FINALLY! Strobed Wrestling with 300mm

After 3 weeks of sitting behind video cameras, I finally got to a day of shooting action stills!!! But the day was cut short by a snow storm. Out normal 12 hr tournament only went for 5.5 hours. What happens on two mats over that 12 hours was split into 2 gyms, four mats. So my number of display photos were cut by 2/3rds. ouch.

Here are a few samples of strobed HS Wrestling, shot from a 12 foot ladder. Two strobes, two channels. Switched to only have one go off at my back.

(* set up posted below or see link: more details *)

1) 7D; 300 mm; 1/250; f/5.0 ISO 125 - one strobe fired

Complete set up opposite side; Both flashes are fired here, but only one fires on a normal shot. This reduces the annoyance factor a bit.

Nice work Vinny. Thanks for posting the detailed setup.

My only suggestion based on my personal preference would be to mount the strobes on the front of the rim and bounce them off those nice solid white backboards.

Regarding your third flash idea, if it has an optical trigger, you could make it work since it would fire regardless of which flash you triggered. The only drawback is that it might also trigger whenever mom fired her P&S from the stands. This drawback could turn into a positive since it will most likely trash her photos and force her to have to buy stuff from you.

The other option would be to use your 580 on camera, shoot it direct and let it serve as a fill light.

How much snow did you end up getting?

Big K wrote in post #9231965
Regarding your third flash idea, if it has an optical trigger, you could make it work since it would fire regardless of which flash you triggered. The only drawback is that it might also trigger whenever mom fired her P&S from the stands. This drawback could turn into a positive since it will most likely trash her photos and force her to have to buy stuff from you.

There are many photos, (moms, dads, team photogs, etc) so someone would setting them off. I have toyed with the 7D and three 580's idea, but I need line of site, the gym is very tight and wrestlers do fly off the mat. I may try it for one of the easier, less exciting matches.

The "force to buy" comment is funny. But (1) every fan in the place would want to tar and feather me with the slaves going off so much!

Big K wrote in post #9231965
My only suggestion based on my personal preference would be to mount the strobes on the front of the rim and bounce them off those nice solid white backboards.

Thought about that bounce off the (side) backboards, but it creates such a larger burst that it really annoys the fans and refs. I learned the from trying to bounce off the ceiling from the rim and the backboard acted as a great deflector. Then the ref asked me to only shoot when he was looking the other way.

Big K wrote in post #9231965
The other option would be to use your 580 on camera, shoot it direct and let it serve as a fill light.

How much snow did you end up getting?

No way will I shoot 580 on camera. I would mount it up a few inches or even on a side tri-pod as a slave. But only for one mat and without the proper time to set up the big guns. MAN MAN MAN MAN!
about 8 inches of snow. very light. No problems in my area last last storm.

1st dual meet wed. I have a few hours to set up and see what I can get.

VinnyC01 wrote in post #9233844
No way will I shoot 580 on camera. I would mount it up a few inches or even on a side tri-pod as a slave. But only for one mat and without the proper time to set up the big guns.

I did not mean use it by itself, only as a fill light with your existing setup. What I didn't think about until writing this is it would take away your wireless trigger capability so scratch that idea anyway. That's what I get for posting so damned early in the morning.

Looking at the gym photo, can you bounce off the walls above the doors into the white walls and each side.... do you think this might give you more wrap around lighting...hitting both sides of the gym... do this on each side..
how was the 300mm photo's posted look to be a bit tight... glad you got of the house to shoot. I have to dig my way out on monday to get out for a tuesday night basket ball game...

Joe

Joe300 wrote in post #9234716
Looking at the gym photo, can you bounce off the walls above the doors into the white walls and each side.... do you think this might give you more wrap around lighting...hitting both sides of the gym... do this on each side..
Joe

I am going to take this suggestion for basketball next week. My only concern is that I may get players/refs/coaches complaints.

The 300's were very tight. It is a very different look than most photog's get - really concentrating on the faces. It was perfect for coaches shots and pre-match shots!

I shot a lot with the 70-200 and that will be my main tool for dual meets.

What type of strobes are those? looks like you have the power to bounce up into the ceiling too.
I guess you will get a lot of feed back from someone there at the match about shooting with strobes...
Yea I dont want to strobe BBall then a kid miss a easy shot then blame it on me...lol...
but in my gym I nned to strobe just to get something good..
keep shooting,
Joe

Joe300 wrote in post #9234779
What type of strobes are those? looks like you have the power to bounce up into the ceiling too.
Joe

(* Speedotron Force 10 Monolight Unit with 11-inch; Reflector Cone *)

Do you have a close up of your attachment of the flash to the backboard support arm?

warrior6901 wrote in post #9234967
Do you have a close up of your attachment of the flash to the backboard support arm?

This was last year for basketball. This year, the clamp is on the outside and the cone is out past the backboard. That also give me more angle to cover the mat. The set up below is behind the backboard to help shield the flash from the the players and fans.

Thanks.

Nice rigging setup, but I think it would have looked better to have both strobes firing at once and bouncing. It looks like the walls are white enough to bounce. You can always adjust the color balance later if the walls add a color cast. The lighting is very harsh and without any kind of fill or rim light it does not look much different than an on camera flash. If I only had two lights I would have placed once at the rear facing towards me, but flagged to provide some fill and rim.

A visually interesting setup if you only want to run one light at a time is to mount them directly overhead pointing straight down with no diffusion, only hard shadows and a totally blacked out background. Sort of a spotlight effect. Would be harder to rig of course, but you could do it. Another choice would be to say to hell with it and mount both lights on the opposite side of the gym and shoot them directly into your camera lens. It would look like someone was shooting a spotlight onto them from across the gym and look very cool.

Also, do you have those lights safety chained? The first rule of hanging a light is to run a safety for when your mount fails.

Also you can buy a Matthews pipe clamp with a baby pin for your strobe for about $30 from Adorama.

http://www.adorama.com​/MT429618.html

The good thing about using Matthews gear is it is the industry standard. If something happens and your light comes crashing down and injures someone it probably will not be the fault of the mount. If it is the fault of the mount you can say that you were at least using an industry standard mount.