shutter speed for indoor bball

<p>Have a canon 30d and a 70-200mm 2.8L lens. I am having trouble taking quality bball action photos. I typically use Manual set at 2.8 ISO 1200-1600 and shutter speed 1/250. They don't look good. The gym we play in is dark. Also, a lot of pics have red eye in them. I set the camera so red eye shouldn't be a problem but it is. What am I doing wrong? I'm missing something. Thanks, danny</p>

<p>can you post some examples with EXIF info?</p>

<p>Are you using flash (red eye)? What WB are you using?</p>

<p>Yes I am using flash red eye. White balance typically is AWB. Tungsten makes it way to bluish.</p>

<p>What I used to do when I shot in a darker gym was set the ISO at 1600, Shutter at 1/500, and aperture at 2.8. I obviously did this by shooting in manual. Things will underexpose a bit, but it kind of depends on the lighting at the exact location of the player on the floor. I had pretty good results with it, especially after you brighten it up in photoshop a bit.</p>

<p>Red-eye reduction isn't likely to work well at a distance. It's only effective if the pre-flash is bright enough to make the subject's pupils constrict. However, your preflash goes off at such a distance that it's surely not all that "bright." My advice would be to turn off the red-eye reduction, because the pre-flash might attract people's attention, so that they glance straight at your camera and give you MORE red-eye problems. (If they're looking elsewhere, their eyes won't reflect much.)</p>

<p>For help with your flash, look into this product:<br>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=better+beamer&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=2998826865&ref=pd_sl_7gtzigu4vz_e">http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=better+beamer&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=2998826865&ref=pd_sl_7gtzigu4vz_e</a><br>

<a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/better_beamer.shtml">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/better_beamer.shtml</a></p>

<p>This product should give you a couple more stops of light.</p>

<p>try 1/400 at iso 1250 or 1600 and f2.8. Should work pretty good. I typically use a 50 1.8 from the baseline under the basket, at 1/500 ISo 1200-1600 and f2.2 or 2.5.</p>

<p>oh, and don't use flash. </p>

<p>I also, have a 50 1.8 that I am not happy with. The pics seem real soft . Still no flash even if the gym is like a dungeon? I mean the gym we play has horrible lighting. Dark,dark,dark.</p>

<p>Can you put a strobe in the rafters and trigger it with pocketwizards or generic equivalent?</p>

<p>The gym I shoot most of the time is very very dark as well...darker than any other gyms in the local area. I usually stay at 1/400 and iso 1250...1600 is too grainy for me. This example was shot at f2.2, and brightened significantly with canon's photo pro software. In other gyms, I can get 1/500 easy at iso 800. <br />I'm actually looking to buy a sigma 30mm 1.4, to get a little wider angle, and slightly faster lens.</p>

<p>Use flash if you have to, but I really don't like the look flash gives to sports photos. I guess that is just my preference. If I had to use a flash, i'd bounce it or use a good diffuser.</p><div></div>

<p>Nathan, nice picture above.<br>

No, unfortunately, I can't put any strobes in the rafters. It's an elementary gym.<br>

I will try these suggestions tommorrow and hope!</p>

<p>ok then, check this out<br>

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/3737879</p>

<p>Dan, how about letting loose a few Vivitar 285hv flashes, bounced off of the gym ceiling? Trigger with radio slaves. (Optical slaves won't work for you, because they'll keep going off whenever anyone else sets off a flash.) You can put together maybe 4 units for a total cost of around $400, and that would light up the gym like a Christmas tree. You might need to do a custom WB, depending on the color of the ceiling. If needed, you can modify these flashes in many useful ways...</p>

<p>http://www.graphic-fusion.com/vivitar285mods.htm</p>