HS wrestling - need C&C and a little help

I finally picked up a decent lens, 85mm f/1.8, to take pictures at my son's high school wrestling tournaments. Here are my first attempts from over the weekend. C&C would be much appreciated as I am still a newb to this kind of photography, I am primarily a landscape guy. This is a little more difficult then I thought it would be:o.

I seem to have the best luck setting the focus point on my camera to the center position, but I have came up with shots that would have been better with the focus point off center. I would miss shots if I tried changing it while they were wrestling, letting the camera pick them makes a mess! Am I going about this correctly or is there a better way?

My pictures had too much noise at 1600 ISO, so I shot most of them at 800. I ended up with exposures around 1/250 in aperture priority at f/1.8. Once again, am I going at this correctly?


Any other help would be great! Here they are, I have quite a few more in my smugmug gallery if your interested. Thanks - Shaun

#1 - The calm before the storm.

Oh, you have got to love that color cast from those mats. You're basically doing it right. For you focus issue, you have two options. You can set the camera up to use the * key to activate focus. So you could hit the key, focus, then recompose. There are plenty that like that method... I don't. I have it setup that the button turns on focus area selection, which I have learned to hit and quickly pick a new focus point. With some practice I have been learned to reselect focus points faster then I would be be able to do the first method. In the end it is all personal preference. You know, there is the old fashioned way to... just manaully focus. Wrestling does not move around the mat fast enough that you couldn't manually focus it either.

The color cast from the mats is difficult to deal with. Your are gonna love the 85 for your son's wrestling...and lots of other stuff also. I checked some of my recent wrestling pictures, all shot in manual at 800 ISO and and 1/200 or 1/160 at 2.0. Keep clicking.

The 85 f/1.8 is a great lens, but it is too short for wrestling. The 70-200 or 120-300 is a much better fit for the sport. You want to be tight when shooting wrestling -- having entire bodies of both wrestlers is not needed.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Gatorboy wrote in post #2507541
The 85 f/1.8 is a great lens, but it is too short for wrestling. The 70-200 or 120-300 is a much better fit for the sport. You want to be tight when shooting wrestling -- having entire bodies of both wrestlers is not needed.

Do you find 2.8 fast enough when using the 70-200? I thought about going that route but thought it would be too slow. I assume IS would be a big plus when shooting with a 70-200? How about a 135 f/2? Or would this not be long enough? I will try shooting at 2.8 with my 85mm this weekend and see what happens.

FWIW - I just ordered a 24-105 L and a 100-400 L, these lenses will be too slow but might give me a better idea what the best focal length is.

Shaun

HighPlainsPhotographer wrote in post #2508159
Do you find 2.8 fast enough when using the 70-200?

It depends of course on the light in the gym -- but if you can get 1/250 or faster, you should be good for wrestling. Also, because you are indoors in a confined area, use manual settings instead of Av. The light will be the same.

Many times I will also use flash if I'm shooting in a dungeon.

Whenever it comes down to shooting sports, I usually like to take a minute and study the umpire/refs, to see what they do. Given the fact that they have to try and see 100% of the plays, I try to emulate their point of view, and most of the times it yields great results.

Although I have not photographed wrestling myself, I would probably go down low to the ground as the umpire shows in one of your pics, and use the zoom in order not to be on his way (other games are much more obvious, like boxing, or soccer, where you cannot run around playing the ref's shadow).

Other than that, I thought the technical quality of the pics (IQ) was very good, just a matter of shooting the right moments and faces. If one waits long enough, and photographs enough matches, this is always bound to happen.

Final thoughts, if in that pic #2, you had been in the ground, about three more yards to your left, and still behind the ref with a zoom lens, that would have made an awesome picture, as one of the kid's faces seems almost upside down, and it is very expressive.

Cheers,

Two thoughts here. While I agree to some extent that a zoom would be nice, there is no reason you need the lens to get a decent shot. Second part, to Mario's comment and like Dave's image, getting lower really will help get the faces in the shot. Here is one I posted before but was shot with an 85 ( I think). If you are mat side, there really shouldn't be and issue.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Thanks for all of the input. I am going to try a few different things at the match this weekend.

One more quick question, do you think my white balance is okay? The orange mats play hell with this! My thought is that the warm tone is from the mats, I tried tweaking the white balance a little but kept coming back to what you see.

Shaun

Here is one I took with the 85. There are times tighter shots are better, but I really like to see all that's going on.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

good start...I think that lens will suit you just fine just as long as you have access to the side of the mat to get in tight. The 70-200 would be best...having zoom capabilities, but there's also something to be said for shooting sports with a prime. Less to think about really. Personally, I always use center metering and use the "*" key to focus. I also use AIServo when shooting sports because the action is constantly moving. In terms of settings, I'm usually at 800-1600 ISO, shooting on manual or TV if the lighting is good.

I didn't realize how crooked the background was. Here is a better look.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HighPlainsPhotographer wrote in post #2508757
Thanks for all of the input. I am going to try a few different things at the match this weekend.

One more quick question, do you think my white balance is okay? The orange mats play hell with this! My thought is that the warm tone is from the mats, I tried tweaking the white balance a little but kept coming back to what you see.

Shaun

Man, the color cast is just so heavy, I am not sure you can get remove it without just screwing everything thing else up in the process. At least I can't do it reliable or in a reasonable amount of time. In someways, it should be doable, because in the old days I would have used a gel or a color filter to back the orange out. But for the life of me right now I can't think of the right colored filter that would work. Why do you think there are so many B/W shots of the sport.... some of us just wimp and go b/w.

I'll have to post some of my wrestling shots (actually I should just start posting photos here!), but I use a 70-200 F4 and a flash. Actually a lot of newspaper people I've seen use flash, too. I've talked to several wrestlers who have told me they never even notice a flash going off.

I agree on the lens though -- a 70-200 is almost a must. Getting in tight and being able to have a wider shot in one lens is big with that spot.

Get this, my wife took a bunch of my wrestling pics from this past weekend to our local paper. They really liked them and want me to take pics for wrestling and basketball in my area! This is really cool, I will get my pics published in our (small) local paper and I can learn a new aspect of photography as I go. And, I can now honestly tell the wife I NEED a 70-200 2.8 and a 2nd body. And I can get a press pass to get in on the sidelines for some of the larger state events -- I am pumped up about this!

Shaun