indoor track and field

[wesley_winterink]

I have an opportunity to shoot some indoor track at Iowa State with the first meet on December 7th. I shot some wrestling in the same building a couple weeks ago and I stayed away from high speed sync with the flash because I wasn't sure what range I would have. Now, however, I'm pretty sure I will want to shoot at least 1/500 so I want to use high speed sync. Since I'll have several chances this winter, I'm hoping to learn from my mistakes as I go and get better each time. Any suggestions for track and field photography would be appreciated. I'm not a pro, but I want to get the best shots I can to donate to the athletes.
My equipment is 20D and 30D with 580ex flash and 70-200 2.8 IS and 24-70 2.8. Thanks, everybody!!

Here is my wrestling photos from the same building, but all shot at 1/250.

http://www.winterink.com/wrestling001/wrestling_001_main.htm

[troutbreath]

Good luck. I'll be interested to see how this goes. I shot some outdoor track last year, with pretty good light and the sprints were still a challenge for me.

[dschach]

Check whether flash is allowed for track. It's not permitted for all sports.

When shooting with flash, shutter speed only determines how much ambient light is in the photo. The flash duration is much shorter and freezes the action as long as the ambient light is well below the flash.

[wesley_winterink]

Well, here are some of the shots I came up with. I tried various things including high speed sync with the flash, but it reduces the range so much I didn't think it was helpful.

And, dschach, thanks for your tip. My problem was, I forgot about it while I was there and was worrying about getting a faster shutter speed and wound up not being able to stop the action like I wanted. I'll have other chances so I will remember next time.



http://www.winterink.com/IowaState/Track001/track001.htm