the lights in the building. In this type of mixed
lighting the auto white balance is your best bet as
it can adjust nearly instantly in the changing
light as you track the play through your camera.
It is also possible to adjust the white balance in
postproduction if needed.
As you can see in Figure 6-3, there is a lot of light
coming in through the door on the other side of
the gym as my nephew practices his basketball
skills. To make sure that the exposure was correct
in the different lights, I set the exposure mode to
shutter speed priority and chose a shutter speed
high enough to freeze the action of the sport I
was shooting. For example, the kids playing
basketball needed about 1/320 of a second to
freeze, while adults playing the same game might
need a higher shutter speed if they move faster.
I then focused on the darkest area of the gym
where action was going to take place and set the
ISO so that the camera selected the widest aper-
ture available to get a proper exposure. As the
action moves and the light increases and
decreases, so does the aperture resulting in a
proper exposure at all times.
An electronic flash can be fired remotely when
needed. This type of light is the main reason why
the images you see in Sports Illustrated and other
sports magazines look so crisp and clear. The pho-
tographers who shoot for those publications set
up remotely triggered lights. These remote flash
units are triggered when the photographer presses
the shutter release. Because the flashes are usu-
ally placed right next to the lights that are illumi-
nating the game, the direction of the flash light is
the same as the other lights and the flash doesn’t
have to do all the work, just add to the existing
light. Most of the time, the flash goes completely
unnoticed because they fire from high up and areHowever, the lighting is now mixed lighting,
combining the artificial light of the building and
the natural light from outside. This type of light-
ing is actually the hardest light to photograph in
because the intensity of the light changes,
depending on where the outside light is coming
in from and what time of day it is. Additionally,
the color of the sunlight is a different color than
6-2ABOUT THIS PHOTO The lighting in the school gymnasium
might have been great for the spectators, but it really didn’t help with
the photography. Luckily, it was consistent, allowing me to concentrate
on the composition and the timing. Taken at 1/400 second, f/1.4, and
ISO 2000.