New 40d - gymnastics - bad results

I need some help....anyone seen this before. About 1/3 of my shots came out like this (this shot is straight from the camera no PP). Why is half yellowed like this?

I shot gymnastics all last season with this lens (85m f/1.8 ) and my rebel XT and never had this problem. First time shooting in this gym and my brand new 40d. Needless to say, very disappointed. I did manage to get some decent ones, but like I said about 1/3 were like this (either half the photo or the entire one).

Is there something wrong with the new 40d?
Is it operator error?
Is there some strange affect from the lighting (which was horrible by the way)?

Thanks for your help......I was so excited to use the new camera and now I'm bummed.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Your image file does not have the exif data attached, so it's not possible to examine the camera settings, particularly the white balance option. If you are only seeing this effect in 1/3 of your shots, then I suggest that it's not a fault in the camera. If the camera were faulty, I imagine that you'd see it in every shot. Take a shot of a blank wall with uniform lighting and see if you get it. Or a clear sky, or uniformly overcast sky.

If you determine that the camera is not the problem, then scrutinize the setting. I see a fluorescent light. Is there another light source off to the right. If it's a bright incandescent or even a sodium light, then your camera was trying to do the best it could under extreme lighting. Fluorescents tend to impose a greenish tint on an image. That it looks more bluish here suggests that your camera -- if it was on auto white balance -- was seeing a strong red/amber source to the right and tried, unsuccessfully, to adapt to it.

Also, clone out the head shadow in the bottom right. It's spooky.

I have had this same issue in a building with flourescent lights... If your shutter speed is fast enough and your shot timed right, you are catching the cycling/pulsing of the light, which changes color temperature a lot, apparently... mine were from a wedding reception, so imagine my dismay when some of the good shots were ruined by the crappy lighting.

If the entire area was lit with fluorescent bulbs that is the cause of your problem. The reason why is because the lights rapidly cycle in colors as they turn on and off. This same thing occurs in high school basketball gyms and sometimes even football stadiums. If I remember correctly it is best to shoot at/around 1/120 shutterspeed to reduce the occurance of catching the color shift. Thus saying the higher your shutter speed the more likely you are to have a color shift occur. Sorry if this all blended together I'm still waking up, I'll come back later to restate myself.
Brad

That's okay--it's been explained twice now, so hopefully he'll get it.

These were shot at 1/400 how is the op catching a color cycle? I have seen this before with slower shutter speeds that are a degree of 1/60. But once you get up higer shouldnt it reduce?

waynedsargent wrote in post #6932347
But once you get up higer shouldnt it reduce?

Yes, but you'll still get them occasionally.

Yeah I can see occasionally but not at a 1/3 rate?

And to the OP defiantly get a white balance or shoot in RAW.

Fluorescent lights are the cause of all of our problems.... global warming.... wars.....etc.....ban those dang lights!

Read THIS

Mr B Pix wrote in post #6932417
Read THIS

Thanks. Good info.

Good link very interesting information.

Markitos wrote in post #6932348
Yes, but you'll still get them occasionally.

To support your statement, I was shooting basketball at 1/500 and sometimes even 1/640 and caught the scoreboard OFF due to the cycling of the lights inside the scoreboard!

so yes, it's possible at even pretty fast shutter speeds.

dave

Thanks for all the input....I'm beginning to think it was indeed the lighting in this gym. I Shot 12 meets last year with my XT and never ran into this. It's hard to think none of those gyms had fluorescent bulbs. I never shot at this particular gym before though.

Let me see if i can answer some of the questions in the following posts.

Shot settings were RAW, ISO=3200 SS=400, Ap=f2.0, Spot meter, AI Servo.

Also, that black thing at the bottom is not a shadow. It was part of a gymnastics mural on the wall.


Your image file does not have the exif data attached, so it's not possible to examine the camera settings, particularly the white balance option. If you are only seeing this effect in 1/3 of your shots, then I suggest that it's not a fault in the camera. If the camera were faulty, I imagine that you'd see it in every shot. Take a shot of a blank wall with uniform lighting and see if you get it. Or a clear sky, or uniformly overcast sky.

I can see the exif on my browser...not sure why you can't see it. The blank wall tests out ok. In fact I've never seen this in any of the practice shots I took at home before the meet. Starting to feel better it's not the camera

Is there another light source off to the right.

Pretty sure that all of the lights were the same as the one in the image.


If the entire area was lit with fluorescent bulbs that is the cause of your problem.

As near as I can remember it was 100% fluorescent.

waynedsargent wrote in post #6932347
These were shot at 1/400 how is the op catching a color cycle? I have seen this before with slower shutter speeds that are a degree of 1/60. But once you get up higer shouldnt it reduce?

No, it will get worse. With a higher shutter speed you are only catching a portion of the cycle. In this case, there are multiple lights, and the lights are cycling. The lights won't cycle at the same color temp at the same time for all of the lights, so you'll get one while it is green, one while it is white, one while it is yellowish....

If it was a single light source, you could simply adjust the white balance in RAW. If it was two lights, you'd get lucky more often and not get the varying color casts in as many frames. With multiple lights, it will happen fairly often.

You can take the raw image and process them with different WB settings, and blend the images to get a decent looking image.

It is a lot of work though. Not much fun.