Options
Wrestling season!
Today was the first home match for our wrestling team. Coincidentally, it was also my first time photographing the sport. Please give me feedback! Hopefully I did better than they did.
The rest are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/arrgh406/sets/72157623206462980/
Please give me feedback; any C&C welcome!
The rest are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/arrgh406/sets/72157623206462980/
Please give me feedback; any C&C welcome!
[URL]Http://jobphotography.smugmug.com[/URL]
D90, 50/1.8, 18-105/3.5-5.6, 80-200 f/2.8 (finally!)
D90, 50/1.8, 18-105/3.5-5.6, 80-200 f/2.8 (finally!)
0
Comments
Definitely. If I had the money for a fast zoom, I would be all over that. For the moment, flash is just going to have to be used
D90, 50/1.8, 18-105/3.5-5.6, 80-200 f/2.8 (finally!)
However it's not that you used flash, but that you hadn't fixed the red eye. Are you aware you can do so?
I forgot about that. It must be getting late.
D90, 50/1.8, 18-105/3.5-5.6, 80-200 f/2.8 (finally!)
First shot is just not in focus plus a good amount of noise. Also not an incredibly flattering angle.
Shot 2 - nice exposure and decent sharpness. But way too much dead space - you want to shoot a lot tighter and shoot this type of action in portrait orientation. Also, watch your levels - use vertical queues in the background. Try to get the shot as level as possible in camera, but if it's not fix it in post processing.
shot 3: I actually prefer using flash for wrestling. But you need to get an external flash and get it off the camera - use a bracket. You don't want to remove red-eye in a couple hundred shots so you want to avoid it in the first place. Also, I would use a stronger in-camera exposure to get a better blend of ambient and flash. As it is, the flash is a bit too stark on your subjects.
Not bad for a first time out. Fix those things and your next time out will be even more successful.
If you can't afford an f2.8 zoom, then get a couple of primes. A 50mm 1.4 and an 85mm 1.8 will produce even better than a 2.8 zoom, and they're $300 and change on the used market.
Shoot in high res. RAW, process them afterward for color, noise, exposure, etc. crop as needed.......hammer to fit, paint to match
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
I'm going to respectfully disagree with some of the above. As for crotch shots, wrestling isn't the same as gymnastics. The ground work shot here does not, IMO, have any objectionable emphasis on the crotch. The nice thing about this angle is you see both faces as well as the leg work. You DO have to pay attention to whether or not a given shot highlights private parts (not the area, but since wrestlers don't wear cups and they're wearing tight uni's, well you get the idea...) Those shots you need to toss
Also you'll find 50mm a far bit too short for APS-C. In 4/3 maybe it's a better focal length but too short in canon/nikon/pentax land.
The 85 would only be preferable if you can't use flash. There's no benefit to the lens for wrestling when you use flash - and I recommend flash use for wrestling. Why? Because the matts are very non-reflective so you often get a lot of shadows. Flash fills that in and gets the flesh tones to pop. You just need to get the flash off the camera to avoid red-eye. You still want a fast focusing lens. But, a zoom lens and off-camera flash will yield much better results than a short prime without flash.
Again - every sport is different. Wrestling is not the same as basketball, volleyball or gymnastics. When I used to shoot wrestling with short primes it was a lot of difficult post-processing work to get them usable - again because of the shadows and noise of high ISO. Off camera flash use really dropped my post-processing time down to miniscule: crop, USM, save. And cropping is pretty minimal since you often have time to frame shots in wrestling - time you don't have in faster action sports like basketball or volleyball.
Just my own opinion based on my own experience, YMMV.
The ground work shot is shot right up their beeehinds, and again, sort of becomes about that back side view.
Sure, you're going to get some crotch shots in sports photos, BTDT. Sometimes it's okay because the real subject of the photo is obvious, other times.....not so good.
Are legs important in wresting? Well, unless it's grekko-roman, they're usually just posted and shoving. And even if it is GR, you can get the power of the leg use, w/o shooting up someone's crotch.
YMMV, of course.
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
I have a question about flash. I thought flash was only good for 10-12 feet It's hard as a spectator to get that close to the wrestlers. Should you use the flash if you're further back than that?
So far all my photos are coming out grainy. I was shooting in shutter priority and I had the shutter set to 1250. Tomorrow I'm going to try again - I'm thinking of setting the camera to aperture priority to let the most light in.
I am a total noob, I just got the camera last week and I'm trying to learn how to use it. This is my first SLR camera. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I totally agree about some of the less flattering wrestling photos being cut.
What I found.......shooting gymnastics without flash......was that I got the best photos with the camera in manual mode. Take advantage of that f2.8 lens you have, and leave it wide open at 2.8. Then bring your ISO up to the position that allows you to run with a shutter in the 250th or better range. Again, I'm a noob, and I've never shot wrestling.....but if I were, I'd start set up like that and dial it in from there.
One thing you might be up against is the camera's internal ability to to well at high ISO's. I'm not a Nikon user, so I don't know your camera at all.
You can buy programs that help get rid of the noise. Noise Ninja and Noiseware Professional are 2 that many people here use. I bought the noiseware, but I also use the software that canon included with my camera.
Have fun and shoot a million photos, and you'll improve as you get to know the camera better
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
With flash we're talking about an external flash - not the built in flash. But, it also sounds like you're shooting from the stands. That makes it a bit more difficult because you want to get LOW to get good wrestling shots. FACES are what's important and it's tough to captue faces and shoot TIGHT from the stands.
There are also a lot more shadows in wrestling than say basketball or volleyball because the mats are so non-reflective and faces are closer to the ground. If you want to improve your wrestling shots - get down there - at least bottom row if you can't shoot from the floor itself. The less the angle the better the chance at getting good shots. Also if you are farther away and try to use flash (even external) you'll get red-eye unless you use a bracket to get the flash further off the camera.
As mentioned, manual exposure is your friend - lighting is poor but consistent. Using aperture or shutter priority you end up having the camera's metering fooled by colors in background or singlets or whatever.
Get low, use external flash to remove shadows and you'll get better keepers:
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
I'm going to give it another shot today.
Protip: If you brandish your camera, you shouldn't have a problem sitting on the very edge of the mat.
D90, 50/1.8, 18-105/3.5-5.6, 80-200 f/2.8 (finally!)
My son is 13 I think he'd kill me. The camera is so heavy I don't think I could hold it steady anyway. I took some photos and posted them to a thread called noob shoots wrestling. This stuff is really hard.
Failure is not an option for me,
So i just keep pressing the shutter and trying again.
http://allensfoto.net
:gun2