First time Wrestling (State Championships) C&C

[canonnoob]

Hey Guys, So as many of you know I shoot for the state doing quite a few of their state championships each year. Well last weekend was wrestling and it just happened to be my first time. If you dont mind, I uploaded my shots to sportsshooter and am wondering if a few of you could take a look and tell me how I did.

Thanks.

http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=8691

[canons900]

Really nice shots. you've captured the action wonderfully. Clean and crisp shots. I only wish I had the lighting in the gyms my boys wrestle in. They are dungeons.

Very well done, congrats.

[canonnoob]

Yeah the light was decent. I mean it was at Mizzou.. (University of Missouri)

[canons900]

I have a post further down with some wrestling photos from the past weekend. If you wouldn't mind taking a look and let me know what you think of them.

[canonnoob]

Will do.

[Michael15]

Very sharp photos! Did you use any flash/strobes??

[canonnoob]

Very sharp photos! Did you use any flash/strobes??

nope straight ambient

[Michael15]

nope straight ambient


Were you close enough to use your 85 1.8 or did u go with the 300 or 70-200?

Again very nice shots!

[canonnoob]

I used my 70-200 at 200 almost the entire time. Even when I was closer than were I had been sitting to shoot the finals. Shoot Tight, Crop Tighter.

[10megapixel]

Great job. You got some nice shots there ;)

[asysin2leads]

Nice shots, Dave. Wrestling is tough because of the constant moving in different directions.

[canonnoob]

Great job. You got some nice shots there ;)

Thanks man!

Nice shots, Dave. Wrestling is tough because of the constant moving in different directions.


yeah I agree, it was a totally new experience for me.

[customactionphotos]

Great photos! Really nice captures for your first time. One of the toughest sports around. I played football and wrestled and wrestling was definitely much harder.

[MDJAK]

You captured great action, but unless it's compression affecting the pics, the pics look very yellow to me. That's perhaps the problem with ambient light.

Two weeks ago I shot the Section Championships and used my 600ws RX Elinchrom strobes, no ambient light, and the color and results are just much cleaner than those. No offense meant at all. Your action shots are way better than mine.

mark

[1downfall]

You captured great action, but unless it's compression affecting the pics, the pics look very yellow to me. That's perhaps the problem with ambient light.

Two weeks ago I shot the Section Championships and used my 600ws RX Elinchrom strobes, no ambient light, and the color and results are just much cleaner than those. No offense meant at all. Your action shots are way better than mine.

mark
I agree with Mark here. Awesome shots...but the tones appear yellowish on my screen as well.

[RGolfJ]

I agree with the last two posts. I shoot the PA state AA championships every year in a new arena in Hershey. Almost everyone uses flash. Most use on camera with FEC but it gives the images more pop. I've seen alot of your work and it is very good. I think flash here would help. Tough to use strobes since in my case 6 mats are going at all times. I am sure you had a similar situation.
As far as the shots themselves. They are great action shots, but none of them show actual points being scored.

[canonnoob]

Great photos! Really nice captures for your first time. One of the toughest sports around. I played football and wrestled and wrestling was definitely much harder.

Thanks

You captured great action, but unless it's compression affecting the pics, the pics look very yellow to me. That's perhaps the problem with ambient light.


Two weeks ago I shot the Section Championships and used my 600ws RX Elinchrom strobes, no ambient light, and the color and results are just much cleaner than those. No offense meant at all. Your action shots are way better than mine.

mark


Mark,

No offense taken, we are all still learning here right? Even seasoned pros need to be corrected sometimes. I dont know if the problem is necessarily with ALL ambient, but it may be just this ambient. I had not set a CWB and this arena is ALL yellow (It is the University of Missouri's Basketball Arena- Black and Gold basically- All the Seats are bright yellow) so that may have affected the outcome. Unfortunately I have no idea lol. We cant set up strobes for these type of events because of the venue and union work. Bummer, I know. But it could be a few other factors as well - compression, Post processing ( I didnt do much on the side of WB or color so maybe I need to look into that. Most of the wrestling shots on here have too blue of a WB and so maybe its just a different look since they look warm. But I will take a look into it.

Just to add, It has been noted that this arena has lighting problems with cycling so that also might be a slight problem as well in the photos.

Thanks Mark!

I agree with Mark here. Awesome shots...but the tones appear yellowish on my screen as well.

Thanks.

I agree with the last two posts. I shoot the PA state AA championships every year in a new arena in Hershey. Almost everyone uses flash. Most use on camera with FEC but it gives the images more pop. I've seen alot of your work and it is very good. I think flash here would help. Tough to use strobes since in my case 6 mats are going at all times. I am sure you had a similar situation.
As far as the shots themselves. They are great action shots, but none of them show actual points being scored.

Thanks,

Honestly, I almost always use strobes, but as I said above, in this case I cant. total of 8 mats for everything up to the finals. Finals are 4 mats. Plus because we are in a large university venue, mounting strobes requires union labor, and honestly, we wont be paying for that just to do this. Even on camera flash in this situation I dont think it would have helped. The look is just too harsh. I would rather shoot ambient in this situation especially since I have a body that handles the noise well (1dmkIV)

As for the last comment, I dunno. I have plenty of them scoring but I am more of the "Action" type guy. But there was not a lot of Action or scoring in alot of the finals matches. Only 1 Tech fall, 2 pins, and the rest were 1 or 2 point decisions that often went into sudden death overtime or overtime at the least in ALL of the final matches.

[MDJAK]

Yeah, I don't know about the "scoring point" comment. I mean, you can be on top of someone and get backpoints and it's not the most exciting shot. Whereas, you can pick a guy up and swing him to the floor, a much more exciting shot, and yet not get on top of him and score nothing.

I think on camera flash actually would have helped quite a bit, especially if you angled it up and bounced it off a large white card.

And damn those unions. (JK, I'm a union member.) But I know what you mean. My friend was at a show at a hotel and couldn't even set up or take down his own background. He had to pay hundreds to the union workers instead. :(

mark

[RGolfJ]

Don't get me wrong, I like your action shots. I just have wrestlers that like to see shots where they are scoring ie tilts, escapes, takedowns, etc. I was just pointing something out that I wasn't sure if you considered since it was your first time. I am a fan of your work.

[AZAlphaDog]

If I read your post correctly it seems you shot most at 200 mm so this is somewhat impossible considering the lighting conditions, but . . .

I'm wondering if you would shoot really, really tight, just the wrestler's face and expressions or just hands and grips, eyes and arms . . . that sort of stuff.

Maybe it's just me, but I like getting in really tight on stuff.

[canonnoob]

Don't get me wrong, I like your action shots. I just have wrestlers that like to see shots where they are scoring ie tilts, escapes, takedowns, etc. I was just pointing something out that I wasn't sure if you considered since it was your first time. I am a fan of your work.

Yeah it all comes down to personal preference... I understand. I have about 10k worth of shots and I dont think that will work with the forum's limit :p

If I read your post correctly it seems you shot most at 200 mm so this is somewhat impossible considering the lighting conditions, but . . .

I'm wondering if you would shoot really, really tight, just the wrestler's face and expressions or just hands and grips, eyes and arms . . . that sort of stuff.

Maybe it's just me, but I like getting in really tight on stuff.


Im the same way. However, I just hadnt posted any tight shots in this bunch... not sure why..