I have had an interesting week, having shot a christmas musical, a bunch of basketball, wrestling, and then this...swimming. I still have two more basketball games this weekend. It's definately been busy round here!
I was a bit aggravated with the top shot as a girl stepped in front of me and her shoulder got in the shot.
JS

Nice, but not your best IMO. Is this your first swimming shoot?

I find that unless I know the track and the event, I don't get such good photos. My first le Mans photos were not as good as my second 24h race at Zolder and both will be better next year.

With you covering so many different sports, it must be a lot harder for you.
Do you find you improve on the second shoot of a particular sport? Or a second shoot at a venue?


I think #4 is the best of the lot
#3 there's spray obscurign the face, though as a general shot I like it with the background swimmer 2 lanes away.
#2 is nice and crisp, but there are no arms !
You're right about #1, would have been good if that fuzzy head wasn't in it.
Same for a lot of my DTM shots from the stands, other spectators standing up to see what's going on ... where if they all sat down they oculd see just fine.

Nice, but not your best IMO. Is this your first swimming shoot?

I find that unless I know the track and the event, I don't get such good photos. My first le Mans photos were not as good as my second 24h race at Zolder and both will be better next year.

With you covering so many different sports, it must be a lot harder for you.
Do you find you improve on the second shoot of a particular sport? Or a second shoot at a venue?


I think #4 is the best of the lot
#3 there's spray obscurign the face, though as a general shot I like it with the background swimmer 2 lanes away.
#2 is nice and crisp, but there are no arms !
You're right about #1, would have been good if that fuzzy head wasn't in it.
Same for a lot of my DTM shots from the stands, other spectators standing up to see what's going on ... where if they all sat down they oculd see just fine.


There are a number of factors at work here:
#1: never shot at this pool before except once to take a couple quick shots with no one in here. And it's a really small pool room, you couldn't walk around the place, and even getting a shooting position was a pain..
#2: As you can see from the photos, lighting is really strange, and different everywhere around the place.
#3: you rarely get to see the really good stuff, that goes to the paper, therefore these are leftovers and are normaly the ones the parents wind up wanting
#4: It was a rush job, I had 30 minutes there, then had to drive 30 minutes to the next job. To make matters worse, the thing started 30 minutes later than it was scheduled to...not much went right that night. I figured I would get to the basketball game just in time for halftime, and as I walked in was shocked to find the game hadn't started yet...the JV game had gone into OT and just ended! I started the day at 5pm, and by the time I sent te final photo it was 1:15am :eek:

I keep forgetting we can't see your really good ones.

You said you've never shot there before - do you find it matters?

I've got the National Exhibition Centre coming up as a venue. At the NEC they have mixed Sodium and Mercury vapour lamps on the ceiling. White balancing will be a real pain there, I know from the past even on Auto WB I have to rebalance every shot. Seems autoWB averages the flashes form the 50Hz fluorescents, and on an individual exposure, it can be either white or yellow lights in any combination - nightmare.
Do you have daylight in the pool as well as artificial?

Yeah number 4 is the winner in this lot. I haven't shot swimming since college. then the big problem for me was always the humidity at the pool. Was really tough on my primitive equipment.

I keep forgetting we can't see your really good ones.

You said you've never shot there before - do you find it matters?

I've got the National Exhibition Centre coming up as a venue. At the NEC they have mixed Sodium and Mercury vapour lamps on the ceiling. White balancing will be a real pain there, I know from the past even on Auto WB I have to rebalance every shot. Seems autoWB averages the flashes form the 50Hz fluorescents, and on an individual exposure, it can be either white or yellow lights in any combination - nightmare.
Do you have daylight in the pool as well as artificial?

No, normally it doesn't matter, just I was pressed for time on this shoot.
The lighting in this pool is very odd, can't see the bulbs so I have no clue what they are. I shot these with Auto WB but adjusted the WB manualy after a couple shots because they just didn't look right. There was no white that actually looked white so I just adjusted until the colors looked right. Problem was they didn't look right on the computer, at home or the office. Thats when I found out that the staff photog also has trouble there. No one seems to know what is going on...then I may have hit on something...the type of paint used on the walls may be affecting things somehow. It's supposed to be some special stuff for high humidity...curious about this.

JS

Yeah number 4 is the winner in this lot. I haven't shot swimming since college. then the big problem for me was always the humidity at the pool. Was really tough on my primitive equipment.

I agree OT. And humidity was a problem. It was very cold outside, I had to let the camera sit for 20 minutes before I could shoot....didn't help me on my time issues either!

JS

JS - I think you need to get scuba gear and an underwater housing for your 1D. :D :D

Great shots, though. The first one would have been a great shot if that girl hadn't walked right in front of you. The others are good...but I don't really know enough about swimming to critique them more.

Better get a rescue team ready then.....I sink, I don't swim or float! :rolleyes:

JS

I thin #4 is the strongest of all of them. Lighting in all pools is tricky. looks like you got it nailed. The first shot, you already expressed the problem. Second, no motion. I need an arm or something. Third, you chopped the arm off. The 4th is the best, and I love the facial expression. you beat my swimming photos. But then again, all I can shoot is 1/200 at f/2.8 and ISO 1600. God I hate that pool.

Liven,

Thanks, I really shouldn't have even taken the 4th one but it actually worked out OK. The prefered method is to shoot headon or from the side, not from behind, somehow though it works with this shot.

JS

yeah, only shoot from behind with the backstroke, normally. But hey, if it works... :D