shoot raw indoors

Can I shoot RAW indoors in low light (i.e. a basketball gym) and underexpose to get a higher shutter speed to freeze the action and then adjust it later without losing the details?

i.e. can i shoot at -1 stop to use a shutter speed of 1/500 rather than 1/250 and then adjust the picture before i convert it so its properly exposed or am i better off shooting the right exposure the first time even if its a bit slower shutter speed?

Thanks!

Shooting in RAW isn't a miracle cure for getting around difficulties in exposure.

Your best option would be to increase your ISO. That will allow you the exposure leeway you need.

raise ISO or get a lens with a wider aperture.

If you want to freeze motion you need to think about shutter speed first.
e.g. You decide 1/250 is fast enough to freeze the action -
You - select shutter priority and 1/1250
camera - will select an apperture to give you correct exposure
You - need to assess aperture selected - will it give you the right DoF
If not there are various options - dial in compensation; use flash; change shutter speed; you can also pan the camera to reduce your minimum shutter speed.

In all cases shooting in RAW will give the best oportunity to adjust exposure in PP by +/- one or two stops.

The downside is that RAW is more demanding writting to the CF card so it will fill your buffer faster.

If you are shooting in bad light and increasing your ISO (even in RAW) you'll get noise if you then try and adjust it by much.

In these conditions you really need your exposure as close as possible.

TJ

My 10yo son plays indoor soccer and even with my XT at ISO 1600 and my 85mm f/1.8 wide open at f/1.8, I find that I still can't get fast enough shutter speeds. I could get an even faster lens or a body that can shoot higher than 1600 ISO. But I've found that the most practical solution is to do what you said, underexpose 1 stop in RAW and increase the exposure in post. But that would be a last resort only after I've maxed out my ISO and aperture.

The downside is the results are extremely noisy and with an extremely narrow DOF. The first isn't that much of a problem because I'd rather have a noisy shot than one with motion blurr. But the narrow DOF makes it even harder to get the focus accurate, but when you can, the results are the best you can get in difficult lighting.