Swimming

RBrogen · January 23, 2009

I posted this originally in the People forum and I was pinged about why not put it here so I'm re-posting and if the admins can merge the two posts that would be great.

The lighting could not have been worse but I was already there and figured I'd give it a shot. C&C Welcome.
#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

Cuong · January 23, 2009

#5-8, 11, 12 are my picks. Beautiful eyes.

Cuong

sportsshooter06 · January 23, 2009

Good Day!

The photos are nice, but, they are just portraits of some nice Girls in a pool.
If you want to make good sports photos, they probably need some sort of action, Stroking, diving other swimmers etc.
I love the photos, but Action is important.

RBrogen · January 23, 2009

Cuong wrote:

#5-8, 11, 12 are my picks. Beautiful eyes.

Cuong

Thanks for the kind words Cuong.

sportsshooter06 wrote:

Good Day!

The photos are nice, but, they are just portraits of some nice Girls in a pool.
If you want to make good sports photos, they probably need some sort of action, Stroking, diving other swimmers etc.
I love the photos, but Action is important.

Hi Sportsshooter06 and thanks for commenting and the kind words.

it's probably hard to tell but #1 is actually a guy. I thought that I had a fair mixture where half are action shots in #1, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10. Are those not what you are meaning? I'm looking for insight...thanks.

aktse · January 23, 2009

RBrogen wrote:

I thought that I had a fair mixture where half are action shots in #1, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10. Are those not what you are meaning? I'm looking for insight...thanks.

You're shooting what I call sport-traits or more like portraits in the a sports environment.

The best sports betters capture the sense of peak motion and I don't get a sense of motion. I have never taken a photo of a swim meet, but I would start with the classic shots --- front view of a butterfly stroke, side of view of a freestyle with other racers blurry in the background to gives clues that it's a race, starter block starts when everyone is jumping into the water, and then get more creative from here by going after different angles and slowing down the shutter speeds for motion blur of the water.

For example, I can't tell if these individuals are in a race, taking a practice stroke, or just playing in the pool by splashing their arms in the water; the sense of urgency is lost.

RBrogen wrote:

1.

3.

You have taken some incredible photos and did very well with the eyes, but "action" doesn't pop out.

And some examples of more "action" swim photos
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=88223
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/674701/0?keyword=swim#6031342
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/583692/0?keyword=swimming#5107589
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/669700/0?keyword=swimming#5978594

RBrogen · January 23, 2009

aktse wrote:

You're shooting what I call sport-traits or more like portraits in the a sports environment.

The best sports betters capture the sense of peak motion and I don't get a sense of motion. I have never taken a photo of a swim meet, but I would start with the classic shots --- front view of a butterfly stroke, side of view of a freestyle with other racers blurry in the background to gives clues that it's a race, starter block starts when everyone is jumping into the water, and then get more creative from here by going after different angles and slowing down the shutter speeds for motion blur of the water.

For example, I can't tell if these individuals are in a race, taking a practice stroke, or just playing in the pool by splashing their arms in the water; the sense of urgency is lost.

You have taken some incredible photos and did very well with the eyes, but "action" doesn't pop out.

And some examples of more "action" swim photos
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=88223
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/674701/0?keyword=swim#6031342
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/583692/0?keyword=swimming#5107589
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/669700/0?keyword=swimming#5978594

Thank you very much for your insight and thoughtful reply. I will keep those things in mind when I go out for my 2nd swim shoot ever

johng · January 23, 2009

Just to echo - the portrait shots definitely stand out. Extremely well done. As for action I'm going to disagree with the notion of shooting wider to show other competitors. In my experience that doesn't work too well in swimming. The reason is in swimming unlike soccer, basketball or other sports only a small portion of the body is visible and competitors are a good distance away relative to the size of the subject. So when you frame more loosely your subject ends up filling a very small portion of the frame. Give it a go and see if you like it. You might. I never cared much for it.

8, 9 and 10 all have action in them. The biggest issue with them is they appear underexposed.

What gear were you using for these? I'd especially like to know the gear for the portrait style shots - exceptionally sharp. What camera/lens and did you add flash?

rwells · January 24, 2009

Hey Randy,

Depending on the sport, and the whim of the buyer(s), the sportaits are good sellers, sometimes better than the "action" ones.

I don't know if your selling or not, but just keep that in mind. If your selling, give em' what they want to buy! Not just what "sports photogs" think are great action shots. If you limit your offerings to only one or the other, you'll miss out on a lot of sales.

MDalby · January 24, 2009

I really want to shoot some swimming.

Are there any tricks of the trade when shooting with water?

MD

RBrogen · January 24, 2009

rwells wrote:

Hey Randy,

Depending on the sport, and the whim of the buyer(s), the sportaits are good sellers, sometimes better than the "action" ones.

I don't know if your selling or not, but just keep that in mind. If your selling, give em' what they want to buy! Not just what "sports photogs" think are great action shots. If you limit your offerings to only one or the other, you'll miss out on a lot of sales.

Thanks Randy and that is a great point. I tend to focus on my subjects faces and eyes naturally because that is where I capture and portray the emotion of that person in that moment and they do sell very nicely for that reason. This was my first attempt ever at swimming and given the really really bad lighting conditions I was very pleased at how they came out. I'll post a couple more of my action shots shortly so you all can see them.

RBrogen · January 24, 2009

MDalby wrote:

I really want to shoot some swimming.

Are there any tricks of the trade when shooting with water?

MD

Hi MD: Being this was my first attempt, I can't elaborate very much on technique or tricks. A couple things I did find helpful:

1) As with any "Event" especially sports, know the game so you can anticipate things. With swimming know what movements are required to achieve a butterfly verses a back stroke or breast stroke. This is imperative so that you can line yourself up in the correct position to get the shot.

2) With the swimming, I was allowed pool side access so as the swimmers were going a long, I prefocused on their heads and tracked them through their swim continuously refocusing and would be ready to shoot as soon as their head poped up.

3) You should absolutely shoot full manual mode if yo have it so you can individually control ISO, SS and F/Stop settings. On my 5D it's a simple flip of the On switch to the secondary On position that turns the big dial on the back into the F/Stop control.

4) Beware of swimmers making turns. When they flip, you will drip if you are not out of the way because the splash. lol

5) Try and find out if there are any special things on the line that particular meet if it is competitive. For instance in this particular meet, one of the swimmers were going for a State record....good to know especially if the record is broken you can have that moment captured and you can bet it will be valuable to not only the parents but local media, the school etc so you can potentially have a gold mine.

6) Get to the venue early so you can to do some test shots to get your settings close to what they will need to be. You will want to stop action so your SS will need to be above 200 and probably up around 320 or so and that means you will need to lean on F/Stop and ISO to achieve proper exposure or at least get close to it.

7) Lastly, SHOOT RAW!!! this is a must when you want to really be able to dial in your picture and make the exposure adjustments. I believe you can adjust the exposure by +2 and -3 so you have a lot of wiggle room.

Hope this helps.

MDalby · January 24, 2009

That is a big help. Thanks Randy!

Swimming

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