Low Light Roller Derby...HELP!

I need some serious advice. I'm not normally a sports shooter, but I recently joined a Roller Derby team and have settled in as their main photographer. Natural light? Sure, great! But the issue is that on Thursday nights we practice in an incredibly dark bar with LOTS of colored changing lights. I don't want to just shove up my ISO and cross my fingers because the quality of light on the skaters is still not very good.

These ones were done with flash with a small softbox diffuser. They came out okay, but the flash makes them look so unnatural because the area is so dark and either pink or blue or orange. There is no true daylight balanced light in there.

So what would you suggest? I've got two speedlights. Should I gel them different colors? Crosslight the skaters?

This is the shot that I want, however it's unsuccessful because they're skating through such a dark area and of course they're going to be blurry if I can't get my shutter speed up. I'd like to light them somehow, but I'd like suggestions.

Can you set up with your lights above the track ? I would use both speedlights most definitely but a best case would be studio type lights and remote triggers for them and light them from above.2) have you got fast glass? you need F2.8 or faster lenses to get as much shutter speed as possible. 3) a good combination of fast glass and ISO of 800-1250 will help to get the action frozen

I think you did pretty well. The only one that seems problematic is the last one, but that railing is probably an unavoidable distraction from that vantage point.

I'd think about just going with the unusual colors you mentioned, the pink blue and orange; the subject is fun and unique so it seems to work with it. Those bar signs are tough, some just show up hot white but not sure what would help except as they're skating and you're panning to try to catch them a bit away from the signs that are the least effective in the background.

I went to our local roller girls once, they skate at the local arena where we used to have a minor league hockey team play there (and I did photos for their marketing). What worked during a hockey game did NOT work for a roller hockey bout! LOL - same low mercury vapor lighting but they had that turned down and just one light in the middle of the floor and I couldn't use a flash at floor level so it was too dark even from the 'suicide' seats - lucky to be able to see if a skater was sliding your way (I'm kidding, it wasn't quite that bad - but it wasn't great either!).

I did a couple of times take pictures at team events at a local sports bar and used existing light, but with film I often get a nice golden glow in those circumstances; I don't remember now what settings I used. Have gotten a few nice photos of neon signs but haven't tried shooting people much in a bar scene. Seems like you know what you're doing, you'll probably figure out different settings to try etc. I imagine you'll end up with some real nice photos for the team.

Easy solution = Gels or perhaps a Sto-fen colour omni-bounce:

www.stofen.com/store/coloromni.asp

www.lumiquest.com/store/products/LumiQuest-FXtra.html

That'll let you balance out the WB.

Of course the Nikon SB-900 comes with gels that the flash can sense and the WB is automatically adjusted in camera to suit... but let's not talk about Nikon's superior flash system here.

I'll defer to everyone else as to the best way to light these scenes...

But, I will say, I like the shots you got. Like the feel of them. Good Job!

Good job under the lighting conditions.
I tried a 5 minute PP exercise with the first one to see what would happen (Softened the bright spots, shifted the color to a bit warmer and used selective focus). What do you think? Did it help some?
Original

5 minute edit


Hope you don't mind.I just wanted to see what the effect would be. I was to watch "Roller Derby" on TV many, many, many years ago. Boy, has it changed.

You guys do like to tinker with your photoshopping...I think the original actually looks better.

With the first one I'd maybe try a bit of a crop - if the top edge was cropped enough to get rid of the blue light and the bottom of the flag etc. that would leave the Yuengling sign and the two white ones that are beer-bottle shaped - which could work in this setting. If the right side was cropped to get rid of the edge of that sign, that could work (since you only see part of that sign it doesn't seem to add much to the photo). Then maybe a bit of a crop of the left side/bottom if needed to balance the image.

I think just a bit of editing is all you need sometimes. I think the angle works in the secone one, cropping the top could be something to play around with to bring the viewer's eye more to the skaters. I love the way you caught the skaters and their personalities, and the bar stools from that perspective actually seem to give the photo some visual interest.