 BetterPhoto Member |
Gymnast Photos I own a Rebel XTI with a 70-200 IS L series lense. I am a newbie. I shoot almost all indoors as my daughter is a gymnast so flash is out. Some advice on setup to get the best shots please?
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robert G. Fately |
Well, John, obviously your position will be critical; that's up to you. As for settings - since most gyms use mercury vapor lights, which have a greenish cast, you should set your camera to auto white balance. Or you can take an initial image of a gray card and correct the images later in post processing (Photoshop or whatever). WIth a large-ish lens like yours (a good choice for indoor shooting, by the way) you might want to use a monopod to keep it steadier and prevent your arms from fatiguing too quickly. Set your ISO so that you can get at least 1/250th second shutter speed set at f2.8 - slower speeds might well cause motion blur. (On the other hand, you might want to get some blur in the shots to portray the action.) Metering can be tricky if your position relative to the gymnast puts bright lights or windows in the background - average or weighted metering will possibly underexpose your subject in an attempt to give a generally decent exposure. So use spot metering (with the "spot" on your daughter) or else stick to manual exposure control and start out taking a few shots to see where you get the best exposure. Hope that helps.
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W. |
Hi John, Mercury vapor and other fluorescent lights are a bitch (pardon my French...) for photography in general and for White Balance in particular. Many fluorescent lights have a tendency to vary their color temperature continuously. It oscillates at the rate of 50 or 60 Herz (= times per second; hardly perceptible for the human eye, but very perceptible for the camera). If you want to have maximum control of the White Balance I suggest you shoot RAW (instead of JPG or TIFF), so you can adjust in PP, AFTER the fact. Have fun!
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