Boxing match shooters - advice?

Any of you guys that have shot boxing matches care to give any advice, suggestions, or tips?

This will be my first time doing this type of event. From what I understand according to the promoter, my position to shoot won't be bad. Can get as close as need be without entering the ring, BUT I can't say for sure.

What I have to bring -

40D
350D

Tamron 17-50 2.8
Canon 55-250IS
Canon Nifty-Fifty

I am assuming no flash photography during the fight itself, but I do have a 430EX also.

Thanks!

Jeez, Flip, you coulda' just asked me! It would help to know more about the venue ... is this going to be televised? If so, the lighting will be good. If not, it could be patchy. It is generally best to measure the light and shoot manual exposure. It is a really good idea to do CWB. If you are shooting from the mat your average focal length will be about 50mm. There are a lot of guys who shot only with a 50mm. I use 24-70mm f/2.8 which is the most common. So put something close to this on your 40D. Burst shooting is useless so plan on single drive and AI Servo AF. You just have to anticipate. Plan on ISO1600. You want a shutter speed of at least 1/400th but you can shoot wide open.

Put your 55-250mm on the other body and have it with you. It will be dynamite for corner shots between bouts and shooting head shots during the introductions and for ring girls and famous folks. Let the body do the metering for this second setup.

Take plenty of cards and backup batteries ... you can easily need 2000 frames or more for eight bouts if the fights go long. Sometimes you'll have three bouts in a row that go less than one round. Sometimes another one or two will be very short. Be sure to be attentive and shoot a lot in the first two or three rounds of each fight in case they are short ... you can wind up with nothing if you get too casual about this. But other times every bout may go to a decision and that's when you could edge up on 3000 frames, particularly if there are some amateur exhibition matches and you want to shoot them, too.

The bottom line is that there's nothing like experience. You may find the 40D just can't keep up with the action. You may find you can't keep up with the action. You may find that everything just works for you. So go out there and give 'em heck!

Thanks Dwight!

I am scared on the card and battery part! lol. I may stop and pick up a couple of 2 gigs extra. I have a 4 and 2 and. 4 batterys for the XT and only 2 for the 40D

BUUT...I am only shooting minimal coverage for most of the fights...one of my hometown buddies (the boxer guy I shot a few weeks ago posted here) is fighting and mainly want to capture his fight.

No, don't think this one will be televised...It's not a Friday Night Fight. His last ESPN fight I couldn't make .

Crossing my fingers light will be good and at 1600 with 1.8 or 2.8 lens will be good enough.


Oh another thing... Is RAW necessary for this? I mean, if i am happy with exposure I think I can get away with the smaller jpgs...or should I just be SAFE.

DwightMcCann wrote in post #5260662
Jeez, Flip, you coulda' just asked me! It would help to know more about the venue ... is this going to be televised? If so, the lighting will be good. If not, it could be patchy. It is generally best to measure the light and shoot manual exposure. It is a really good idea to do CWB. If you are shooting from the mat your average focal length will be about 50mm. There are a lot of guys who shot only with a 50mm. I use 24-70mm f/2.8 which is the most common. So put something close to this on your 40D. Burst shooting is useless so plan on single drive and AI Servo AF. You just have to anticipate. Plan on ISO1600. You want a shutter speed of at least 1/400th but you can shoot wide open.

Put your 55-250mm on the other body and have it with you. It will be dynamite for corner shots between bouts and shooting head shots during the introductions and for ring girls and famous folks. Let the body do the metering for this second setup.

Take plenty of cards and backup batteries ... you can easily need 2000 frames or more for eight bouts if the fights go long. Sometimes you'll have three bouts in a row that go less than one round. Sometimes another one or two will be very short. Be sure to be attentive and shoot a lot in the first two or three rounds of each fight in case they are short ... you can wind up with nothing if you get too casual about this. But other times every bout may go to a decision and that's when you could edge up on 3000 frames, particularly if there are some amateur exhibition matches and you want to shoot them, too.

The bottom line is that there's nothing like experience. You may find the 40D just can't keep up with the action. You may find you can't keep up with the action. You may find that everything just works for you. So go out there and give 'em heck!

RAW is not necessary. Most of the boxing shooters I know shoot jpegs. Ed Mulholland and I shoot RAW but that's all I know who do.

I wish this was posted a week ago

Darren

It's not boxing, but I shot this in jpeg @ iso 3200 with my 40D:

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SnapLocally.com wrote in post #5261645
It's not boxing, but I shot this in jpeg @ iso 3200 with my 40D:

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wow!!!!!!!!

Well, Darren, did you ask the question? If so, I'm sorry I missed it. If not, then how could it?

I shoot boxing a bit, when shooting ringside I use two lenses mainly. A 24-70 f2.8L and a 70-200 f2.8L, (sometimes I'll mix in 16-35, but I mainly use that as an overhead remote lens) both on 1D Mark IIN cameras. As far as what makes a good shot, I advise to shoot tight, legs are usually meaningless in an action shot. However on a knockdown, you'd like to get wide to get in both fighters and the referee because that is what tells the story.

Set a white balance, shoot manual, a good starting point is somewhere in the f2.8 1/500th iso 1000 range and adjust from there...I tend to manual focus alot, but when autofocusing set a point to the left or right of the frame, center point wont help...

Try to avoid getting ropes in the shots, bring tape (black) to tape the ropes tighter and avoid getting colors showing up in the shots. I also have red, blue and white tape in my bag as well, just in case TV complains about black tape, doesnt help with the colors in the frame at times, but does tighten the ropes...

You can use the ropes to shield the camera a bit from lens flare shooting into the lights. I also remove any filters from my camera too. (I find it helps). Bring a cloth to wipe down lenses and cameras from blood and sweat, it's usually flying all around...

In between rounds, dont forget the corners and crowd, lots of good shots happen in between rounds. Good luck...

Here is a link to a gallery that will show you examples of tight action shots vs wide knockdown shots and a few others mixed in...

http://www.sportsshoot​er.com/muls/boxing/ind​ex.html

Just a note, jpeg large is fine, I only shoot RAW in certain circumstances and even then will shoot both, but HBO, ESPN and others all request jpegs while on assignment, particularly on deadline work RAW is time consuming.

Ed

guys, i wish i would have posted this long before...fight was bout 4 hours after my initial post.

Here's the jist of it and I'll throw up some pics tomorrow or sunday

1. lighting was piss poor. shot at 1600, 1.8 on the 50mm (best shots I think) and 2.8 on the 17-50. switchedup lens between the 40D and the 350D

2. shot in RAW...i wanted to have that little extra edge if i needed it. First time

3. I had the best shots in the house...uh..i was only shooter ring side which was a surprise since it was a Pro fight

4. ring girls weren't worth shooting...man, i was dissappointed.

5. all the New Orleans boys took it home...including my hometown boy Gary Bergeron. TKO from Bodyshots. I was amazed at his ferocity.

6. I got pissed drunk at the after party...now i'm home. have a shoot tomorrow afternoon. God help me.

7. nothing for 7, but it's a lucky number


I probably picked at least 2 more gigs from this shoot. 1 for an MMA promoter and for the promoter for this event. I HAD FUN!!! and I was sober the up until the after party.

Dwight, you rock. Come down to New Orleans and I'll make sure you don't get home in one piece.

I can guarantee that all the boxing togs are overjoyed with your successes and would like to see some images when you get some rest!