Stoping Action (gymnastics) Available light ?

[tombryan]

I shot a Gymnastics tournament for the first time. I was hired to take only individuals on my portable studio setup. They came out great. But I decided to take a bunch of action shots and parents saw me doing it. Several told me that if I got some good ones they would buy them. So I took a bunch of them and I had about 10 parents point out their kids as they got on the runway. The kids came running down the runway doing flip after flip ending with some type of dismount with multiple sumersaults or twists.

I was in a huge inflatable dome. Thought the lighting was pretty good. I metered the light that ISO 800 F4 @ 1/250 of a second. I set my camera on Manual with those settings. Mounted my 70-200 2.8 IS set at the panning mode and AF Servo and AI focus. Also, they wouldn't allow flash.

My pictures of the gymnast were real blurry because of motion. So I think I should have went ahead and stepped up to ISO 1600 and shot at a fast shutter speed and maybe even F2.8. Also thinking maybe I would have been better shooting on manual focus or even one shot focus. Haven't had much luck with the Servo focus, mostly with track.

So I'm looking for suggestions or proving settings. I haven't been a big action sports photographer with real fast action. My experience is mostly Weddings, Portraits, and for Sports I've done Football and Basketball. Never had any trouble with either of those.

So just wondering where I went wrong. I'm going to be doing a little more of this stuff so I just want to get better results next time.

Thanks,

TB

[tuggnet]

Could you post a couple of the action shots?

[madplower4]

Being by no means an expert, I wanted to take panning shots of my kids on their go kart. One thing that worked was to have someone stand at the point of where the action will be taking place, put it in mf and maually focus on that point. Then leave it in manual focus but don't adjust it. When the gymanst hits that spot as you pan you should be in perfect focus for the shot. But only at that particular spot.

Again I'm no expert and their are probably better ways, but it worked fairly well for me.

[KartGirlsMom]

One of my daughters is a gymnast so I have taken tons of gym photos. Almost always the lighting is horrible. With my 10D, I have been using 3200 ISO and AV wide open with either my f2.8 70-200 or f1.8 on my 85mm prime AF Servo and filtering afterwards with Neat Image. Even so, I don't get very many good ones. Here are some I saved from the a meet in February using those settings.

http://gallery130519.fotopic.net/c398978_1.html

Poses usually turn out the best. You don't have to worry about stopping action.

http://www.beattheboys.com/gym0405/leah.jpg

[tuggnet]

One of my daughters is a gymnast so I have taken tons of gym photos. Almost always the lighting is horrible. With my 10D, I have been using 3200 ISO and AV wide open with either my f2.8 70-200 or f1.8 on my 85mm prime AF Servo and filtering afterwards with Neat Image. Even so, I don't get very many good ones. Here are some I saved from the a meet in February using those settings.

http://gallery130519.fotopic.net/c398978_1.html

Poses usually turn out the best. You don't have to worry about stopping action.

http://www.beattheboys.com/gym0405/leah.jpg

I think you have some nice shots there. Can you use a flash when shooting gymnastics?

Some of the sports around here allow flash and some don't:

Swimming - flash okay
Diving - no flash
Cheer - no flash
Soccer (indoor) - no flash

[mdm]

Have you tried the av mode and bumped up the shutter speed ?

[KartGirlsMom]

No flash allowed in gymnastics.

[kawter2]

First off you will have to shoot raw for this...

use your 85 @ 1.8 w/iso 1600 (maybee 3200 if it is realllllly bad lighting) and TV 500 or greater

Compensate in the RAW editing software

[tombryan]

First off you will have to shoot raw for this...

use your 85 @ 1.8 w/iso 1600 (maybee 3200 if it is realllllly bad lighting) and TV 500 or greater

Compensate in the RAW editing software

I was shooting at SS of 1/200 and 1/250. No wondering I couldn't stop action of the gymnists doing flips down the runway at warp speeds. I'll also be shooting RAW next time.

I wish I had the 85mm lens. That's next on my list.

I'll post some pics later. Just got back my computer from getting some Trojan horses removed. Gotta get caught up on some things.

Thanks for the tips.

[CyberDyneSystems]

The ultimate Gymnastic lens is the 200mm f/1.8.. but it is usually out of the question price wise.

Switching to the 135mm f/2L and an 85mm f/1.8 might go a long way towards getting the shutter speeds you require,. that and bumping to ISO 1600.

[tombryan]

Ok, here's one image. You can see the motion blur bigtime. I'm going to have to show some of these images to the parents and just tell them I wasn't able to shoot at a fast enough shutter speed to stop the motion.

I'll post a few more.

TB

[tombryan]

Here's a couple more. You can see what I mean anyway.

TB

[joshsfotosinc]

the motion blur creates a good image thou, it shows character.
i had a few volleyball pictures which they blurred while they were in the air, an another photogragher said it prefect becuase it set the sence.