I struggle with white balance and pp when photographing in ambient lighting. The HS gyms in my area, as others have stated about their gyms, are dark. The lights play havoc on my white balance. I usually set a custom wb and then I try to tweek in LR. I know the action isn't the best in these pictures but any suggustions would be apperciated.
These where shot with a Canon 7D, 70-200, ISO 6400 f/2.8 at 1/500
These are all pretty good considering some of the caves we shoot in called gyms. I have a couple of buddies who always give me a hard time about perfecting my wb, but in reality, it sometimes is just is not worth it in terms of recouping the cost of fixing / time involved vs. price of print. Focus on the action more, worry less about wb. And if you are going to perfect wb in LR, I'd just forget about even worrying about setting a custom wb. Just shoot raw, tweak and export the jpgs. Once I get the wb how I like in LR (again, it's my preference and not necessarily an accurate by the numbers wb), I'll save those settings and apply to all of the images from that group and then maybe, just maybe, tweak any that need additional help. Anyway, it looks like you shoot in the same kind of dark gyms I do.
Tim, I see with my own eyes now, with the iso set higher how much better they are than mine, this is a great post for me as I have the same camera and lens he is using, and they gym I shoot in is dark as well. Its almost like I can do a side by side comparison between his pics and mine. This is really helpful for me
The cycling lights in most gyms give many of us headaches with WB. The photos look good, but I think it would help if you could get lower. These look like you were probably standing and being lower would make the players look bigger and their jumps look higher. I usually kneel or sit on the floor.
I know many gyms have no room, but it would also help if could get behind the baseline (closer to the basket) rather than on the side of the court. This would help you get a more frontal view of the faces.
I shoot a 7D, and have found fast primes (50 1.4, 100 2) work better than 2.8 zooms in these conditions. ISO 6400 shots on a 7D are really marginal, in my experience - noisy and/or mushy. ISO 3200 has some noise but is much better. With a 100mm @ f/2, you can get the same SS of 1/500 @3200, that you are getting now, and I will wager the images will look better. With the 50mm @f/1.4 you'll be able to shoot at 3200 and get 1/1000 at that gym, which virtually elimnates any motion blur, or drop down to 1600 and still be at 1/500. For the 50, you'll probably want to position yourself under the basket, maybe 10ft or so back. The 100 is more of a sideline lens, or shoot tight. You could try an 85 1.8 as well - many hoops shooters use that lens very successfully. With no zoom, you will have to wait for the action to come into range...you will be fishing rather than hunting for shots, but I think you may wind up bagging more keepers.
