I shot two assignments for the paper yesterday...the first was local college basketball to shoot the 1st half and then the Jr. High Wrestling Finals. For the wrestling...I planned on trying some tight shots like Paul posted, however, when I get there, which was 30 minutes early....I was informed they were an hour ahead of schedule and there was only a few bouts left so I just went for the sure thing and will have to wait to shoot wrestling with long glass. Here are some shots from those events...
The BB was shot with the Canon Mark IV and 135 2.0 and the wrestling was a combo of the 135 2.0 and 70-200 2.8 lens. C&C always welcome.
Nice stuff Frank. I always have a hard time with wrestling. Perhaps it's because I have minimal knowledge of the sport, but I have a hard time telling a great shot from an average shot. Just being honest. Maybe if we all were used to seeing great wrestling shots all over SI and every other sports mag, I wouldn't have as much trouble recognizing what works.
At first glance I thought the basketball must have been shot in a cave to still get motion blur with your Mark IV and a 2.0 prime, but then I took a look at the EXIF info and I see you were only shooting at 2000 ISO. I would kill to be able to shoot ISO 2000 and still get 1/800 sec. ss. Man, crank that ISO up! It will stop any motion blur, which I am positive you already know. Heck, you may have a reason for not wanting to shoot over ISO 2000, but shooting for the paper I would not hesitate to push the ISO up to 6400 or higher if I had to. With that being said, the images still work very well for what your end result was going to be, which as you said was newsprint. If these were for parent sales or posters, etc. I would crank that ISO up and stop the action dead in it's tracks.
Yep, I'm with Billy on your settings. I think my 1d4 for does up to ISO 5000 beautifully and tolerable at 6400 and 8000. ISO 2500 to 3200 is sweet. Just need to tweak your LR settings and almost all of the noise is gone at 3200 and lower. I'm not sure about your 135 2.0, but mine is not as accurate as I'd like (compared to my 70-200 2.8 IS II) and with the small DOF, it has a pretty small tolerance for accuracy. I'd be tempted to go to 2.2 or 2.5 to help it out a bit, but maybe yours does better than mine and is consistently accurate at 2.0, especially when you have lots of light. I did not check the exif and maybe you were already doing that.
I like wrestling image #7 best of the wrestling. I've only shot it a few times, and I know how hard it can be to get good faces, especially as the kids get older.
I like basketball 10, 12 and 16 best. That "kid" in 16 is already inked up pretty good. Colors and WB look pretty good too.
Thanks everyone.....many thanks for the looks and comments.
Billy ans Tim.....Guilty as charged and this has been.....probably more psychological than anything (any head doctors out there than can cure me of this) . I've always been squeamish about pushing the ISO indoors but don't think twice about it outdoors. Something I gotta work on...but I totally agree with you guys.
Billy...on the wrestling shots...I shoot it quite a bit for the paper and college and I go about it with a pretty simple approach;
1. Ass on the mat.
2. Shoot as tight as possible.
3. Faces as much as possible
4. Lifts are always interesting
5. This year I'm seeing more "blood" than in the past. Some of the bandaging, wrapping and aftermath is interesting..
6. Last year I had a first during a H.S.tournament. A male wrestling a female....which was published in one of the outlying newspapers.
7. I see a lot of celebration stuff....like other sports - I shoot it.
8. Coaches....these guys are great and very animated.
9. Quick reaction time because things change in seconds. In my 3rd and 4th shots here....the kid in maroon (top) was wiping the mat with the kid in red. One quick roll and the kid in marron was on his back about to be pinned...and the buzzer went off. Kid in maroon won 7-6.
10. I usually like to get the wrestlers on the mat...when they stand like in my last shot...sometines not so appealing BG's get mixed in. I think in this shot it worked to my advantage.
11. Other than that....I go with it and sort thru it when I get home.
Also Tim....I'm an outlier and have to confess I haven't done the LR thing yet. I just can't figure the damn thing out. PS was enough strain on my aging brain cells the way it was and now to learn another Adobe product.....don't think it's happening in this lifetime. Maybe on the other side .
Tim....on the 135....I'm really loving mine and it is pretty much dead on all around. I'll probably get shot for admitting to this...but I find myself going to the 135 over the 200 1.8 at times because it is a much lighter rig to get around with.
Paul.....gotcha on the 8x10. Good call....
Ted....welcome back and thanks for your thoughts. It has been a while and was looking at some bird shots the other day and thought of you. Hope all is good with you and the family.
Thanks again guys.....Billy I'm going to try and call later when I get home from work.
Great shots. I shoot some high school sports as well. Mainly football. I love when people share their sports photography. It's inspires me to try different things. I'll definitely have to share some of my work.
Frank Lauri wrote:
Billy...on the wrestling shots...I shoot it quite a bit for the paper and college and I go about it with a pretty simple approach;
1. Ass on the mat.
2. Shoot as tight as possible.
3. Faces as much as possible
4. Lifts are always interesting
5. This year I'm seeing more "blood" than in the past. Some of the bandaging, wrapping and aftermath is interesting..
6. Last year I had a first during a H.S.tournament. A male wrestling a female....which was published in one of the outlying newspapers.
7. I see a lot of celebration stuff....like other sports - I shoot it.
8. Coaches....these guys are great and very animated.
9. Quick reaction time because things change in seconds. In my 3rd and 4th shots here....the kid in maroon (top) was wiping the mat with the kid in red. One quick roll and the kid in marron was on his back about to be pinned...and the buzzer went off. Kid in maroon won 7-6.
10. I usually like to get the wrestlers on the mat...when they stand like in my last shot...sometines not so appealing BG's get mixed in. I think in this shot it worked to my advantage.
11. Other than that....I go with it and sort thru it when I get home....Show more →
I have to agree 100% with point 1. When I shoot wrestling, I always try to get as low as possible, 95% of the time either sitting or laying down (I'd crawl right onto the mat and sit in the center if I could). I find there is a gap between sitting and standing that usually don't work, but if you go higher than standing you can get some good stuff from different perspectives.
To modify 2, I sometimes find it better to leave a little bit of room for cropping when the wrestlers are standing, just given the multi-directional nature of the sport especially depending on your ability to react, reframe and shoot in a quick flurry. See point 4.
As to 10, I try (in most sports) shoot from the side where the fans will provide a feel for the atmosphere rather than empty bleachers, which isn't always possible.
Frank Lauri wrote:
Tim....on the 135....I'm really loving mine and it is pretty much dead on all around. I'll probably get shot for admitting to this...but I find myself going to the 135 over the 200 1.8 at times because it is a much lighter rig to get around with.
I'll borrow the 200 1.8 for some wrestling and let you know if it still works.
. I've always been squeamish about pushing the ISO indoors but don't think twice about it outdoors. Something I gotta work on...but I totally agree with you guys.
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