Lighting for Team in Gym?

<p>I have been asked to shoot team and individual pictures for a basketball team inside a gym. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on a set up for lighting. I have 2 Canon 580EX II flashes, 45" silver backed umbrella. <br>

I was thinking of having one flash on camera the other one set up on the umbrella stand right beside the camera. Will this give enough light? <br>

Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>Fortunately a basketball team is pretty small - 12 folks. You can usually do two rows of six of three rows of folks. Have the front row kneel, and second stand, and if you use three rows, then stand the back row on a bench.<br>

A few considerations: 1) coverage of subjects. You can just cover the group with one light and the umbrella - just have it right next to you and a bit above. With two lights available, it's probably better to use two umbrellas to camera right and left, equidistant from subjects for more even lighting.<br>

2) background - gyms notoriously poorly lit - watch your background, you might need one light and brolly to throw some light on the b/g; then you'd use one on the subjects. Maybe put one light on the floor behind the team aimed at the wall/background with wide adapter or even umbrella if you can hide it; or just off to the side out of the frame (but you might get some un-evenness, better than dark cave look though.)<br>

3) reflections - some gyms have that silly reflective paint on the walls, watch for specular hotspots from your flash.<br>

4) white balance - again, with the usually crappy fluorescent lighting, white balance might be an issue. you definitely want some plus-green gels for fluorescent lights, and when you're on site, assess how different the WB is between the house lights and your flashes.<br>

Otherwise, it should be fairly straightforward, you have everything you need to get a decent photo.<br>

M</p>

<p>Oh, just reread that OP. For the individual shots, you can definitely just use one light, then set up the other to rim/accent or hairlight or background light.</p>

<p>thanks for the advice. <br>

If I am shooting in Raw and then adjust the WB in LR later would that work? This is what I do sometimes just because the lighting in different rooms/gyms are always so different. <br>

I'm glad to know the set up I have will do a good job. This is my first shoot like this so I'm a bit nervous and want to be confident that my set up will work.<br>

To avoid the backdrop from being so dark should I have the teams about 3-5 feet in front of the backdrop? Then have my on camera external flash pointed up towards the backdrop? </p>

<p>You can shoot RAW and then correct later of course. The only issue is if the temp of your flashes and the lighting in the gym are very different - then you might not be able to fix it completely in post.<br>

I'd set up one flash with the umbrella on a stand just off to one side of you - have it above camera level and set up to evenly light the team/subject. Then I'd set one flash on the ground oriented and set up to light the backdrop. Having the subject 5-6 feet in front of the backdrop should be fine.<br>

Good luck.</p>

<p>Hmmm I never thought about the flash temp in compared to the gym lighting. How do I test that or learn more about how to do that correctly?</p>

<p>Check out the strobist - they have some great tips on using small flashes.<br>

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-using-gels-to-correct.html</p>

<p>A quick way is to shoot in the gym using just the fluorescent lights, shoot using the Fluorescent WB on your camera, then shoot once using the Flash WB. Chances are the flash WB will look a bit blue/green. If it's not too bad then you can probably live with it and fix in post.<br>

You can also set up your lights and try the same exercise, using both Flash and Fluor WB. Chances are that on Flash your pics will turn out best. This is largely because you're likely overpowering the ambient Fluorescent light with your flashes...in this case you're fine. Just use the Flash WB and shoot flash and you're good. I only mentioned it because if the flash is not that strong vs the ambient and you've got two different WB sources, then it can get tricky; then you're better off gelling your flashes to the ambient (fluorescent using plus-green FL gels) and shooting on Fluorescent WB.<br>

Good luck.</p>

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