Mix flash w/ school gym lighting for portraits?

Just got a EOS 20D, and wouldn't you know it -- before I've even had

a chance to put it through its paces I've been asked to do some

[free] shots of a small school sports team, in the school gym in the

evening. I feel comfortable enough with the basic operation of the

camera, so my concern is mainly around the lighting. I will save RAW

files to give myself some flexibility with the white balance, etc.,

but I'm wondering if I will make things better or worse by using my

420EX Speedlight for fill flash. Will the flash mixed with the

(probably) far-from-daylight gym lighting make it harder to find a

WB color temp that works? I'm planning to take an initial shot of a

grey card for color reference - good idea? Should I try to use a

reflector instead of the flash to bounce some of the same color

light from the overhead lights as fill? Any guidance would be

greatly appreciated. Thanks.

By the way, I've been shooting film up till now, in case that didn't come across clearly. I imagine I'm going to be better off shooting digital in this situation than trying to get film to work well in the setting. Right?

Hi Philip, I recently shot a girl's basketball game in a local high school gym with my 20D. I brought my flash along but didn't use it for two reasons: 1) The high ISO performance of the 20D is so good I didn't really need it. ISO 1600 is entirely useable. If you need to make big prints then you might want to look into something like NeatImage to get rid of what (relatively) little noise there is... and 2) The gym was pretty crowded and it would've been impossible for me to run up and down the length getting close enough so that flash would make a difference. The only other thing that came into play was the funky (mostly fluorescent) lighting. I shot jpeg with the fluorescent white balance and got pretty close but if it's a concern you can always shoot RAW and fine-tune the WB later. You didn't mention what lens(es) you might be using. I got excellent results from the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. Good luck!

Grey card is always a good idea...and in a mixed/odd lighting situation like this, shooting raw is probably a good idea, especially since you are not as familiar with this camera yet.

Philip,

you don't say if you are shooting action shots or not. If the shots are not action do yourself a favor and use the flash as your main light and the ambient as fill, even a modern well lit gym has horrible overhead lighting .

Your digital camera will excell at a job like this. If you are shooting action available light is the way to go. Don't overthink this, set the white balance for flash and with a sophisicated flash like you own it should be a breeze.

good luck

Steve<div></div>

Thanks for the answers so far. I'm actually not going to be shooting action shots - the cheerleaders will be posing for individual and group portraits, more or less, but apparently it's traditional to take the sports team shots in the gym...

 

I'm going to bring my 50/1.8 and 90/2.8 lenses and see which one works best for framing with the 1.6x crop factor.

ah - definitely use the flash then... two if you have them...

I shot some pictures of dancers in a school gym some years ago. The lighting was awful - just overhead fluorescents which gave very flat illumination. There were some very small, high windows but, to all intents and purposes, of no use photographically. I found full flash to be essential.

Try not to mix fluorescents and flash. If you must, use a gel on the flash to try to get it to match the fluorescents a bit better. Otherwise, you end up with one part of a face lit by your flash, and another part a different color, because it's lit more strongly by the fluorescents.

 

Do your white balance off a gray card after you've filtered your flash. Rosco sells a number of gels that are useful for this.

Go to a BIG camera or theatre supply store and ask for a swatchbook of lighting gels.

these 1x2.5" samples or hundreds of lighting filters will contain a sample that

matches daylight to flourescent, or if it's mercury vapour lighting, you can come

close. The flourescent filter will be greenish in colour...TEAR IT OUT, then tape it over

your flash where the daylight coloured light comes out. The filter will make it match

flourescent lighting.

 

You may have to try a few swatches to get the right one.

 

IF the lights a mercury vapour...your SOL in a way. Mercury vapour lights shift colour

and brightness very rapidly...just take a sequence of an empty gym and you'll see it

when you replay the files in camera.

swatchbooks are free!