More wrestling...

[GadgetRick]

What can I say? We're in the middle of the recreation season here in NJ.

This one was from our last match on January 30. The lighting was nothing short of horrible in this gym. I did what I could without a flash and my trusty 50mm f1.8.



50mm
f1.8
ISO 800
1/125

[73rocks]

Originally Posted by GadgetRick

What can I say? We're in the middle of the recreation season here in NJ.

This one was from our last match on January 30. The lighting was nothing short of horrible in this gym. I did what I could without a flash and my trusty 50mm f1.8.



50mm
f1.8
ISO 800
1/125

Looks good to me . . . great split-second action capture!

[GadgetRick]

Thanks, I really like the action in this one--just wish I had better light to work with or a better camera to bump the ISO. There was no referee in front of me and they were actually close enough (and facing me) to get this one. It's difficult (sometimes) to get a good action shot because it always seems like the ref is in the way or they're looking the other way or...

[Hartzler]

Rick,

Excellent shot. A little blur in the one boy's hand, but that's a function of the available light. The one thing I would think about doing would be open up the shadow on the faces a bit. There's so many ways to do that.

The ways I'd probably go is make a duplicate layer, hit Shadows/Highlights in PS, open up the shadows around 40%, do a layer mask concealing it all and then paint back in just the faces with a soft brush.

Mind you, I'm being hyper-critical now. If this was the first shot of yours I'd seen, I probably wouldn't even mention it. But your shots look very good and so I'm focusing on the few things that might be improved. A fix like I'm talking is 15 seconds or so in Photoshop.

Back to the good stuff, there is no noise to speak of. Good detail, nice depth of focus, the background is relevant but not distracting.

I'm off myself to shoot my son's league finals in about an hour. His school has already sewn up the league championship, so everyone else is playing for second place.

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by Hartzler

Rick,

Excellent shot. A little blur in the one boy's hand, but that's a function of the available light. The one thing I would think about doing would be open up the shadow on the faces a bit. There's so many ways to do that.

The ways I'd probably go is make a duplicate layer, hit Shadows/Highlights in PS, open up the shadows around 40%, do a layer mask concealing it all and then paint back in just the faces with a soft brush.

Mind you, I'm being hyper-critical now. If this was the first shot of yours I'd seen, I probably wouldn't even mention it. But your shots look very good and so I'm focusing on the few things that might be improved. A fix like I'm talking is 15 seconds or so in Photoshop.

Back to the good stuff, there is no noise to speak of. Good detail, nice depth of focus, the background is relevant but not distracting.

I'm off myself to shoot my son's league finals in about an hour. His school has already sewn up the league championship, so everyone else is playing for second place.

Thanks, I don't mind the suggestions, I want to get better. Thanks.

My problem is, I'm not very good with PS yet so I don't even know how to begin doing that. I've got to pick up a book and spend some time playing.

Yes, the blur in the hand is a function of the shutter speed as I couldn't really go any faster or I wouldn't get a good enough exposure. I've got my friend's D90 to borrow for a while to try shooting at higher ISOs (been playing with it around the house, wow!). Unfortunately, his match today was canceled due to the snow storm which hit everywhere but here it seems (it took a hard right turn just south of here). Otherwise, I'd be shooting right now.

Any suggestions to get better are always welcome by me. I'm a humble (wannabe) photographer. I really don't know everything I don't know yet. Consider me a sponge...

[wamplers]

Originally Posted by GadgetRick

Any suggestions to get better are always welcome by me. I'm a humble (wannabe) photographer. I really don't know everything I don't know yet. Consider me a sponge...

Have you considered using flash? I should have used a lower ISO on this one, as I did the first round I shot, but was experimenting.


Model: Canon EOS 50D
ISO: 1600
Exposure: 1/640 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 73mm
Flash Used: Yes (E-TTL on bracket with sync cord)

More here, with lower ISO (800).

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by wamplers

Have you considered using flash? I should have used a lower ISO on this one, as I did the first round I shot, but was experimenting.


Model: Canon EOS 50D
ISO: 1600
Exposure: 1/640 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 73mm
Flash Used: Yes (E-TTL on bracket with sync cord)

More here, with lower ISO (800).

I did shoot a bunch with flash at first. I just don't like having the subject exposed properly and everything else dark in the background. Just makes it seem like it's in a dreary gym (which it sometimes is!). Trying to shoot sans flash as much as possible for this.

[wamplers]

Originally Posted by GadgetRick

I did shoot a bunch with flash at first. I just don't like having the subject exposed properly and everything else dark in the background. Just makes it seem like it's in a dreary gym (which it sometimes is!). Trying to shoot sans flash as much as possible for this.

I'd rather not use flash too, but this gym is an ISO 12800 gym without flash.

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by wamplers

I'd rather not use flash too, but this gym is an ISO 12800 gym without flash.

Yes, this is part of my problem shooting indoors! So far, I've been lucky enough to shoot in gyms with reasonable lighting. Also, around here, they don't tend to turn off all of the other lights and leave only the lights on the mat on. That would really suck!