Facial Expression

[GadgetRick]

Here's another one from last week's match. His match was canceled today due to a storm (which never hit here). Was just bored sitting here wishing it had snowed...



50mm
f1.8
1/125
ISO 800

[GadgetRick]

Oh, I just wanted to thank all of you who have made suggestions on my other shots. I'm very new to photography (got the D50 at the end of the summer last year) and I'm trying to improve. So all suggestions have been extremely helpful. This is why I post so many shots as I learn so much from you all. Thank you!

[wamplers]

Great facial expression!

Might use just a touch of contrast boost. Looks slightly flat to me.

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by wamplers

Great facial expression!

Might use just a touch of contrast boost. Looks slightly flat to me.

Thanks. PP is the part I seem to be struggling with a bit now. I seem to be able to get it, "in the ballpark," most of the time but can't quite seem to make it just right. Been working on that more over the last week or so.

I'll go play with the contrast a bit and see what I can come up with.

[Jim Bryant]

Capturing facial expressions in wrestling, especially in the pee wee, jr high and even in the high school levels sometime tells the story better than action. Even through I try to capture both as they certainly tell a story. Here's one I got of a kid in the process of getting pinned.
I just liked the way the wrestler in the green shoes planted his foot in the nose of his opponent (facing camera).

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Capturing facial expressions in wrestling, especially in the pee wee, jr high and even in the high school levels sometime tells the story better than action. Even through I try to capture both as they certainly tell a story. Here's one I got of a kid in the process of getting pinned.
I just liked the way the wrestler in the green shoes planted his foot in the nose of his opponent (facing camera).

EXCELLENT shot Jim (as always)! I agree, I feel facial expressions in sports really tells a story. I'm after pictures which tell stories. Too many static sports shots out there. I love pics like this as it's unique. You could take thousands of shots of wrestling and NEVER see something like this ever again. Bravo on the shot.

How did you light it? Obviously you shot with a flash. Was that all you used? Seems like a lot of light. Did you use more than one?

[Jim Bryant]

Unfortunately, that was shot using the only one spot flood light positioned over the mat. lucky for me, the colors were green on the outside with a yellow circle with a white center. The overhead light reflected enough light that bounced off the lighter center onto their faces. When I shot the start of tourney on Friday nite, there was enough lighting in the gym to use ISO 1600, camera on manuel at f2.8 @ 320th second. It was the same lighting throughout the day matches, but before the championship round, they carried out this huge reflector flood and I thought to myself, they are going shut off the overhead lights and use this one spot. I had left my flash units at home, so I set the ISO to 3200, camera on manuel, f-stop at 2.8 and shutter at 320th. Looks good. Next time I'll bring three flashes and set one up camera right and camera left (set as slaves) and use the one on camera as a master to fire them off. Here's some example of the lighting I used at SK's last home match. Nice lighting effect too. Had all three flashes set at a - two thirds output. Camera was set on manual, ISO 800, f2.8 at 250th or 320th second.

[GadgetRick]

Excellent shots.

I was shooting with flash but I don't like not seeing what's in the background. Part of what makes a wrestling match so cool (in the case of my son's where there are multiple matches going on at once) is seeing the pandemonium in the background but blurred enough to not lose site of the subject(s). I'm also still learning about flash photography...I have a LOT more to learn about that. I feel like I have an idea of what I don't know (yet) with non-flash photography but I have no idea what I don't know with flash yet...

[Jim Bryant]

Originally Posted by GadgetRick

Excellent shots.

I was shooting with flash but I don't like not seeing what's in the background. Part of what makes a wrestling match so cool (in the case of my son's where there are multiple matches going on at once) is seeing the pandemonium in the background but blurred enough to not lose site of the subject(s). I'm also still learning about flash photography...I have a LOT more to learn about that. I feel like I have an idea of what I don't know (yet) with non-flash photography but I have no idea what I don't know with flash yet...

What I try to do a lot of the time is use the flash as a fill light, adding to the existing light already. This is accomplished by combining your overall exposure and dialing down the flash output as to where the flash is not so overpowering that it causes the background to go dark.

Here's a picture I took of a swimmer not too long ago. I just used enough flash to light him and not to darken the background. Get Joe McNally's book "Hot Shoe Diaries:. Or go onto David Hobby's site strobist.com. Both are lighting experts.

Date: 1/7/10
Time: 3:26:52 PM
Latitude:
Longitude:
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Serial #:
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Frame #: 2447
Lens (mm): 300
ISO: 1000
Aperture: 3.2
Shutter: 1/250
Exp. Comp.: 0.0
Flash Comp.: -1 2/3
Program: Manual
Focus Mode:
White Bal.:
ICC Profile: Adobe RGB (1998) (embedded)
Contrast:
Sharpening:
Quality:

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

What I try to do a lot of the time is use the flash as a fill light, adding to the existing light already. This is accomplished by combining your overall exposure and dialing down the flash output as to where the flash is not so overpowering that it causes the background to go dark.

Yes, fill flash is something I need to learn as I know it really ads to the depth of your subject when done properly. Just haven't figured out how to do it properly. I always tend to over expose even when dialing the flash down as I'm not setting my camera properly.