The Start of High School Swim Season

It's that time of the year! The high school/team I graduated from just their first swim meet of the year. I didn't get to stay for the whole meet because of work but here are a couple shots from what I was able to take. C&C very much appreciated!

Fabulous photos......just wondering why the yellow processing?

Flo wrote in post #9119085
Fabulous photos......just wondering why the yellow processing?

Hmm...I didn't mean to process them yellow. I'm stuck working on my laptop, which might have something to do with that. A LED monitor is on my Christmas list, don't worry. Thanks for the heads up.

Wow.. nice pictures.. Love number 2. Is that with the 70-200 F2.8 IS?

Nicely done, but I am as well wondering about the yellow tint? I know pools are hard for WB, but thought with the watermark you probably PPed them a little.

Also, what were you using here? I am assuming your mark ii and 70-200, but what was the ISO. sorry the EXIF data is missing...

mtakako wrote in post #9119098
Wow.. nice pictures.. Love number 2. Is that with the 70-200 F2.8 IS?

Thanks! My first time really shooting sports, lol. Yup, all shots were taken with the one and only 70-200 f/2.8 IS at 2.8

Very nice shots. I'm taking photos of competition swimmers tomorrow night - my 11 year old son just became regional champion last weekend, not that I'm bragging... - and I foresee problems with lighting and wb. I'd be happy with shots like this, so was wondering what problems you had. Did you use custom wb with a grey card or whatever? And what settings did you use? I believe exif data can be viewed from photos here but haven't figured out how to do it yet.

If you crop #3 just below the toes of the bystanders, I think it would be more powerful.

JimMcrae wrote in post #9119536
Very nice shots. I'm taking photos of competition swimmers tomorrow night - my 11 year old son just became regional champion last weekend, not that I'm bragging... - and I foresee problems with lighting and wb. I'd be happy with shots like this, so was wondering what problems you had. Did you use custom wb with a grey card or whatever? And what settings did you use? I believe exif data can be viewed from photos here but haven't figured out how to do it yet.

Congrats! I hope your son's able to swim through high school as well. It's probably what got me through and kept me focused when I was in high school. Yeah, lighting and shutter speed were the biggest problems I ran into. As far as settings, I set my equipment to Av, f/2.8, fluorescent wb, and AI servo AF. Even at ISO 1600ish-high, I was only getting 1/250-1/400 shutter speeds. That was a little slow for starts, especially backstroke starts, so do your best to keep the camera still I didn't get to mess with a lot of settings because I had 30 min to shoot before I had to leave for work. If you're just doing stills, 1/125 seemed to work pretty well for those. I hope that helps!

exodusfman800 wrote in post #9120246
Congrats! I hope your son's able to swim through high school as well. It's probably what got me through and kept me focused when I was in high school. Yeah, lighting and shutter speed were the biggest problems I ran into. As far as settings, I set my equipment to Av, f/2.8, fluorescent wb, and AI servo AF. Even at ISO 1600ish-high, I was only getting 1/250-1/400 shutter speeds. That was a little slow for starts, especially backstroke starts, so do your best to keep the camera still I didn't get to mess with a lot of settings because I had 30 min to shoot before I had to leave for work. If you're just doing stills, 1/125 seemed to work pretty well for those. I hope that helps!

A great help, thanks mate. Did you use any fill flash?

JimMcrae wrote in post #9120300
A great help, thanks mate. Did you use any fill flash?

You're welcome! No, all the meets I've gone to haven't allowed me to use any kind of flash, so I don't even bother bringing my 580 unless I'm going to be dong portraits before/after the meet. I hate noisy pictures and using ISO 1600 too

Cheers mate, you've given me a good starting point. I'll be happy if mine come out as well as yours.