70-200mm F4L Bodybuilding Show

[drisley]

A friend of mine who owns a local gym asked me if I wanted to go to a bodybuilding show next week. The pre-show is i a small 400 seat theatre, and the final is in a local 2300 seat concert hall.
I was thinking of taking my Rebel and 70-200mm F4L along to try some pictures.
Does anybody know if these type of staged events usually have enough lighting for this lens?
I know that is a difficult question, but I hear that bodybuilding shows use "bright stage lights".
I've looked at a few pictures from a bodybuilding website and alot of the pictures seem to have really bright highlights because of the lighting and the oil on the skin.
I found some pictures from a well known bodybuilding photographer here:

Link (http://www.billdobbins.com/PUBLIC/art/freecoolart/fitness-article/alti.jpg)

[randyk]

Unless the lighting is stellar, could be tough. On the other hand, may not be a lot of movement and there could be spot lights on the posers and it may work. See if you can bring a monopod.

would be nice to also bring a 2.8 or even faster to ensure you can get good shots.

[chris.bailey]

As this is a staged show, would they let you use flash? I would have though f4 quite restrictive at 200mm handheld otherwise.

ps I first read the heading as being a bodybuilding show for people who owned a 70-200f4L :lol:

[RichardtheSane]

ps I first read the heading as being a bodybuilding show for people who owned a 70-200f4L :lol:

I thought that too.
The 70-200 F4 isn't that heavy.

Maybe the 70-200 F2.8 LIS .....

[chris.bailey]

ps I first read the heading as being a bodybuilding show for people who owned a 70-200f4L :lol:

I thought that too.
The 70-200 F4 isn't that heavy.

Maybe the 70-200 F2.8 LIS .....

True but in bodybuilding you have to work up to the heavy weights

[mikeg]

drisley,

I usually shoot fashion shows and what I can assure you is that it won't be very easy to shoot @ 200 mm f/4 IMHO.
In the past I had a sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and @ 200 mm I've missed some shots :-( That's mainly why I got the 70-200 IS.
On top of that when I want to shoot without flash I've to crank up ISO to 400 and the lens wide open .

Hope this helps.

MikeG

[drisley]

Thanks guys.
Very informative, and rather disappointing.
I might try my good ol' 50mm f1.8 II.
If I can get a centre seat near the front, I'm sure I can get some decent pictures.

[randyk]

Thanks guys.
Very informative, and rather disappointing.
I might try my good ol' 50mm f1.8 II.
If I can get a centre seat near the front, I'm sure I can get some decent pictures.

the 50mm is well worth a shot. I had the 1.4 version and for subjects under spotlighting, slow movement, it worked great. But poorer lighting and action, not good at all.

[kafene]

Just Go! I took some shots at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach of these jelly fish that were in a dark room and barely lit with black and incondescent light (I think). I used a high ISO, but still got some pretty good shots, I thought.

But regarding the BodyBuilding show, it can't be THAT dark. Get your gear and shoot. Kick up the ISO and I bet you'll be surprised or generally pleased with what you can get. I'd try to take the monopod if you got one. If not, they don't cost that much. I got my Bogen/Manfrotto monopod for less than $40.

Since you haven't been to one of these and shot pics, you almost owe it to yourself to go and learn.

kafene.

[Mike H]

A number of years ago I shot photos at bodybuilding shows, both the day shows (the actual judging) and the night shows. Perhaps my experience in this can help.

I would definitely use the 70-200/4 rather than a shorter, faster lens. During contests no one complains about flash units going off (check with the promoter first, of course, in case it's different in your area). Shooting with the short lens would require you getting pretty close to fill the frame, which may not be possible since the judges will likely be in the close seats (hopefully). Also, remember that if you get on the floor in front of the judges to be close enough with that 50 mm, you may cut off the subject's feet with that angle since they may not be at the edge of the stage.

If you can use flash, there's no need to bounce it in that situation, so you can point it straight on and get plenty of range from most units. If you are going to shoot a lot of frames, you may want to think about having lots of batteries or a separate pack since the range may cause your recycle times to be slow. If you are going to shoot any bodybuilder's complete posing routine, you'll need to flash every 4 or 5 seconds. If this gets to be a problem, crank up your ISO to reduce the power requirement.

One other thing: if you have to get far back to shoot, you may run into a little redeye since the flash must be separated more from the lens axis to prevent this as the shooting distance increases. You can do away from that with Photoshop, but keeping the flash a little farther above the lens (say on a bracket) might save you a lot of work later.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

[MediaMagic]

Thanks guys.
Very informative, and rather disappointing.
I might try my good ol' 50mm f1.8 II.
If I can get a centre seat near the front, I'm sure I can get some decent pictures.

If you were asked to shoot the event, I would guess that you should have freedom to roam around a bit. At least that is what you might want to express ahead of time. "If you want me to get the best shots for you, I need to be able to move to the best vantage points". Go into your photographer's dissertation on lighting angles, etc.

If you are allowed flash:
here's a trick I picked up from DaveG. If you can get your hands on a 550ex and a 420ex (or two 550's), set up the 420ex as slave on a stand about 15 to 20 feet back from the stage aimed at the posing area. Then use the 500ex as the master set for zero output and let it fire the 420. Move to the back of the theatre and zoom in to shoot. Move all over the place and find the compositions you like best. This should give pretty good coverage although if there is a line of people across the stage, the light won't cover all of them. You'd have to use the output of the 550 to help cover or a couple of EX flashes and the ST-E2 transmitter should do nicely in a small theatre too.

[drisley]

Mike H, and MediaMagic, thanks alot.
Very informative!
I was at a prejudging show a couple years ago, and I know the stage lights "appear" bright, but that is relative to the rest of the dark theatre.

I talked to my friend who owns the gym, and he said he can get me tickets to the prejudging. The seats are the front row, off to the left of the stage. Nice and close, but maybe too close, because, as you said, you will chop off the feet.

I have a 420EX, which I may bring. I wonder, would the flash cause alot of glare on the skin since they use oil? This might be a situation where FEC would come in handy (damn that missing feature on the 300D).

I shoot mainly in raw, and only have a 512mb card, which gives me 70 shots (less with higher ISO of course). So, I will have to pick and choose.
I think I will get some funny looks when I pull out the camera with a 70-200mm F4L ONLY for the ladies fitness routines *lol*

[drisley]

So, is this what most people were expecting when they saw this thread?

http://www.mts.net/~lftbrain/bodybuild.jpg

[DaveG]

A friend of mine who owns a local gym asked me if I wanted to go to a bodybuilding show next week. The pre-show is i a small 400 seat theatre, and the final is in a local 2300 seat concert hall.
I was thinking of taking my Rebel and 70-200mm F4L along to try some pictures.
Does anybody know if these type of staged events usually have enough lighting for this lens?
I know that is a difficult question, but I hear that bodybuilding shows use "bright stage lights".
I've looked at a few pictures from a bodybuilding website and alot of the pictures seem to have really bright highlights because of the lighting and the oil on the skin.
I found some pictures from a well known bodybuilding photographer here:

Link (http://www.billdobbins.com/PUBLIC/art/freecoolart/fitness-article/alti.jpg)

I shot a bodybuilding show a few years ago as a feature story for a newspaper. That show - like yours - was at a concert hall and and they had stage lighting set up. The idea is that the light hits the athelete's bodies in such a way that the muscle development is enhanced. I would expect this lighting, especially at the hall. All that direct light from a camera mounted flash will do is to flatten the muscle development and there's no future in that!

I have a lens (70-200 f2.8 L) that has a built in tripod collar, which I use along with a monopod. I'd shoot wide open - there's very little depth needed - and with the fastest shutterspeed I could get. The light on the bodybuilder should do all of the work and it'll be a fairly easy shoot since they aren't moving very fast.

[drisley]

Thanks m8.
Great tips.

If I use a 70-200mm F4L, what shutter speeds do you think I would be looking at (ISO800 max)? If you had to guess.

I currently dont have a tripod ring for the lens yet, so would it be futile to expect hand held shots?

[DaveG]

Thanks m8.
Great tips.

If I use a 70-200mm F4L, what shutter speeds do you think I would be looking at (ISO800 max)? If you had to guess.

I currently dont have a tripod ring for the lens yet, so would it be futile to expect hand held shots?
Either use a monopod with a ball head, or a tripod. At 200 mm you are using (effectively) a 320 mm lens and you'll need all of the support you can get.

[drisley]

DaveG,
Thanks again.

While on the topic of indoor sports, I've been thinking of heading down to the local diving/swimming facility, which is olympic quality, and used in the Pan American games.
How is the lighting usually in these places for taking diving shots?

I guess I should just go and try, but I thought I would ask.

:)

[Mike H]

I definitely agree with using the stage lights alone if you have enough light, rather than flash, for the reasons that were described above. I always felt that shooting without flash made for stronger shots (and not just with stage shots). But bring that flash anyway, since with an f/4 maximum aperture you may not be able to get enough exposure.

Here's a good plan: mount the camera on a tripod or monopod, and set the ISO to 800. Shoot wide open. If you can get a reasonable shutter speed shooting with just the stage lights, do that. If you're getting blurring at the necessary shutter speed, put the flash on and use it. Good luck!

[DaveG]

DaveG,
Thanks again.

While on the topic of indoor sports, I've been thinking of heading down to the local diving/swimming facility, which is olympic quality, and used in the Pan American games.
How is the lighting usually in these places for taking diving shots?

I guess I should just go and try, but I thought I would ask.

:)

It's likely to be so so. There's a reasonable chance that there were additional TV lights for the actual Pan-Am games competition that wouldn't be needed (nor affordable) for day to day events. So it would probably have been temporary lighting which was removed after the games.

Anyway you'll just have to go and see. For diving you luck into a couple of situations that are pretty much unique in sports. First, at a certain point of the dive the athlete is absolutely motionless; and that's at the top of their bounce off of the diving board. At the peak they aren't going up and they aren't going down, and for a moment they are weightless and motionless. To shoot THAT moment doesn't require much shutterspeed at all, only enough to cover the focal length of the lens.

Second, you can also play with vertical panning, which would mean panning down with the diver while shooting at a relatively slow shutterspeed. Horizontal panning is fairly common (like of a race car) but panning down is more rare since few activities lend themselves to this technique. But use a SLOW shutterspeed since the idea is to really blur the background. If your camera's and the subject's motion are in synch then there should be little relative movement. The subject will be sharp (ish) while you get a sense of movement from the background. Take LOTS of pictures though since any one could be messed up.

[drisley]

Thanks again for the info.

I will make sure to post the pictures when they are done.

[motophoto]

http://www.mts.net/~lftbrain/bodybuild.jpg

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA, Thats Fantastic!!!

[Tom W]

So, is this what most people were expecting when they saw this thread?

http://www.mts.net/~lftbrain/bodybuild.jpg

Its ArnoLd Lensenegger.

[drisley]

As it turns out, we have great seats.
Center, row 4.
I wonder if the 50mm F1.8 would be enough?