Houston Roller Derby - First Attempt - C&C Please

I'm sure I saw some of you there yesterday and some of you may have seen me... I was the fat white guy wearing the Blue Texans polo on the floor in the crash zone.

here we go....

1.

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Nice shots - one thing I'd say is a couple are underexposed, and I wouldn't have panned every one, but mixed it up.

Wow. That is maybe the worst possible lighting situation Ive ever seen. Youve got a nuclear explosion going on with the floor and the people seem to be horribly lit.

Well, the ugly facts are...

1/50 is way too slow for action of people. They move too much. You may snap one that looks "artsy" but I personally dont like that look.
If you want to take good pictures in there, youve got to bring your own light somehow and knock down that floor. Of course, I suppose there may also be other angles you can shoot from to minimize that garishly strong reflection but I dont know the layout of the place.

What lens was this with? f/4 and 4.5 just arent going to cut it indoors. I know not everyone can afford something like a 2.8 zoom, but there are some pretty affordable fast primes out there if you want to be serious about this.

As far as capturing action goes, try to keep faces in the picture and try to keep it tight. Its a good start. Theres just not much you can really do to better this particular type of shooting with your equipment hamstringing you.

AdamLewis wrote in post #6088800
Wow. That is maybe the worst possible lighting situation Ive ever seen. Youve got a nuclear explosion going on with the floor and the people seem to be horribly lit.

Well, the ugly facts are...

1/50 is way too slow for action of people. They move too much. You may snap one that looks "artsy" but I personally dont like that look.
If you want to take good pictures in there, youve got to bring your own light somehow and knock down that floor. Of course, I suppose there may also be other angles you can shoot from to minimize that garishly strong reflection but I dont know the layout of the place.

What lens was this with? f/4 and 4.5 just arent going to cut it indoors. I know not everyone can afford something like a 2.8 zoom, but there are some pretty affordable fast primes out there if you want to be serious about this.

As far as capturing action goes, try to keep faces in the picture and try to keep it tight. Its a good start. Theres just not much you can really do to better this particular type of shooting with your equipment hamstringing you.

Thanks Adam for your honestly. this was my first attempt... I've never even gone to one of these events so I was kinda blindsided. The lens was my 28-105 3.5 but at 105 it jumps to 4.5.

I tried a few shots with the onboard flash and it was just to harsh. I suppose I may have to bite the bullet at get the 70-200L 2.8 afterall.

On a 1.6 crop body, the 70-200 is too tight for trackside derby shooting. The 17-55 is a much better choice, and the 24-70 would be my second choice. For derby, I'd rank the autofocus abilities 1,2,3 as 70-200, 17-55, 24-70. But even the third choice works better than most any other reasonable option. I get good shots 1/100th and 2nd curtain sync on the flash. For motion blur effect, 1/30th works well. Here's a set shot in the same venue with a 40D, 17-55F2.8, ISO1250, and shutter at either 1/30, or 1/100-1/160 range. Flash was a 580EXII. Treat the image as two separate exposures. I shoot manual and set the ISO, aperture, to get the degree of background exposure I want. Use the shutter speed to set the blur/sharp factor for the skaters. Then dial in the flash compensation to get the degree of highlights or prevent blow outs on facial features of the skaters. Usually I'm shooting -1/3-2/3 flash comp. Make sure the flash exposure mode is set to averaging and not ETTL. That will prevent the differences in the range of uniform tones making your exposure jump all over.

Houston RollerDerby Set: http://www.flickr.com …o/sets/72157604​540009299/

bsmotril wrote in post #6092671
On a 1.6 crop body, the 70-200 is too tight for trackside derby shooting. The 17-55 is a much better choice, and the 24-70 would be my second choice. For derby, I'd rank the autofocus abilities 1,2,3 as 70-200, 17-55, 24-70. But even the third choice works better than most any other reasonable option. I get good shots 1/100th and 2nd curtain sync on the flash. For motion blur effect, 1/30th works well. Here's a set shot in the same venue with a 40D, 17-55F2.8, ISO1250, and shutter at either 1/30, or 1/100-1/160 range. Flash was a 580EXII. Treat the image as two separate exposures. I shoot manual and set the ISO, aperture, to get the degree of background exposure I want. Use the shutter speed to set the blur/sharp factor for the skaters. Then dial in the flash compensation to get the degree of highlights or prevent blow outs on facial features of the skaters. Usually I'm shooting -1/3-2/3 flash comp. Make sure the flash exposure mode is set to averaging and not ETTL. That will prevent the differences in the range of uniform tones making your exposure jump all over.

Houston RollerDerby Set: http://www.flickr.com …o/sets/72157604​540009299/

wow.. the ext flash really makes a difference.... thanks