outside glass inside

[aclark424]

Is there any trick that I can use that would allow me to get better lighting, sharpness etc. in the shots with my current equipment? problem is that i'm shooting outside glass with a reflective coating and with 'lights' that seem to cycle frequencies.

[kenw]

a polarizer filter may help with some of the reflections, but will cost you some light.

[aclark424]

Interesting proposal. How much light would I lose, full stop?

[Imagebuffet]

A polarizer should be able to remove that little spot of reflection visible in your image. It wouldn't be so effective if the reflection covered a large part of the visible area. You should not lose very much light outside of the reflection itself, either (unless the light is polarized from something else).

[kenw]

A polarizer will cost you 1.5 to 2 stops.

[ldelacruz]

Is this a friend? Do you have a flash? If so try a flash inside the court for added light with the polarizer. I bought a $25 radio trigger on Ebay that allows me to fire my 580 EX II from a distance. Also set your white balance because the WB in the photo is a bit off.

[andyz]

Some Photoshop can improve the image. But what camera was used, what ISO, and what lens settings? You may be able to do more with the light you have.

[aclark424]

1. Can't use flash. this is during a tournament match, and flash isn't allowed.
2. I'm using a Canon 1d mk1, 1250 iso, 1/640 with a 50mmf/1.8 @1.8

If you use a slower shutter speed, you tend to get racquets that are fairly blurry and the high shutter and low light makes me bump the iso up. other pictures I have that aren't in this facility are much brighter and more clear:
This shot was taken at 1000iso and 1/800, just to show how horrible the lighting is.

[ldelacruz]

Shoot in manual, set your white balance to the lighting, set your ISO and shutter on a nuetral color like grey in the same light and once you get your shutter high enough to stop blur I would lower it to over expose by a 1/3 stop.

I have never shot raquetball but since it is a smaller area the WB and exposure should stay pretty consistent.

[andyz]

Personally I wouldn't want to put a speedlite in there anyway, unless it was apaying job or you had a steel box around it. Racketballs fly pretty fast - and so do rackets sometimes. I loved the game years ago. It would kill me today. :)

You seem to be cranking your settings up to the max. Keep trying and at one point, realize that there are only so many things you can control. Some motion blur will enhance the shots. So I don't think a stop-action shutter speed is always necessary. Then see what crispness you can add back in post. Good luck.

[RightAngle]

I think WB is one of the biggest things you need to take care of first. That will help a lot IMO. After that I would make sure that your exposure is at least 1/3 over so that you can play with levels more to get rid of that glass. Personally a little blur of the racquet wouldn't be a bad deal, just show the motion that was happening, if it gave me a bit brighter exposure.

[aclark424]

I'll try it, thanks. There was a tournament in Houston this month and I was going to see if I can put those tips to work. I'll just wait till practice on monday night.

[iCe]

More than likely the WB is off because of the lighting. If you could measure it you would see it shifting (a color temp meter is pretty expensive but they make them) constantly. I see the same thing on football fields and in gyms. Your best bet is to set the WB manually (for night football I use about 4800)and then correct each image in ACR. It's a pita but there's really nothing you can do about it since the color temp of the lighting is inconsistent. You can prove it to yourself by shooting a 3 or 4 frame high speed burst and noting the color shift between the images.

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by iCe

More than likely the WB is off because of the lighting. If you could measure it you would see it shifting (a color temp meter is pretty expensive but they make them) constantly. I see the same thing on football fields and in gyms. Your best bet is to set the WB manually (for night football I use about 4800)and then correct each image in ACR. It's a pita but there's really nothing you can do about it since the color temp of the lighting is inconsistent. You can prove it to yourself by shooting a 3 or 4 frame high speed burst and noting the color shift between the images.

I am glad you said this Michael. I shot a volleyball game the other day and noticed that some of the shots were off a bit on WB. I thought it was something that I did or forgot to do. Thanks for solving my mystery.

[aclark424]

Finally got back from practice, managed to squeeze off a few with yalls tips. This is a different location than the others but further help would be appreciated:

As I said before, some of these people swing their racquets too bloody fast for me to take the shots at reasonable settings

These pictures were taken Av 1.8, shutter fluctuated from 200-400 b/w 800-1250 ISO