Shooting Swimming Meet with Flash

Although I'm an experienced with swimming shoots, I've never used a flash for such. I was just asked to take photos at a swim meet -- at night and indoor. So I'm considering taking my 580EX flash and both 85 f/1.8 and 70-200 f/2.8.

For those who have used a flash in an indoor pool successfully, would you mind sharing your flash set up that worked for you. I just need some basic idea to work with so I can test it myself during the prelims and make some adjustments if necessary. Thanks!

what about using off camera flash?

ohh and your 85mm will probably be great

texasreddirt wrote in post #5300818
what about using off camera flash?

No off camera flash, because the pool is going to be extremely crowded with 236 competitors alone not to mention the audience...

I am assuming that you have a flat ceiling that is white or close to it. What I normally do is set my flash to manual, full power and bounce it off the ceiling. I then use my histogram to adjust the other camera settings to get a good exposure.

You can also shoot with direct flash but I am not a big fan of the effect on the water and the hard shadows it creates.

Here is an example. Not the best photo but one that I found quickly. This should give you an idea of the effect of the bounced light. Hope it helps.

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WebMonkey shoots a lot of swimming and uses a flash most of the time. You could run a search on him or shoot him a PM for some advise.

I also do a lot of swim meets but I never use a flash. All our meets are outdoors and a lot of the time the officials don't appreciate flash photography due to the starts.

Edit: He's a link to one of his threads that has EXIF info. The first 2 shots are flashed. Not sure about the 3rd.

https://photography-on-the.net …p?t=295713&high​light=swim

Here's a quote from one of his other posts...

WebMonkey wrote in post #3070852
One trade secrete that I will share with you, but don’t tell any one else; I shoot many daytime images with my 580EX, CP-E3 battery pack in highsink mode and 1/3 to 2/3 stop Under, this makes the water look more like ice and stand out of the images,,,, Keep that on the down low.

Big K -

Thank you. Typically indoor swimming pools have high ceilings, so I have never even entertained the thought of bouncing the flash. I'll give that a thought when I'm at the pool which I haven't visited yet.

pworm12 -

Thank you for the reference link to WebMonkey whose swim photos I've seen in the past. I'll take a look at the EXIF info.

SooYoung, here is one that was done with 4 WL and 4 Elinchron strobes bounced of the ceiling 3 photogs sharing the 8 strobes. You will get some good results with on board flash. The only time we could not use flash or the strobes was at the start, and swimmers did not want on board flash during there turns on the bulk heads.

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Thanks, Romeo, and nice shot!