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zebron
9th of October 2003 (Thu), 10:19
Can any sports photographers here (or anyone else) let me know what the typical colour temperature is of the Metal Halide bulbs used in sports arenas? I am doing some photography on opening night for a new arena, right after the lights come on, and will not be able to take any white balance calibration shots before hand.

As I understand it Metal Halide lighting can have a colour temperature between 3000K and 5500K. I was hoping to narrow that spread down as much as I can.

Thanks for any help,

Z
ShaneR
9th of October 2003 (Thu), 10:32
Could you shoot the entire event in RAW mode, then shoot a custom white sheet at the end of the night and apply it later?
DaveG
9th of October 2003 (Thu), 10:51
zebron wrote:
Can any sports photographers here (or anyone else) let me know what the typical colour temperature is of the Metal Halide bulbs used in sports arenas? I am doing some photography on opening night for a new arena, right after the lights come on, and will not be able to take any white balance calibration shots before hand.

As I understand it Metal Halide lighting can have a colour temperature between 3000K and 5500K. I was hoping to narrow that spread down as much as I can.

Thanks for any help,

Z

These lights should be daylight balanced (5500 K).

However the colour temperture of these lights as well as their intenisty will change on a second to second basis as they warm up. So any kind of colour temperture opinion is a guess.

I think that I'd try AWB and let the camera worry about it. Or shoot RAW and fix it later.
zebron
9th of October 2003 (Thu), 11:02
Shooting RAW would be ideal, only that I am using a 300D and the buffer is too small to capture the images quickly enough for my needs. I need to shoot roughly 6 pictures every 30 seconds for about 2 minutes. This is no problem on Large JPG but RAW may be too much. I'll have to test the buffer out to see if it can handle it. At times like this the 10D looks like it should have been my choice...

Thanks for the info,

Z
Andy_T
9th of October 2003 (Thu), 15:35
Zebron,

that sounds like a high-adrenaline-situation!!!

However, I don't think the 10D would do much better there, because after your burst, it also has to write the photos to the CF card. (your camera will be locked up for some time).

If I were you I'd try to get some friend as backup...

Regards,
Andy