit under exposed at least on my monitor. For middle school, you can drop that shutter speed to 500 and not 640 and that will help. I suggest manual setting since the lights are not going to change brightness during the game itself. I shoot b-ball with that same lens and you can and should zoom closer (get tighter on the subject). Try using 9-21 focus points and set the camera to continuous tracking.

In most gyms I prefer to get on the baseline, use a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 lens set to f2. You have to be patient and wait forthe action to come to you but you can get some good shots. I also sometimes use a nikon sb-800 flash set to -2 and ISO 800. That will allow short bursts of shots.

Good Luck

Larry

Ugly Jake Loc: Sub-Rural Vermont

Can I go off-topic just a little ? As a former athletic trainer, I am APPALLED to see a "rope barrier" separating these young men from a Weider gym and other weight apparatus! I don't care HOW crowded your gym is - you should NEVER have apparatus in the gym with these wild-eyed basketball Jones ! Ask whoever is in charge to visualize one of these young men impaled on a weight spike, or concussed or skull-fractured on that white universal gym machine -sooner or later, it WILL happen ! All for the sake of convenience ! (For example, more than 10 youths are KILLED every year by unsecured soccer goals tipping over on them - for $5 in anchor pegs and 5 minutes of effort. *Rant ends*

writersnation

I shoot Nikon D300. The F2.8 70-200 Glass. I play with the custom white balance until i find a desirable color. The expodisk is very useful so if possible get that equipment. I wait until the athletes pose in the air or are at the palm to ball position. you will have a split second to catch a still shot. i set my camera manually to 250 f2.8. With practice you can capture some desirable images. Happy shooting!

vislp Loc: Level Pebble

I'm with you!

chef arno Loc: San Diego

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions, including about the safety issues.

stevenelson Loc: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

What i see is a white balance problem, when the light is wierd try using auto white balance or a custom white balance with a white balance lens or fix it in p.s.

bogeyeliot Loc: Signal Hill, CA

my D5100 has several "preset" settings for various types of indoor lighting...would that be a good alternative to changing the white balance or using those cards to set white balance readings?

LaurieB Loc: North Dakota

file:///C:/Users/Owner1/Pictures/2012/January/misc%20photos/nikon-d700d3d300-autofocus-settings.html

Try this website. It is for the D300 and D700 but I believe a lot will be the same for the D90.

ghost26

What are thoughts on him using an ExpoDisk?

nikondaddy Loc: Mayfield,Kentucky

The preoblems is color correctionor white blance like tungsten light, flourescent light or white balance dorect to the source witha white object. Can be color corrected in photo shop. looks like tungsten or mercury vapor light.

nikondaddy Loc: Mayfield,Kentucky

The preoblems is color correctionor white blance like tungsten light, flourescent light or white balance dorect to the source witha white object. Can be color corrected in photo shop. looks like tungsten or mercury vapor light.

pbmelvin

White balance correction and a crop can make a lot of difference.

Orig


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chef arno Loc: San Diego

Hi Larry, great suggestions. can you please clarify using 9-21 focus points? Thanks very much.