Setup for K10D in gymnasium

Jman02 · 12-04-2008, 03:58 PM

As I may have mentioned before that I am far from a pro........tonight I have to go to my daughters 2nd grade X-Mas program at her school gymnasium. Naturally the gym is too large for me to use flash. The lighting they use is a high bay, high pressure sodium type. I have a Tamron 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 lens on it. What would be a good starting point for my mode selection, ISO, Aperature, WB, shutter speed, etc. to get some decent photos that are not too dark? When I get there, I just don't have the time to fool with it before I have to get a shot. Last year I tried it in auto mode and program mode and got nothing but very dark photos. I know if I get a good starting point ,I should be able to work with it from there.

thanks for any suggestions!!

kenyee · 12-04-2008, 04:35 PM

A faster lens? :-) Ideally, you'd use a 2.8 lens or faster depending on how far you are away. And run your ISO up to ISO800 or ISO1600.
What kind of exposures did you get last time?

The other problem is the sodium vapor lights. They oscillate every 1/30th a sec (I think), so you have to set your shutter speeds in multiple of 1/30th or 1/60th or your white balance will be wacky.

Lowell Goudge · 12-04-2008, 05:03 PM

As with the other responder I would definitely start with a faster lens, but I'll continue here on the basis you won't be running out to get a 70-200 F2.8 in the next hour.

Therefore I will try to be a little more constructive.

I would set ISO to 1600, and don't worry, it will work.

I would take some saple shots, and manually adjust WB. On the K10D it is really easy. Take a test shot, then pres the Fn button, and select WB. Yoou will see your image with the WB menus superimposed on it. Now make a change, and you will see your image change interactively.

Adjust the WB as close as you can to neutral, but I would leave it a little warm, i.e. color temp less than 5000. YOu may need to compensate a little for the yellow in the sodium lights also.

I would set sharpness to neutral, and have the raw button set to give you JPEG plus RAW when pushed. This is because sometimes at 1600 ISO, raw can be a little better but max resolution JPEG should let you make a good 8x10. If you see a really good moment coming push the raw button so you have more to work with

Jman02 · 12-04-2008, 06:50 PM

Thanks........just got back!! I set the mode selector to "P" and went to the Fn button and chose ISO 1600 and that seemed to work pretty good. I was thinking the lighting was HPS but when I looked at them again (haven't been in there since last year) the lamps were metal halide which is more white in contrast. One thing I noticed is the auto focus would occasionally lock or stall when I was zoomed out to close to 250mm. I ended up shutting the camera off/on, then it would focus at that range if I left the lens in . Much better than last year though. The hardest part is finding a good lane to shoot when the gymnasium was so full of parents.