HS Wrestling w/Off-camera flash

[Gatorboy]

Saturday I had an assignment to shoot the Maryland Private School wrestling championships. They run the championship round on three mats at once. 1st-2nd on the middle mat, with 3rd-4th and 5th-6th on the end mats.

This is an old gym with not a lot of room from the edge of the mat to the bleachers. What I did was used two super-clamps on the closest railings, one on each side of the bleachers with a Canon 580EX attached pointing the flash towards the center of the mat. I set each flash at 1/2 power and 70mm zoom. With the crowd filling the stands, I hoped my settings were good enough. I fired the flashes using Pocket Wizards.

I sat in the corner of the mat and after a few test shots settled on ISO 400; f/4.0; 1/250s. I was pretty happy with the resuts. I did run into some problems when a very exciting match caused the coaches to jump up from their chairs and stand. This blocked one of my flashes in the middle of the mat.

Below are just a couple examples of the typical shots I got with this setup. All with my Mark IIN and 70-200 f/2.8L:

#1:

http://www.harfordsports.com/hidden/forumImages/miaa2007_001.jpg


#2:

http://www.harfordsports.com/hidden/forumImages/miaa2007_002.jpg


#3:

http://www.harfordsports.com/hidden/forumImages/miaa2007_003.jpg

[bsmotril]

I'd say you nailed the lighting setup. These are some of the best wrestling shots I've seen posted here.

[thekufan]

Great job! Crisp. Just received my 580EX in the mail. Cannot wait to start using.

[bmb77]

I can't say these are good. As Tony the Tiger would say, Their GRRRREAT

[Big WIll]

You dialed the lighting! well done!

[MT]

Almost exactly the setup I use. The lighting looks nearly deadon, the websize images look a touch oversharpened to me.

[Gatorboy]

Almost exactly the setup I use. The lighting looks nearly deadon, the websize images look a touch oversharpened to me.

That is probably true -- I had prepared these for submission to my editor (sharpened once at full-resolution), then I ran them through my standard action I use for web-sized images which I normally run before any sharpening, so yes, they are a bit oversharpened.

[Jim7226]

Very well done. I have never shot wrestling but can't see where there is much room for improvement in these pics.

[superdiver]

I really like the last two. On the first one you can see the shadows from the lights, the effect from the flash that I dont like...

But you did nail the shots!

[Mbrescio]

I agree the best on the Forum. I shoot alot of wrestling with just the one 580 on camera. Most of the time the lighting is just a singal light over the center of the mat. Very hard to get any backround light. I will have to get that second 580 and super clamps.
mike

[Croasdail]

Nice even lighting... well done. Cool they let you do it because it surely made a huge difference.