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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> Gym lights and white balance settings?
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 12/19/2006 09:49:22 PM · #1
Once again I was at the gym taking photos at basketball practice.

Tonight I decided to take the camera off of auto white balance to see what a differance it would make.

I was amazed at how different the photos looked.
The first one is with the camera on auto balance and the second one with the white balance set to tungsten.

Now I have no idea for sure just what kind of lights are in a gym.
Could someone tell me if they are tungsten?
Guess I should have taken a photo of the lights too, lol..





These are right from the camera and I only resized them.

With the camera set to tungsten I think the whites looks much whiter and the blue so blue.

I also now see that I got a fast shutter speed in AV mode with the camera set to tungsten.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the white balance of these two photos and any tips you could give me.

I was playing around with the Aperture setting too and though the lens is a f/1.4 it seems I would get the best focus for a group of players using 2.8 or anything above 2.0

Message edited by author 2006-12-19 21:49:45.
 12/19/2006 09:52:58 PM · #2
Depends on the gym. You could run into mixed lighting as well. If your second photo matches/is close to what you saw then tungsten it is.

If at all in doubt you could always to a custom white balance.
 12/19/2006 10:02:12 PM · #3
The ones on the walking track above and the lights above the door way area I think are fluorescent. You can see on in the photo. The ones up really high are really bright and reflect off the wooden gym floor and are different then fluorescent lights.

Message edited by author 2006-12-19 22:02:43.
 12/19/2006 10:07:42 PM · #4
You are going to always have mixed lighting in a gym. I usually shoot with a WB setting of tungsten, tweaked to -1. I find that gives a slightly warmer tone. Here are some examples



Message edited by author 2006-12-19 22:09:23.
 12/19/2006 10:14:55 PM · #5
Gyms and other sporting venues often have positively the *worst* lighting situation you are ever likely to encounter. It does look like your venue was lit with tungsten or something that was at least close to tungsten for WB purposes. That's relatively unusual these days.
Often, gyms are lit with arc lamps, which can have a range of colors depending which gasses are used in the lamps. Even worse, they often mix sodium lamps (orange) with other types to get a more natural looking lighting. This lighting mix plays havoc with WB, since the WB changes from place to place on the gym floor. You can tell if they did this by looking at the lights. If they have different color casts from lamp to lamp, you're in trouble.
 12/19/2006 10:26:36 PM · #6
you mite be best to shoot it as best you can in raw and edit after for colour in your favorite app...

-dave
 12/19/2006 10:40:55 PM · #7
Not sure about the Pentax, but the Fuji that I use has a couple of custom white balance settings which make it easy unless the light is different from one part of the floor to the other, like day light coming thru the window in one area for instance.
To do a custom WB with the Fuji, all that's necessary is a white or grey card, and one exposure in the anticipated light. This is handy for wedding photos with ambient light if you can get the setting before the party starts, then switch to it when the flash is turned off.

12/19/2006 10:44:52 PM · #8
Originally posted by dknourek:
you mite be best to shoot it as best you can in raw and edit after for colour in your favorite app...

-dave


The trouble I have with shooting it in RAW is my burst rate is only 3 frames and it takes longer to write them to the card before I can shoot again.

With the best .jpg setting I can shot a burst of 5 frames and it's ready to go again in what seems like no time at all.

If I only have a camera that did 9 frames a seconds. :)
 12/19/2006 10:51:47 PM · #9
Originally posted by MelonMusketeer:
Not sure about the Pentax, but the Fuji that I use has a couple of custom white balance settings which make it easy unless the light is different from one part of the floor to the other, like day light coming thru the window in one area for instance.
To do a custom WB with the Fuji, all that's necessary is a white or grey card, and one exposure in the anticipated light. This is handy for wedding photos with ambient light if you can get the setting before the party starts, then switch to it when the flash is turned off.


Sounds like the Manual WB I have on the pentax.
Put the WB in manual and point it at a white card. Snap the shutter and view the preview to see if it looks white. If so press OK to set the Manual white balance.

Guess I will need to get a white card. :)
 12/19/2006 10:58:53 PM · #10
I was shooting at a camp for my students and the auditorium had horrible orange lighting.

I took a picture of a white piece of paper in the auditorium and used that as my custom white balance. Worked like a charm.
 12/19/2006 11:06:06 PM · #11
Seems like I saw a thread just like this yesterday, but can't find it now.
In a pinch, any paper that you know is white in daylight will work for the WB setting, even a grocery reciept. It dont' have to be in focus if you go to manual focus you can put it right near the lens to set the WB, then back to auto if you want to shoot with auto.
12/19/2006 11:13:35 PM · #12
Originally posted by MelonMusketeer:
Seems like I saw a thread just like this yesterday, but can't find it now.
In a pinch, any paper that you know is white in daylight will work for the WB setting, even a grocery reciept. It dont' have to be in focus if you go to manual focus you can put it right near the lens to set the WB, then back to auto if you want to shoot with auto.


Awesome,
Thanks everyone!
 12/19/2006 11:15:43 PM · #13
Link to setting Custom WB discussion

MattO
 12/19/2006 11:17:46 PM · #14
Most of these gyms (the ones i shoot in regularly) are lit with mercury vapor lamps. The color casting problems are more from the flooring than from the light sources.
 12/20/2006 12:33:46 AM · #15
Originally posted by cryan:
You are going to always have mixed lighting in a gym. I usually shoot with a WB setting of tungsten, tweaked to -1. I find that gives a slightly warmer tone. Here are some examples



Nice, love the white balance..
 12/20/2006 09:59:37 AM · #16
Gym lighting is terrible. Sometimes the lights are mixed--you may see cool white fluorescents mixed with warm white because the school uses whatever cheapest. And some older fluorescents are on 60 cycle (or 50, depending on your mains power) and you'll see a color change if you shoot faster than 1/60 (newer fluorescents have a high frequency ballast and don't show this affect) But sodium or mercury are the worst. They don't have enough of some parts of the color spectrum and change color at 60 cycles. And some lights may be on three phase, leading to this kind of situation:


I've found the best thing to do is a custom WB. Use the coffee filter trick (ie put a white coffee filter, napkin or similar over the lens and take a picture and set WB from that). Or if you want to spend money, buy an expodisk.

Also, take a few pictures of the lights after you WB, and use something faster than 1/60 (go as fast as you can). This will tell you if you have 60 cycle issues (ie color cycling with the AC power cycle). If this happens, about the best you can do is convert to B&W :-)

Message edited by author 2006-12-20 09:59:54.
 12/21/2006 09:56:34 AM · #17
One more thing about this.. Don't forget to take the camera off custom WB at the end of the event. I have a couple of lenses which have a bit of a strange effect on auto WB. One is a Sigma 400/5.6 which adds a bit of a cooler hue. I set a custom WB with the lens on when using it for nature photos, which works well unless the ambient light quality changes.
So many buttons, so few brains.
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