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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
01-26-2017, 07:24 AM
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Do any of you try to set a custom white balance that can be reused each time you shoot in a particular gym?
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
01-24-2017, 08:41 PM
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I've done a lot of basketball from youth through high school, and just a bit of college. What level of basketball are you shooting?
The lighting in gyms varies a lot. For most basketball, a Shutter Speed of 1/250th is a MINIMUM. High school or above 1/350 is minimum, and 1/500 is better if you can get there. ISO needs to go as high as you can stand it. It's not just the grain that causes problems at high ISO, it's contrast and color vibrance as well. This leaves the aperture. At 50mm you don't have to worry about closing down your aperture to get more DOF to make up for AF misses like you would at 200mm. At 50mm, you also need to get close to the action, right under the basket.
Our high school is in the middle of the road as far as the amount of light goes, and I am usually at f 2.8, 1/500th, and ISO 6400.
There are a lot of variables in this. One is the lens you are using. When I use my Sigma 70-200 2.8, I usually try and stop down a little, because the lens is a little soft at 2.8. Whereas, when using a Tamron 28 - 75, 2.8 is sharper. One important issue that you will wind up noticing in good sports photos is subject isolation. The player really pops when they are sharp in focus, and the background is blurred. You won't really be able to do that with your 50mm, but don't worry about that for now. I don't know that lens well, but I'm guessing that you should be able to use it at f 2 effectively.
Another issue is the focus mode. I would stay away from the focus modes that have a ton of points to choose from. Use either center point or 5 point. I go back and forth with what I use, but with a 50mm, if you use center point, you may get too many misses with the focus on the backround since you can't fill the frame.
Shooting in Raw does help with the white balance, but shooting jpg allows faster bursts and the buffer clears faster. Try both, and see what works best. Good luck.
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