Shooting Indoor Bowling Tournament

kenyahudson

The university has an impending multi-day bowling tournament. I've never shot bowling before and cannot find very much on the internet about shooting it. I have been to the venue before and it is not well-lit. The actual lanes are reasonably lit, but not the areas where the bowlers stand. Also, I'm told that I cannot use flash nor move around behind the bowling lanes, on the adjacent lanes or in the team sitting areas.

How do I shoot bowling under these conditions? Has anyone else done it? Are there particular angles or positions I should try? Thanks.

DavidTO

Personally? I wouldn't bother. I'd grab a beer and enjoy the competition.

Jeffro

kenyahudson wrote:

Also, I'm told that I cannot use flash nor move around behind the bowling lanes, on the adjacent lanes or in the team sitting areas.

Well you pretty much ruled out standing anywhere but behind them....that's worthless.

kenyahudson wrote:

How do I shoot bowling under these conditions? .

I agree with David, don't bother.

Seneca

Do you have a pretty fast wide angle lens? But I'm with the rest of the comments. Bowling...hummm...pretty boring to me - I'd rather watch the grass grow. Just kidding. Good luck whatever you decide. Ok so I wasn't much help. Sorry:cry

kygarden

I'll take a stab at answering your question.

Try metering off the highlights in the scene - for example, the lanes if that is the brightest part of the scene. That would help bring your shutter speed up so the whole photo isn't just one big blur. Having a fast aperature lens helps, but if you don't have one...the best you can hope for in low light (based on personal experience) is to meter off the brightest part of the scene. You can always try to lift the shadows later in post-processing - to some extent. You may end up with nicely exposed lanes but underexposed bowlers. But again, you may be able to fix some of that in post processing.

j-bo

As a semi-pro back in the day........

Without being able to gain access to get on the edges of the side of lane 1 or the last lane, all the way back to the pit, then you are basically out of luck for any action photo's. They allow TV camera's in those areas, so maybe you can explain what you are there for, bring a tripod, a stool, and a hood for you to stand under and snap away. However, you will be very limited to what action you can get due to lighting.

You can however, get the emotions of the game, as many bowlers turn and show much emotion after the shot as they are returning to the scorers area and giving high fives to their teammates.

With all that said... I'd pass on the deal. Frustration isn't worth it!

kenyahudson

Thanks for the suggestions. I will especially consider trying to capture the emotions of bowlers and coaches and partial metering (as I don't have spot metering). The lenses I intend to use have maximum apertures of f/1.8. Based on looking at exif data for other bowling photos, I probably need to try for a shutter speed of about 200 to minimize blur and may try manual focusing instead of autofocusing. Also, I am going to request to shoot from adjacent team sitting areas that are vacant so that I can at least try for some profile shots. If after the first day the situation is hopeless, I probably won't return for the remaining tournament. (Its freelance work anyway.) If I have anything usable, I'll post a sample here. Again, thanks.

wxwax

A long time ago, with my G3, I tried to capture motion.