Help with tough photos

Toshido

I am involved with a group of medieval re-enactors called the SCA (Society of Creative Anachronisms). Anyways the local fight practices are indoor ecause of cold weather. We use the gym in a local elementary private school. Lighting is rough and these were all shot in .RAW with white balance corrected later. All photos taken with a EF 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Any advice on composition etc is apprectiated. Also flashes are not allowed because of distraction to the fighters.


Picture #1


Picture #2


Picture #3

2whlrcr

You need to resize these, so they are easier to view and don't take so long to load.

wompom1

man, that has to be noisey getting hit in the helmet

for the low light avail, I thought you did pretty good. I would be looking for little more detail.
What is your exif data?

Toshido wrote:

I am involved with a group of medieval re-enactors called the SCA (Society of Creative Anachronisms). Anyways the local fight practices are indoor ecause of cold weather. We use the gym in a local elementary private school. Lighting is rough and these were all shot in .RAW with white balance corrected later. All photos taken with a EF 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Any advice on composition etc is apprectiated. Also flashes are not allowed because of distraction to the fighters.


Picture #1


Picture #2


Picture #3

Toshido

Picture #1
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 1/400 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-800
Exposure bias: 0 step
Focal length 50mm


Picture #2
Same as #1

Picture #3
Same as #1 except
F-stop: f/2
Exposure: 1/320


I am actually surprised that is all the really pertinant information saved in the properties of these pictures. if memory serves I shot these in Manual mode with eithwe single shot or servo mode. I generally use single point focusing as well. I don't like guessing where the camera will decide to focus.

These shots were first time trying the lens doing this and I was pretty impressed. i think a lower ISO number to reducenoise and slightly longer shutter speeds will make them look better. My opinion is pretty much that I want the person frozen but a little motion blur on the sword, especially the tip. I think it would make for a more dramatic action shot.
Since these picturres have been taken I got a 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens and it works great outdoors for this sport, indoors it seems a bit too long.

So again any C&C is appreciated. Either for the actal shot or post processing as well. I am completely new at Photoshop as well.

Frog Lady

Toshido wrote:

Picture #1
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 1/400 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-800
Exposure bias: 0 step
Focal length 50mm


These shots were first time trying the lens doing this and I was pretty impressed. i think a lower ISO number to reducenoise and slightly longer shutter speeds will make them look better. My opinion is pretty much that I want the person frozen but a little motion blur on the sword, especially the tip. I think it would make for a more dramatic action shot.

I also think they came out pretty well... I'm not sure you want to decrease the shutter speed too much more though. There's already a bit of motion blur at the tips of the swords, and too much slower you'll risk ending up getting movement of the bodies as well.

I know it is probably difficult in the gym, but I would try to watch the backgrounds a bit. The cleaner bkgd of #1 helps isolate the subjects better.

good luck and I'd love to see more.

C.

Toshido

Frog Lady wrote:

I know it is probably difficult in the gym, but I would try to watch the backgrounds a bit. The cleaner bkgd of #1 helps isolate the subjects better.

good luck and I'd love to see more.

C.

Especially considering the subject matter (particularly the nice suits of armour) a nice field or at least treed backgrounds make even poor photos like nicer then these indoor shots.

2whlrcr

Any chance you can use a longer focal length at full apeture to OOF the background more? Or maybe go for tighter crops on a single opponet? A nice head shot with shield and OOF background?

Toshido

2whlrcr wrote:

Any chance you can use a longer focal length at full apeture to OOF the background more? Or maybe go for tighter crops on a single opponet? A nice head shot with shield and OOF background?

I tried my 70-200 f/2.8 at an event a few weeks later. it is reallytough to keep them in focus, or even in fram at that rate. The small gymnasium and the danger of being too close the action when not really paying attention makes it a little tough at times.
Overall I was not happy with the indoor photos I took with my 70-200mm lens. The outdoors ones were much better but I seem to have lost many of them somehow I also took those indoor ones with just .JPG so white balance is AWEFUL. I am too ashamed of how ugly to show them as anything other then crappy snapshots.

Overall closer to action would have blurred the background better but we are hitting each other full force and I don't want to get hit unarmoured, or worse get my camera smacked... As for cropping, these are already cropped pretty for for my little Rebel XT.

donek

Just a couple post processing comments.

The WB is different in each image. The floor looks blue in the first and orange in the 3rd. Assuming they are all in the same gym, it should look pretty similar. The second image lacks pop and looks dull.

How are you setting your WB? This issues could also be related to your curves choices as well. If you are allowing the computer to select your white and black point for you, it can frequently generate stange color casts. I find this is more a problem on the white point. Set your own white and black points. It will make a bit difference. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, read this: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2292454/1

I'm also curious what your histogram looks like before post processing. At ISO 800 f1.8 1/400, I'd expect to see things biased to the left, particularly with the dark outer wall soaking up a bunch of your light. When setting your exposure, you want your histogram as far to the right as possible with minimal or no blown highlights. Exposing further to the right will give better detail and more vibrant colors. If a higher ISO is giving you noise, use something like Noiseware (community edition is free) to reduce your noise.

donek

I don't use photoshop much, I like Nik Capture. I played with #2 in Capture NX for a couple minutes and did this to it. I don't know the true colors of the garments, but this has more pop.