BurgSports Photo Blog

Taylor Ross looks to pass in the Pirates’ game against the Waverly Tigers on Dec 3, 2007.

This post is more-or-less a reminder to myself on what settings I use to light the Wheelersburg High School gymnasium during basketball season.

The photo below was shot with a Canon EOS Mark II, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L and lit with two Canon 580EX flashes set on quarter power. I always mount one flash on the score table on the stage and set it to 1/2 power and zoomed to 105mm and bounce it off the ceiling towards the dim side of the gym (stage-side). I mount my other flash on the studs located near the top of the bleachers on the wall behind the baskets. I set it to 1/2 power and zoomed to 70mm and aim it at the top of the key at the top of the players heads. Aiming the flashes over the players’ heads feathers the light and creates more pleasing shadows. I use a 3/4 density Window Green gel filters on both flashes and set my white balance to Fluorescent. Gelling my flashes takes all the work and time out of adjusting my colors in post-processing. I usually shoot 1/250 or 1/320 @ ISO 800. The Mark II is pretty good at allowing me to bump my exposure up without destroying image quality.

Adobe Lightroom gives you some cool color control options in the Develop module. In the photo below, I was able to remove all colors except orange and a slight tint of yellow (for the skin). Doing this made the grass grayscale, but left the players in  full color. Each photo took about 15 seconds, required no masking or selection process and the end result was pretty cool.

Kate Staker dives back to first base after a pick attempt. The dust cloud and dark exposure set a nice tone in the photo.