How to balance exposure and shutter speeds?

I'm trying to get a few high school basketball shots. I set my

shutter at 1/125 to 1/500, both my lenses only go down to f3.5 and

f4.5. My camera tells me I'm underexposing(Minolta Maxxum 50) I used

ISO 400 and 800. Can my lab push these to a better exposure, or

should I just buy a new lens. I'm going digital in a couple of weeks,

but I still intend to use film too. How can I balance this out?

Use a light meter and shoot at the correct exposure. And yes, you can rate the ISO higher

and have your lab push the film. You can still find Kodak P800/1600 Transparency film

which pushes well to +3 (3200)

Harriet; here I use Fuji 800 print films; and faster lenses. I like to used a minimum of an F2.8 lens here for indoorbasketball. Several gyms I vist are about 1/250 or 1/125 at F2.8; at iso 800. The newest highschool has more brighter modern lights; and only requires 1/500 @F2.8. An old ancient place shoots hoops in an old WW2 hanger; and it has 300 watt giant edison bulbs; this gem requires about 1/60 to 1/125 at F2.8! The 800 Fuji print films work well with mixed lighting types; arc; tungsten; vapor; mixtures of all. Getting a used 50mm F2; F1.7 might help.

With a slower lens; try some "panning" with the players too. This works many times well.

Thanks for all the help, and so quick! I've uploaded one image from the last game. I let the camera set itself, and I had it in sports mode. They all came out pretty much the same..BLURRY! I also use an 80A filter. As soon as I get my little tax refund I'm getting a Fujifilm S7000. I'm hoping it'll work better for me. Thanks again.<div></div>

The photo you uploaded has both a mixture of camera movement(the background has movement in it), and subject movement( the players have movement).It looks like you are using some strobe, as I see some ghosting as well. Bump up the shutter speed to 1/250 of a sec and shoot wide open,which is your largest lens opening.You should be able to stop motion. As said above, pan your camera with the player to help stop motion. Remember its easier to stop motion that is coming toward you rather than crossing the viewfinder.If you have to you can shoot with a flash and overpower the ambient light.This will give you sharp players ,but dark backgrounds.

Harriet , don't use a 80a filter,that really cuts down on the ammount of light hitting the film.Shoot a fast Color Neg,like Fuji press 800 and correct the color in photoshop or where they make your prints.

<< I'm hoping it'll work better for me. >>

 

If you're going to let the camera make the decisions for you I doubt you'll see much of an improvement.

 

The key is to figure out what shutter speed you want to use to freeze the action at a particular focal length and work out the correct aperture and ISO to achieve a properly exposed photo.

I was using ISO 800 on the previous shot. This time I had my camera in manual with ISO 400, 1/125, 1/250, and 1/500. My lenses only open up to f3.5 and 4.5. The digital that I want opens up to 2.6 or 2.8. It also has various ISO settings. I'll know more about my game shots from last night in about a week. I'll post a few (if they're good). Just kidding, I'll post a couple even if they're crappy. Thanks for the help.<div></div>

Howdy Harriet!

Of course it would be nice to have an f 2.8 or faster lens but to work with the lens you've got, there's no way to use higher shutter speeds in most high school gyms. A good gym with new lighting is typically iso 800 pushed to iso 1600 with an exposure of 125th at f2.8 which gives you very limited depth of field. That would be without flash.

 

I'd say by looking at your shot that you didn't set the camera to its published flash sync speed, usually marked on the shutter speed dial, i'm guessing maybe at 1/60th. Some of the dials have a little lightening bolt icon to let you know thats the flash sync speed.

Be SURE to set it at the flash sync speed if you use flash, however i think you'd do better without the flash and sticking to something like FUJI COLOR PRINT FILM iso 800 pushed to iso 1600. Remember that would mean that you need to physically set or program your camera to think its using iso 1600 film so the light meter reads for the higher film speed. I've shot thousands of indoor sports like this.

 

You will have to be sure to take your film to a PRO LAB like the following, http://www.bwc.net/

they have mail in customers from around the globe.

Be sure to take a sharpie on your shoot and put a single line through the published iso speed on the film canister and write with the sharpie the iso that you shot at. Also a note with the rolls of film needs to be with it stating the speed it was shot at and that you require a push process, in this case its a +1.

 

Another point, if you have access to a 'spot light meter', you could take a reading off the players faces in these gyms at get much better light metering information. The spot meters are not inexpensive but neither is wasting film. I happen to use the Sekonic L-508.

http://www.macuserforums.com/webx?14@19.2vIearyzoof.0@.ee70439

 

you can check the following for used meters, lenses, etc...

 

http://www.keh.com/hmpg/index.cfm

 

good luck!

High school gyms are terrible for light. I am on my way again tonight to shoot a game. I use the 1DMII. I set the ISO at least to 800 and shoot 2.8 at 200/250. I find that its hard to get the shot with a shutter speed any slower than 1/200. Having a fast lens makes a huge difference. Here is a recent shot.<div></div>

I finally worked up the nerve to post an image. I put a note in with my film explaining that I underexposed , trying to get faster shutter speed. I asked them to push the roll for me, and this is an example of what I got. Luckily the season is over now. Maybe I'll try baseball. At least it's outside in sunlight. Thanks for all your help.<div></div>