carpenter
18th of November 2008 (Tue), 12:55
I shot my first MMA event a week ago. It was a cage match in low lighting.
I really have no idea what would have been the best setup for this.. but I went in with the 17-55 2.8IS and 85 1.8. I did have an all access pass so I could move around the cage however I wanted.
I used to think that volleyball and hockey were the toughest to shoot.. well not anymore.
Issues I encountered.
1) Shooting through the fence... I couldn't really use much of the 17-55 for a couple reasons. One is that it wasn't really long enough to shoot "through" the cage. the fencing would get in the way even with the camera (no hood) right on the fence. 2nd issue was it just wasn't fast enough without a flash. When I did flash the shots on many occasions I would get little round light "flares" on the pics. Not sure if this was due to the flash being agaist the cage as well or what. (example below) Straight out of camera.
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii291/carpenter75/mma1.jpg
the 85 1.8 would allow me to shoot through the fence from about 6" away without catching any of the fence in the photo. However it is a bit long. and the DOF becomes pretty thin with it opened up. Also had a hard time gaining focus even closer to the fence. It would try to pick up the fence quite a lot resulting in many OOF shots. It was just very low lighting in the arena. I shot at ISO1600, f/1.8 1.320 for most every shot of the fights. Aside from putting some strobes up top is there anything else I could have or should have done for better quality pic?
Below is what the best photos looked like... but to be honest I had FAR more throw aways than keepers due to the missed focus, thin DOF and bad lighting. (this was also shot at 1600, 1.8, 1/320)
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii291/carpenter75/mma2.jpg
I really have no idea what would have been the best setup for this.. but I went in with the 17-55 2.8IS and 85 1.8. I did have an all access pass so I could move around the cage however I wanted.
I used to think that volleyball and hockey were the toughest to shoot.. well not anymore.
Issues I encountered.
1) Shooting through the fence... I couldn't really use much of the 17-55 for a couple reasons. One is that it wasn't really long enough to shoot "through" the cage. the fencing would get in the way even with the camera (no hood) right on the fence. 2nd issue was it just wasn't fast enough without a flash. When I did flash the shots on many occasions I would get little round light "flares" on the pics. Not sure if this was due to the flash being agaist the cage as well or what. (example below) Straight out of camera.
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii291/carpenter75/mma1.jpg
the 85 1.8 would allow me to shoot through the fence from about 6" away without catching any of the fence in the photo. However it is a bit long. and the DOF becomes pretty thin with it opened up. Also had a hard time gaining focus even closer to the fence. It would try to pick up the fence quite a lot resulting in many OOF shots. It was just very low lighting in the arena. I shot at ISO1600, f/1.8 1.320 for most every shot of the fights. Aside from putting some strobes up top is there anything else I could have or should have done for better quality pic?
Below is what the best photos looked like... but to be honest I had FAR more throw aways than keepers due to the missed focus, thin DOF and bad lighting. (this was also shot at 1600, 1.8, 1/320)
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii291/carpenter75/mma2.jpg