Studio Lighting for Gyms

By Glenn Carpenter, Moraine Valley Community College

Shooting sports is a specialty. Anticipation, knowledge of the game, and quick reflexes are all necessary to make a great photograph. Add poor lighting conditions, and your chances of a usable image decrease dramatically. Even the best shooter with all of the skills needs light –good light –to make the shot.

When I started at the college, the gym was a dark cave, maybe 1/60 second at f/2.8 with ISO 1600 film. As you all know, these conditions are unacceptable for sports photography. After several years, the gym was renovated, and new lighting was installed. These new lights were bright! They installed 32 800-watt metal halide lamps. These were a great improvement over the banks of 40- watt fluorescent tubes that had been in the gym.

I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The only problem was the lights cycled different colors to achieve the full color spectrum. At fast shutter speeds, the results were different colors on different frames. Shooting RAW helps, but not enough, because all colors of the spectrum are needed to obtain proper exposure. Even the mighty D3 could not tame this beast. The new exposure was 1/640 second at f/2.8 with ISO 800. The 3 1/3-stop increase in shutter speed was not fast enough to stop action, especially in volleyball.

The quality of the light was also a problem. Light from flood lamps high in the ceiling is flat and boring, and the lack of contrast is terrible. Because the light was primarily coming from above, very little light was get- ting to the faces of the athletes. Another issue was shooting angles. With very bright lamps in the ceiling, it was impossible to shoot low- angle shots because the lamps ended up in the shots.

The gym was bright enough, but the type of light and the quality of light made shooting sports nearly impossible. In 2007 Doug Keese presented a lighting demonstration at the Symposium on lighting a gym. Doug walked me through placement of the lights, running sync cord and just how much light would be needed. Doug’s knowledge had come from rigging lights for Sports Illustrated shooter Bob Rosato. In fact when I met Bob in Auburn the next year, Bob commented, “Doug is my guy for lighting.”

I thought I was all set to go. I installed older mono-lights that did not have a short enough flash duration, so ghosting and complaints ensued. Another issue was syncing the lights. I had run 18-gauge lamp cord in a loop to all the lights. Only occasionally would all of the lights fire, and I spent a lot of time trouble-shooting. I realized this was not a long-term solution.

I started researching other lighting options that would be more reliable and better for sports. My first call was to Scott Galvin at the University of Michigan. Scott had been using Elinchrom RX600 mono-lights in their hockey arena with great success. After several conversations, I decided on this solution. One difference between Scott’s setup and my dream setup was the radio triggers. Scott was using Pocket Wizard MultiMAX, and I was going with Elinchrom’s Skyport system. The main reason for this decision was the Skyports get their power from the mono-light, no need for batteries, and no need to access the lights.

We started to plan for graduation which is held in the gym, and each year I hang two mono-lights in the rafters of the gym to cover the stage. This process requires that we hang the lights and radio slaves the day before graduation so the batteries in the Pocket Wizards aren’t depleted. Doing this so close to the event is inconvenient for the Campus Operations Department. They set up the gym early in the week, so moving chairs and wrinkling carpet to bring in the lift to hang the equipment takes time away from their other duties during this busy week on campus.

The director of Campus Operations asked me if there was a solution to the gym lighting that did not require setting up the day before the event and did not have to be taken down and then redone the next time. There was a solution, but it had a price tag. He agreed to pay for new lights and to have the electricity installed at the appropriate locations.

Elinchrom had a package that included one 300RX light, one 600RX light, and one Skyport kit. The Skyport Kit included a transmitter and two receivers. We purchased two of these kits, two additional 600RX units, 6 standard reflectors, and one Skyport computer kit. The Skyport computer kit included one transmitter, two receivers, and a USB transceiver. The plan was to place the 600RX lights in the corners for sporting events and use the 300RX lights for the stage for graduation.

The electricians and I met to discuss locations and switches for the outlets. There are two circuits, north and south. The north circuit feeds two outlet boxes and the south circuit feeds four outlets. The switches for these circuits are keyed so only campus operation and myself can activate the circuit. (Several years ago a mono light was on a circuit with a regular switch. It was left in the “on” position for several months and the capacitors in the light overheated and exploded. It was quite the fireworks display. Therefore, it is mandatory to have a keyed switch.)

With the electricity run and tested thoroughly, we installed the lights. We used Bogen Super Clamps and secured everything with safety cables. Safety cables can be purchased or made by your plant operations department. The cost savings are significant for cables made on campus. Fine-tuning the angle of the lights proved to be the hardest part of the installation process. I chose to install the lights during a women’s basketball practice in order to use players as test subjects in a realistic setting. I would install a light, lower the lift and, while practice was in session, shoot a frame to analyze the results. Then I would go back up the lift and adjust the light. This took place for all six lights and took a couple of hours.

The Elinchrom Skyport radios can be set to four groups. The lights at the north end of the gym were set on Group 1, the lights at the south end were on Group 2, and the stage lights were on Group 3. I did not need a fourth group for my setup but it allows for additional lights to be added if necessary. It is possible to fire all groups or a group individually. I have found that firing all groups works best for sports applications. The really cool feature of the Skyport system is the computer control. With the optional USB transceiver, you can control all functions of the lights. From power settings to group selection, all are easy to change with free software from Elinchrom. It is possible even to turn off a particular light. This can be handy when shooting toward a light, and lens flare is an issue. The software is available for Mac or PC.

Using the system is easy. Before a game I can walk into the gym and turn the lights on via the keyed switch. I can make changes to the settings from courtside with a laptop depending on the look I want or the exposure I need. When I am done, I simply turn off the lights.

We have a total of three transmitters for the Skyports. This allows us to share the system with other interested parties, like the student newspaper or the local media. I am sure once the word gets out, we will get better coverage in local newspapers either from our images or from their photographers using our system.

Because the gym’s ambient light is so bright, Doug and Scott recommended that the exposure should be two stops above ambient light. With this in mind, I set the power on all the lights to their maximum. This yielded an exposure of 1/250 second at f/7.1 with ISO 100. The shutter speed is maxxed out and is intended to lower the exposure of ambient light. The action is stopped by the flash duration, which is 1/2010 second. After the first game, I was thrilled with the results – good quality light that had a consistent color. Ambient light can come from other sources as well. LED scoreboards, and revolving advertisement panels are two culprits that can wreak havoc on exposure or color balance. Using a flash system can help to alleviate these problems by raising the exposure at the court.

The only complaint came during the pre-game festivities. During the national anthem, a basketball official noticed the flashes. I assured him they would not disrupt his duties or the players. At half time, he found me and commented that no one had even noticed the lights. Looking back, there is a light in line with his view of the flag, so of course he was concerned when he saw a 600ws light going off while looking at the flag. Scott Galvin recommended that I turn off that light while people are looking towards the flag. With the Skyport’s computer control this is simple. Robert Jordan had a similar experience with volleyball. While testing the lights before the game the opposing coach noticed the flashes and brought it to the officials attention. Robert’s solution is to not shoot until the game starts. The attention of the coaches is now on the game not the photographer.

This system has opened up possibilities for the college. The people who have seen the results are thrilled. The sports information director is finding new ways to use the images, the marketing director commented that it was nice to see such good action shots, and the athletics director is excited about using the images for recruiting. Internally, we have better sports photos, better event photography, and a better relationship with Campus Operations. Externally we will gain exposure in the media and build better relationships with the media.

Glenn Carpenter is the President of the UPAA and has been the University Photographer at Moraine Valley Community College for 21 years.