Tips For Taking Basketball Sports Shots
With Canon 80D for Special Olympics

by Gene Metz
(Houston, Tx, USA)

Using a Canon 80D and wondering about the light setting and how can I tell if the lighting is tubular LED or tubular fluorescent. And what setting to use.

Hi Gene,

Thanks for you questions on photographing indoor sports with an 80D and how to handle the 80D camera and color settings.

Congrats on being able to attend such a great event as the Special Olympics and being able to photograph it with a quality camera like the Canon 80D.

Canon 80D color balance setting

Gene, fortunately you have several option on getting the right color balance when shooting under either LED or Fluorescent lighting. You also may be a little challenged with getting the right exposure with a fast enough shutter speed to "freeze" the action. Here is what I would do if it was my photo shoot.

1. set your 80D to RAW mode

This does mean you'll be spending time adjusting the white balance post-capture with software, but it ELIMINATES any possibility of getting any finished images with a strange color cast. Shooting in RAW mode on your 80D gives you complete control over "processing" your images in a variety of ways without destroying the original image files. (You can always shoot both jpg and RAW images as backup at the same time with your 80D).

2. set a custom white balance

If you can get close to the basketball court before the game starts you can photograph a neutral gray target under the same lights as the game-only a few dollars to buy-and set your white balance on that. That is the best way to match your 80D color settings to the light source that's there on the basketball court.

3. get light source ahead of time

Talk to someone in the maintenance department at the venue or a TV cameraman or photographer who has shot there before to find out the type of lighting being used. If you have that information you can adjust your color balance to that icon setting in your 80D menu or set it to the right "K" color temperature on your 80D.

tips for 80D sports photography settings

You'll likely need a high ISO setting (use 1600 as a starting point) to give you a fast shutter speed with your lens at its widest aperture (low f/stop number). Having a "fast" lens, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or f/4 would be very advantageous for you to use.

I don't know what venue you're visiting, how bright the lighting will be, or how far you'll be from the court, so it's tough for me to what to recommend exact camera settings.

There are some links at the end of this post that should help you further. Feel free to email me if you have any further questions. Bruce(at)canoncamerageek(dot)com

Have a blast shooting your 80D,
Bruce

related to 80D color balance sports photography

LED Tube vs. Fluorescent Tube Lighting
Color Temperature and Color Balance
Sports and Shutter Speed

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