Need help - Gym lighting.. blah

[Smolt]

My nephew has a school program tonight and it will be in the school gym. Lights blazing. Everytime I shoot in a gym the pics turn out horrible!

I am planning on using my 75-300IS.

Not a super fast lens... should i just adjust the shutter speed to where there is no motion in the pictures and try to brighten them up later PP? What about that nasty orangy yellow tone from the gym lights? I'm not looking for fantastic pics here... just something decent.

Thanks for any suggestions!

My other lens that i have are the nifty fifty and the 18-55is kit.

If i was thinking i would of got my friends 24-105L... but I cant get ahold of it on this short of notice.

[teaking]

Well if you can get there early to give you a bit of time to set things up, then you can check your white balance or set a custom white balance if needed this should help with the orange colour cast unless your using flash then you may need gels or fabric on your flash as you will have two different light sources throwing off your white balance.

As for shooting advice aim for a shutter speed in the hundreds at least you may have to pump up your ISO to get this. Its better to have noise in good pictures than have bad pictures. If you still get motion blur at the highest shutter speed you can achieve exposure at then try panning shots on your subject.

Or if possible use flash to freeze the subject but this may throw your white balance.

[RexK_Cozumel]

what is the event? will you even be allowed to use flash?

[Apanther]

I have the same XSI and typically shoot things in a gym two different ways. If i am really serious and have time, I shoot in RAW and edit white balance later. It means I have to take the time editing most of my keeper pics. If I am being "lazy," I change the white balance setting to flourescent and shoot in one of the custom modes. Shooting sports, I shoot in sport mode for bursts and with the WB changed, shots come out pretty nice.

[Smolt]

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!

I think I am going to get there early and fiddle with the settings, try just putting it on florescent and shoot w/ shutter speed priority and bumping the iso if i can't get it right. I'm hoping to not shoot in raw... I have a new baby and not a lot of time to fiddle with converting and editing Just wanna take the pictures and email them to his mom

[Smolt]

Originally Posted by RexK_Cozumel

what is the event? will you even be allowed to use flash?

Yes I will be able to use flash, but plan on shooting from the bleachers with a baby in my lap or arms

[andrecb]

HI, I had the exactly same problem last weekend, see "Rookie mistake?" post below this one.

Shoot with the lens that allows the maximum aperture to let more light in. if it has IS and you are going to follow an athlete, maybe best to try IS off, so it won't confuse panning shooting, with vibration and ad even more movement, although its hard. try both ways and see what comes out best.

I shoot some with flash(slow sync) and without flash, the ones with flash came out better, although, built in flash does not allow continuous shooting (don't know if any allows)

And I shoot some in raw and some in Jpg, raw will give you more range later to correct some mistakes.

But keep in mind that that was my first sports in a gym shooting. I'm not the best person to give advise

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by andrecb

And I shoot some in raw and some in Jpg, raw will give you more range later to correct some mistakes.

All great advice, however, why do you shoot some in RAW and some in JPEG? Makes not sense.

The OP is going to have a tough time getting good shots unless the lighting in the gym is extremely good. You need faster glass to shoot in a gym sans flash. As you know, from where you're sitting (in the bleachers) your flash won't help much.

Shooting indoors like this is extremely tough from a lighting standpoint without the proper equipment. There is no way around it.

[andrecb]

Originally Posted by GadgetRick

All great advice, however, why do you shoot some in RAW and some in JPEG? Makes not sense.

The OP is going to have a tough time getting good shots unless the lighting in the gym is extremely good. You need faster glass to shoot in a gym sans flash. As you know, from where you're sitting (in the bleachers) your flash won't help much.

Shooting indoors like this is extremely tough from a lighting standpoint without the proper equipment. There is no way around it.

I began to shoot in Jpg because I was running out of space for raw

I was able to go in to the field's borders, so the flash was helpful.