ACCIDENTAL LESSON LEARNED

Casey set to make his move  { ISO 1600, f/2.0, 1/640 second, -1 EV, 85mm)

  The 3 week high school basketball camp swing started a couple of weeks ago. Friday and Saturday I got to go watch my son Casey and his team play 5 games. On Friday, I was going to experiment with some remote strobes but instead just started shooting away at the Tennessee Wesleyan College gymnasium.
  My shots were turning out very clear and crisp and I was achieving shutter speeds of 1/640 to 1/1250 second which I don't normally get with the 85mm Cannon 1.8 USM lens. I wasn't going to com.plain though cause I liked to outcome.

ISO 1600, f/2.0, 1/1250 second, -1 EV, 85mm

  After the first game I noticed that the EV settings on my camera were set to -1. This is usually turning down the exposure a full stop. And it was, but it was also adjusting the shutter speed to compensate and giving me the faster speeds to stop action. Wow! This was totally unexpected.
  I immediately started experimenting with shots at -2 as well. I did get even faster exposures, but the image was too dark to even pull anything out in Camera Raw. -1 continued to keep plenty of light and fast enough shutters to make really good images. Who Knew?

ISO 1600, f/2.0, 1/400 second,-1 EV, 85mm

  If I continue to shoot next year's basketball games I will definitely mark this little tidbit away and apply when I shoot.  Now this may have been caused by shooting in the daylight every game and getting some additional natural light (and probably is). But, you never know.