Digital Rebel Help

[Frantasmic]

Hi. We have a digital Rebel and normally it takes great pictures. However, inside the gym at school (during volleyball games) the pictures are terrible, no matter what the setting. The pictures look like my father's failed attempts with a yellow filter from his trip to Venezuala in 1956.

The gym's lighting isn't the best, but when you are in it, you don't notice dimming or anything. There are windows, so there is some natural sunlight. The lighting in the gym looks to be the old type that take a while to warm up, early fluorescent or something.

Any suggestions? My wife is the photog in the family. Perhaps if I posted a picture? She's read the instructions and tried several different tactics.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ndelaware]

The "White Balance" is off. You will have to shoot in "P" mode or one of the more manual settings and adjust the White Balance to "Tungsten" or "Flourescent" to get color right. Or, you cold switch the image quality to "RAW" and adjust the white balance later on your computer using Photoshop, Canon's Digital Photo Professional, or a similar image adjusting software.

 

[mabas9395]

In gyms I usually have pretty good luck with the custom white balance. Take a closeup shot of something white. Like a white wall or a white t-shirt and use that. What you are doing is telling the camera this is what white is supposed to look like, so stop making it yellow and make it white. Check your manual to see the steps how to make the white picture you took your custom white balance.

One problem with adjusting your white balance in the camera (as opposed to using RAW and doing it on the computer) is if you forget to change it back to Auto when you leave the gym you can get some funky pictures. Also, if you decide to use the flash in the gym for anything, you will have to reset your white balance also.

 

[PaulD]

You can also try shooting a white card under the gym's lighting to set a manual white balance. If you go with RAW you should still shoot a white card to use as a reference for WB adjustments in the converter.

 

[PaulD]

Errrr.... mabas9395 beat me to the reply...

 

[Frantasmic]

Thanks for the help. We will check this out tomorrow at another game.

 

[Master Mason]

You mean like this

These were taken within the first week or so I had the XT..... Needless to say I got a crash course in WB the next day.

I still need to get some larger cards so I can just shoot in RAW. The problem I have is I get about 250 shots in large fine jpg, but only about 74 per card with RAW... thats with a 1gb card.

 

[PoohJen]

Doh! I got a bunch of pics like this in one of the restaurants on the Magic last month; I was fooling around w/ exposure, but not white balance.

...so much to learn...so much to remember...

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It's not too hard to correct white balance, even with a JPG. Many photo editors like Photoshop have some means of correcting white balance by letting you select something that is supposed to be white or gray and then adjusting based on that.

If you do decide to fix a set of pictures all taken under the same lighting conditions, I would suggest that you determine what the color temperture and tint settings should be and then apply them consistently across all of the pictures. If you try to correct each one by itself, you'll almost always do them slightly different. It isn't noticeable when looking at one photo, but when you quickly go through a set, subtle differences in white balance can be quite jarring.

 

[Anewman]

I hate shooting Volleyball, my daughter plays and I go to all her games but it just always seem like I have the wrong angle and such. Other sports are so much more predictable, and do not even get me started on lighting inside highschool gyms.

I always shoot raw and there will always be a white reference in a picture(sock, jersey, sweatband, t-shirt in background, etc...).

 

[timned88]

try a balance smarter...

http://www.balancesmarter.com/

keep one of these babies in your bag, take a reference shot prior to the event, and use that reference to white balance your entire batch of raw files. simple as that and takes seconds.

 

[NJDad18]

I use a coffee filter. It's cheap and easy. I use it to shoot my daughter's gymnastics.

 

[allyn]

you can also use the lid from a pringles can.

 

[Master Mason]

try a balance smarter...

http://www.balancesmarter.com/

keep one of these babies in your bag, take a reference shot prior to the event, and use that reference to white balance your entire batch of raw files. simple as that and takes seconds.

Interesting... which side do you use?

 

[timned88]

the gray side with the crosshairs