Indoor Basketball Court questions

Imbrium13

New member
I've been filming my college's basketball games for a documentary. I'm using an Xh-A1 with final cut express 4.0.1. My questions are mainly about white balance and exposure. I've noticed when capturing my footage, the court and players are a bit hot (My teams tournament uniforms are all white!) and I tried to combat this by setting the aperture around F4.8 to 5.2 (depending on if I'm looking at players on court or sidelines) but I still think the players look like they are glowing. If I go any higher than F5.2 then it seems too dark. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've been shooting in 60i by the way.

Another problem I'm having is proper white balance from the stadium seating. On the floor level I can white balance with proper lighting but from the stands it seems my white sheet is darker from lack of light and might be affecting my color balance. Is balancing from a dark spot and shooting a bright one down below screwing my footage? Thanks in advance for replies. I've found that indoor court cinematography has been a much larger challenge than I anticipated and I just want to come away with clean and visible footage. Any tips on indoor court filming are also welcome!
 
I've shot dozens and dozens of basketball games and your exposure and white balance issues are just the nature of non-professionally lit basketball courts.

Exposure
In my experience, mid-court is always the brightest, but when someone is dribbling under the basket, chances are the light levels are probably a full stop less than the light at mid-court. The light levels are not even throughout the court. So you just have to find a happy medium from the brightest & darkest spots and leave it at that f-stop.

White Balance
Sometimes there will be multiple lighting sources, daylight, tungsten, and fluorescent, all hitting the court. Again, find a happy medium. Each indoor basketball court has its own personality. You just have to learn its fine details.
 
Back
Top