Help! Taking Wrestling Photos

My objective is to take action pictures of college wrestlers. Good wrestlers move very quickly. The matches are inside basetball gyms. When I try to capture one wrestling attempting to take down another wrestler, I often get parts of their bodies blurred.

My equipment options are as follows: Canon 30D body, Canon XTi body, Canon 70-200MM 2.8L lens, 24-70MM 2.8L lens, Speedlite 430EX and a monopod.

I try to get as close to the mat as appropriate and that usually means betwen 20 to 45 feet from the wrestlers.

My flash is not annoying to the wrestlers but sometimes it is annoying to the fans.

Which camera body should I use?
Which lens should I use?
How should I set my camera?
Must I use the flash?

I only have the photo software to correct the pictures that came with the canon cameras. Must I get other software, if so what?

I have noticed that pictures on the screens of my cameras and when uploaded to Picasa are much brighter than the pictures when I print them off at Costco. Sometimes they look great online, but horrible when printed off. What do I do?

Help, Help Help.

Last question first... get your Costco's profiles from their site online and download them. This will calibrate you PS to know the difference and help keep everything in sync... so what you see is what you get printed. If you haven't calibrated your monitor - this could be the culprit as you may have the brightness way up too high and think it is normal.

Next question, for college wrestling you do not need a flash, and probably shouldn't use one or get in the habit of using one if possible. Your school may be different, but still, it will be hard to not get a flashed look unless you can put it on a stand and trigger it remotely. Your 30D and 70-200 should be easily up to the task. I would stick with those so you can shoot nice and tight. Take a sample shot of the mat before the match, get your exposure from there, and set the camera to manual using those settings. if you must use a flash look at bouncing it off the ceiling or the floor - though watch out for a color cast from the floor as some teams use just ugly horrible colors for their mats.

Good luck with it and enjoy... They may move quick but some of the best shots are from when they aren't hardly moving at all.... best expressions.

30D & 70-200

depends on the arena and whether you use flash or not.

Wrestling tolerates strong lighting - if you use flash

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Your 30D for the fact that gives you 5fps in burst mode plus 70-200mm set at AV of F/2.8 should work best.
Give it a go with boosting ISO and using available light. If not adequate, use fill in flash as needed but not rely entirely on flash.

Photoshop is a must. The earlier you know it, the more happy photographer you will be. Get any of CS editions and learn it (Doesn't have to be latest CS3, so you can save more with little features to lose).

I will put the 70-200 on the 30D and the 24-70 on the XTi. Set the 30D on the monopod and shoot AV at 2.8 with ISO set up high enough to give me speed of 1/400.

Depending on the distance from the action I would switch the lenses between the bodies.

Shoot manual mode with your 70-200 -- f/2.8; at least 1/320 and adjust the ISO up until you can reach these settings.

Lighting does not change indoors, especially within the small area on a mat, so forget the Av mode altogether. Lay on your belly matside, and you should get some great images.

Last year I started using my flash off-camera, for most of the time I'm in a high school gym with poor lighting. Here are a few examples with using off-camera:

SET on Flickr

Here is an example with out flash... doesn't have the same pop as a flashed image but still I feel very usable.

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You guys are fantastic! These are great tips. I have printed off this thread and will try all of the ideas. The pictures you have posted are exactly the type I wish I could get.

Two more questions:
I want to get Photoshop as suggested. Can I get the less expensive Photoshop Elements 6.0 or must I go with a CS version?

Also, how about if I use a flash diffuser? Will that lessen the hardship on the crowd but give me a little boost in light?

What do you think?

SWEET!!! I bought my 30D for wrestling and have been waiting for the season to start. Im almost saved up for a 85 1.8..... I'm so excited!!!

248 wrote in post #4192177
Also, how about if I use a flash diffuser? Will that lessen the hardship on the crowd but give me a little boost in light?

Try and setup so that you are not flashing towards the crowd.

crazyskillz07 wrote in post #4192243
SWEET!!! I bought my 30D for wrestling and have been waiting for the season to start. Im almost saved up for a 85 1.8..... I'm so excited!!!

I find my 85 too short for wrestling. Wrestling is a sport where a majority of your shots will not contain the entire bodies of both wrestlers -- it doesn't add to the shot. If you know the sport, you can easily tell what each wrestler is trying to do, and you can anticipate a great move, or when you expect to see strain, intensity, etc. You want faces! I use my Sigma 120-300 and find I'm using the 300 end much more than the 120.

Here's a shot of a match I did without flash.

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I would purchase a 70-200 but I don't have the money yet. I'll just have to crop in. I've been wrestling for 7 years, facial expression is indeed the most important. I guess ill just have to get as close to the mat as possible and hope that the crop on the 30D will work to my advantage.

I shot some photos of the wrestle-off here at Iowa State about a week ago. As photography is a hobby and not a profession for me, I'm a little nervous showing these here, but here they are anyway. My equipment was a 20D, 70-200 L f2.8 with a 580ex flash. I obtained permission to use the flash beforehand and the coach told me it would be no problem.

http://www.winterink.c​om …01/wrestling_00​1_main.htm

why would you not want to show these .. post away. Some are pretty nice.

Wesley, Please tell me what camera settings you used? Your pictures are great!