Advice on Taking Swim Pictures

Gringriff · October 23, 2009

Need advice on taking swim pictures. My boss's boss has asked if I could come take some photos of his son's swim team a an intersquad meet next Saturday. Never having taken any swim photos I am like well I'm not sure.

So tonight I am going to go to their facility and take some pictures while they are practicing to see how I do with the lighting and with my gear. I am thinking of using the 70-200mm f/2.8.

I have read in many post about the different angles for different type of swim storkes and I will experiment some with those as well.

Questions
1) To get the swimmer in focus and "good" shot should I stick with the 2.8 or do I need to lower it to 4 or 4.5. I realize that the lighting may not allow 4 or 4.5 but I am willing to up ISO to get decent shutter speeds.

2) Do I need a high shutter speed like basketball? I am planning on not using flash but may experiment a little with bouncing off the ceiling. I've never been there, but from photos I seen it appears to center is cover in a type of off white vinyl.

3) I plan to mostly shoot in Manual mode but am considering having another set up in AV or S mode for the starts so I can get more of the "group" coming off the platform in focus. Am thinking that if I use 2.8 for the individual action shots then I made want to switch to 4.5 or 5 for these wider shots?

Any thoughts or suggestions will be helpful.

Thanks

jrowphoto · October 23, 2009

Hi Andy,

I've shot a bunch of swimming last year (my niece is a SR this year and has a full ride D1 scholarship!). Oddly enough, I had my D300 last year, and now have a D700 as well (much better for this indoor, bad lighting types of shots), but haven't taken any swimming photos this year with the D700, since I've been busy with football.

Depends on the pool's lighting conditions, but shooting last year with my 70-200 2.8, I was at 2.8 or 3.2 tops the whole time... ISO 1600-3200, and anywhere from 1/160th to 1/400th.

BTW, you can NOT use flash for photos during a swim meet!! The elctronic timing sensors can be affected, so don't even bring it with you.

Breastroke and butterfly straight on and low is a good angle, but also low and to the side of the pool works well for breastroke. for freestyle, it's pretty much the side of the pool. To get the best shots for most situations/strokes you need to get low as you can on the pool deck, so be prepared to sit in the wet, and dress accordingly! lol Even in the cold winter, it's hot in the pools as you know, and when I shoot, I really "work", so end up working up a sweat... T-short shorts, or cargo pants usually.

I shot raw as well, since the lighting differs from pool to pool. One was tungsten, (we're talking "hot dog warmer" type of lights) so I manually set my WB to tungsten, but still it was orange... I manually set the color as low as it would go in kelvin temp, and still yellow/orange. In Lightroom, I could lower the WB temp even more than in my camera, and found the magic temp right at 2000, or 2200 (can't recall)

Anyway, here are a few galleries on my smugmug site... I have all of the photo info exif data available as well.

Good luck, and let's see some shots!

John

http://jrowphoto.smugmug.com/Sports/2008-Vernon-Hills-HS-Girls

Gringriff · October 24, 2009

Thanks John for the reply and tips. I checked out some of your nice photos there on your site. Thanks for the link. I will definitely study those photos some more and try your suggestions.

EZPZ · October 28, 2009

jrowphoto wrote:

Hi Andy,

I've shot a bunch of swimming last year (my niece is a SR this year and has a full ride D1 scholarship!). Oddly enough, I had my D300 last year, and now have a D700 as well (much better for this indoor, bad lighting types of shots), but haven't taken any swimming photos this year with the D700, since I've been busy with football.

Depends on the pool's lighting conditions, but shooting last year with my 70-200 2.8, I was at 2.8 or 3.2 tops the whole time... ISO 1600-3200, and anywhere from 1/160th to 1/400th.

BTW, you can NOT use flash for photos during a swim meet!! The elctronic timing sensors can be affected, so don't even bring it with you.

Breastroke and butterfly straight on and low is a good angle, but also low and to the side of the pool works well for breastroke. for freestyle, it's pretty much the side of the pool. To get the best shots for most situations/strokes you need to get low as you can on the pool deck, so be prepared to sit in the wet, and dress accordingly! lol Even in the cold winter, it's hot in the pools as you know, and when I shoot, I really "work", so end up working up a sweat... T-short shorts, or cargo pants usually.

I shot raw as well, since the lighting differs from pool to pool. One was tungsten, (we're talking "hot dog warmer" type of lights) so I manually set my WB to tungsten, but still it was orange... I manually set the color as low as it would go in kelvin temp, and still yellow/orange. In Lightroom, I could lower the WB temp even more than in my camera, and found the magic temp right at 2000, or 2200 (can't recall)

Anyway, here are a few galleries on my smugmug site... I have all of the photo info exif data available as well.

Good luck, and let's see some shots!

John

http://jrowphoto.smugmug.com/Sports/2008-Vernon-Hills-HS-Girls

I will reiterate everything John said and point out that in order to freeze hands and fingers I usually have to go to 1/500th. If you snap the shot while their hand is in the water you can get away with 1/400th.

If you want to try some group starts, you would do well from the stands, 1st row. You can try to get them all but I usually try to frame/DOF for just three at a time.

Good luck.

time2smile · October 28, 2009

Some places do allow flash, only can not use it when they start.
It will all depend on the lighting in the place. Ceilings are usually very high, I've had some good results with a Nikon D50 a flash and a 2.8 or 1.8 lens. this past weekend I luck out and did some outdoors with a D90 and a Tammy 18-200 3.5-6.3. it was a blast, good luck and have fun.

Heres a link to my swim photos, sorry I am not trying to steal the tread. They told me not to delete the bad shots.
http://time2smile.smugmug.com/Saint-Leo

Gringriff · October 28, 2009

Thanks for the replies and the links. It's great to see the shots of others to get ideas about what to look for in angles and action.

I am surprised at the shutter speeds needed for swimming. Used to that with soccer but I figured the water would slow things down a lot more.

Also I did talk with the coach and flash is allowed during the race just not at the start (not sure how it effects the finish). So I will try some with the flash and just forgot about the start during those heat - Not sure how well I can handle going back and forth like that.

time2smile · October 28, 2009

At the start it has to do with the early start detector, you may notice there is a strob light to alert the judges and swimmers.

Advice on Taking Swim Pictures

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