Shooting HS Basketball in a cave

At least that's what I felt like. My second HS basketball game - on the road. The pictures I've posted of the DIII Women's BBall made this place look glamorous. OK. It had two sets of bleachers instead of just one.

The lights! OMG! DIM, half yellow, some florescent. I almost walked out and went home .

The Girls game was it the last quarter when I arrived, so I did some test shots. I figured ISO 6400 was going to be too dark...
ISO 8000....
ISO 10000...
ISO 12800

I ended up shooting the game 1/640s f/2.8 ISO12800 with the 5D3. Most of them read about +1/3.

I' ll post pics after, 'um post.

Oh, Remember why you're there when shoot your old school. Are you a fan or a photog?
I muffed the winning shot - a break-away lay-up as the clock wound down to 1.2 sec and I momentarily became a fan instead of a photog

V4her wrote in post #15579167
At least that's what I felt like. My second HS basketball game - on the road. The pictures I've posted of the DIII Women's BBall made this place look glamorous. OK. It had two sets of bleachers instead of just one.

The lights! OMG! DIM, half yellow, some florescent. I almost walked out and went home .

The Girls game was it the last quarter when I arrived, so I did some test shots. I figured ISO 6400 was going to be too dark...
ISO 8000....
ISO 10000...
ISO 12800

I ended up shooting the game 1/640s f/2.8 ISO12800 with the 5D3. Most of them read about +1/3.

I' ll post pics after, 'um post.

Oh, Remember why you're there when shoot your old school. Are you a fan or a photog?
I muffed the winning shot - a break-away lay-up as the clock wound down to 1.2 sec and I momentarily became a fan instead of a photog

For reference, high school basketball images in indifferently-illuminated gyms. All images at ISO 6400 and using available light, with a non-stabilized Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.

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Sorry, I guess I did come across as whiny.
I am getting used to dark venues, just not that dark!. I added Noiseware after my first two Diii Women's games with the 7D, then dropped the 7D for indoors and now shoot exclusively with the 5D3. It's why I bought it. These shots will get full treatment.

I am shooting RAW + jpeg, but have spent no time on RAW yet. I am actually having a lot of fun shooting these games.

I really do appreciate all of the solid advice that more experienced shooters have offered here. I didn't mean to whine - just share one of those days.

Hey, the coach was happy!

My home gym is exactly that level - f/2.8, 1/640 and ISO 12800. The majority of all of my indoor sports work is in that gym.

Granted, I do shoot nearby road games when I can just to find better light, but even the best HS gym is only about one stop better. I do prefer banks of flourescents over the vapor discharge light at home.

I'm used to being at f/2.0, 1/640 and ISO 6400. Don't think I ever had to go below 6400 though.

Surprising thing for me was that I just got back about an hour ago shooting my first big college basketball game, at the only major arena here in RI. Thought the lighting would be pretty awesome, ended up mostly shooting at ISO 4000, f/2.8 and going between 1/800-1/1000. I wanted to try to get the shutter speed as high as possible. Just thought it being a big place that the lighting would be better. Oh well...

DC Fan wrote in post #15579933
For reference....

Hey DC Fan (Not trying to highjack...but) what's your schedule for the Girl's Sectionals? Looks like I'll be at Speedway on the 16th and possibility Richmond on the 23rd. Might not be able to hook up until the Boy's Regional.

dwarrenr wrote in post #15583156
Hey DC Fan (Not trying to highjack...but) what's your schedule for the Girl's Sectionals? Looks like I'll be at Speedway on the 16th and possibility Richmond on the 23rd. Might not be able to hook up until the Boy's Regional.

The Heritage Christian sectional on Friday and maybe Lawrence Central on Saturday.

I was also in the worst gym I've ever been to yesterday, the lights were dim and spaced out way too far, dark walls, etc. The types of lights caused half the photo to be green, half purple, or half extremely underexposed. I walked out at half time as well, it was horrible.

The frequently-ignored flip side of this discussion covers a situation where the lighting was actually improved in a high school gym. This location, at Lawrence Central High School in Indiana, had lights that already allowed an exposure of 1/500 at ISO 6400 and f/2.8, good conditions for high school basketball. Since the beginning of the season, the lights were reworked and two additional parallel rows of lights were installed longitudinally above the center of the court.

The impact of the new lighting was a dramatic improvement, as shown from EXIF.

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The darker the venue, the better the results of strobing.

Strobing during any high school sports inside is a big no-no in this state. Each school I have shot in (and there were plenty) all have had a standing rule of no flash allowed for obvious reasons. Flash in the eyes of the players make them lose the ball, miss a pass, etc. A friend of mine got ejected from a game using a strobe. But I was wondering if using a studio strobe on a light stand pointed up to the ceiling and letting it bounce downward would work. no shadows in the eyes because the light would be reflecting off the floor. At least that is how the pros do it at pro games but our high school gyms have no rafters to attach strobes

Shooting wrote in post #16345406
Strobing during any high school sports inside is a big no-no in this state. Each school I have shot in (and there were plenty) all have had a standing rule of no flash allowed for obvious reasons. Flash in the eyes of the players make them lose the ball, miss a pass, etc. A friend of mine got ejected from a game using a strobe. But I was wondering if using a studio strobe on a light stand pointed up to the ceiling and letting it bounce downward would work. no shadows in the eyes because the light would be reflecting off the floor. At least that is how the pros do it at pro games but our high school gyms have no rafters to attach strobes

A successful friend uses paired White Lightning X1600 strobes to illuminate one end of high school gyms. He'll mount the strobes in a convenient location at balcony level, and point them toward the ceiling, triggering them with Pocket Wizards and using the light reflected from the ceiling. This method works so well that he only needs to use the strobes at half-power. And since the entire ceiling is a light source, no one complains about being blinded by shoe-mounted flashes - after all, the gym's illumination already is coming from above. Also, since the entire ceiling is used as a diffused light source, there are no shadows from trusses.

Of course, this technique means hauling a rolling case of equipment from game to game and it also means arriving at a gym an hour ahead of game time for setup.

V4her wrote in post #15580028
dropped the 7D for indoors and now shoot exclusively with the 5D3. It's why I bought it.

I use a 7d to shoot dance comps and the venues are much like the gyms. Poor ,uneven lighting. I have been considering purchasing a 5d mrk3 after reading how good its high ISO performance is. I would have thought shooting a high ISO would be no problem. Were you unhappy with the results and noise or just surprised you had to jump to 12,800?

DC Fan wrote in post #16346018
A successful friend uses paired White Lightning X1600 strobes to illuminate one end of high school gyms. He'll mount the strobes in a convenient location at balcony level, and point them toward the ceiling, triggering them with Pocket Wizards and using the light reflected from the ceiling. This method works so well that he only needs to use the strobes at half-power. And since the entire ceiling is a light source, no one complains about being blinded by shoe-mounted flashes - after all, the gym's illumination already is coming from above. Also, since the entire ceiling is used as a diffused light source, there are no shadows from trusses.

Of course, this technique means hauling a rolling case of equipment from game to game and it also means arriving at a gym an hour ahead of game time for setup.

Well all I can say is congrats to your friend. Wish I could do that but the top of the gym is full of blue painted beams and the ceiling is gold. (school colors blue and gold). I may try that this year. Hard to mount it and then walk off and leave it to shoot and not expect some snotty nose high school kid doing something to it. Maybe a lightstand near the bleachers pointed at the ceiling hummm...we'll see..thanks for the info.

BTW, I have not been to a gym in WV that allows hot shoe strobes. I have a photogenic 600W strobe that I trigger with a yongnuo remote.

flashpoint99 wrote in post #16346408
I use a 7d to shoot dance comps and the venues are much like the gyms. Poor ,uneven lighting. I have been considering purchasing a 5d mrk3 after reading how good its high ISO performance is. I would have thought shooting a high ISO would be no problem. Were you unhappy with the results and noise or just surprised you had to jump to 12,800?

Just surprised that I had to go to 12,800.