Any tips for shooting swimming?

desantnik

desantnik

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Right, I'm out of my depth this weekend when I have been asked to take some shots of a swimming competition, can anyone throw my a lifeline?

Its an indoor pool so light will be probably some kinda rubbish sodium lighting.

But anyway, my main query is in regard to flash, obviously I can't bounce it from the ceiling as the ceiling will be a cavernous void high above me but I am concerned just blasting it at them will leave me with nasty reflections.

Sadly I haven't got the time or indeed the access to the pool before the event (just turning up at a public swimming pool with a camera isn't going to be allowed in these days :rules:) so if anyone has any hints up front...

Cheers!
 
Not tunbridge wells is it?

I'd be suprised if they let you use flash, but then I'm often wrong.

Most people would normally shoot high iso for it, as the pools are rarely well lit.
 
No, not Tunbridge Wells (although that would be my closest public pool :D).

Not sure about the flash, think I will give the organiser a call and ask him.

Obviously you are correct though, if no flash then its crank the ISO up through the roof and carry on.

Just having a look on Flickr it seems that 1/400th should be fast enough to capture the action - thats actually much slower than I would have punted for and also the ones I am looking at (of Olympic swimmers, so good quality photos) are at f3.2, so that combo gives me plenty of scope for using a reasonable sub-ISO 1600.

Oh and no flash on these Flickr photos.

Just looks like I've got to nail the white balance though - over come those wretched orange lights. Shoot the inside of my lowepro bag and then set a manual WB off of that shot yes?
 
Can you get the flash off camera so it's not blasting directly at them if you're shooting head on? Not shot swimming myself but the shots I've seen that I like have mostly been taken at pool level so you're not looking down at swimmer. Take a towel to lie on;)
 
Actually Kev, I was just thinking about which lens and worked out maybe longer is better and shoot further away to get a more "water level" viewpoint and then I thought "hmmm must take something to lie on".

Alternatively I could just get on with it and walk out at the end looking like I've wet myself :D

Good point with the off camera flash - might try and scrounge some triggers from my amigos before I go.
 
Tracking can be a problem (breaststroke) as the head disappears under the water during every stroke.
 
I was just wondering as we were supposed to be down there for a gala this saturday.

It will all depend on the lighting at the pool. Some are better lit than others. I shot at crystal palace earlier this year during the london youth games, and was up at 1600iso and still only getting 1/160s, and that's a quality pool. That was with the D3x, so i didn't want to go any higher than that.
 
desantnik said:
Actually Kev, I was just thinking about which lens and worked out maybe longer is better and shoot further away to get a more "water level" viewpoint and then I thought "hmmm must take something to lie on".

Alternatively I could just get on with it and walk out at the end looking like I've wet myself :D

Good point with the off camera flash - might try and scrounge some triggers from my amigos before I go.
Click to expand...

Is it a Gala you are shooting?

If so, in my experience you won't be able to lay down at the end of the pool.

You normally have a timekeeper and team manager at the end they are swimming to, and a "ticker" at the other with the swimmers for the next race and the starting blocks (depending obviously if it's a 25m or 50m race). At the one we were at last saturday in croydon, at the starting end there were up to 10 kids waiting for their race, and the other end was 3 or 4 people in each lane. It sounds like chaos but it works quite well from the gala perspective but not from the togs

Also, beware the judges that walk up and down the sides checking technique etc rules are not being broken. You really don't want to get in their way as they take themselves very seriously :D:D:D
 
That's my thread :D

Flash would be most impractical, due to the wetness of the situation and probable dimensions of the pool building itself. Up the ISO, try to stay around f3.2 - f3.5 to give you some depth of field and see what you get shutter wise. 1/400 would be fine! They move quite slowly compared to most sports :)
 
Polariser perhaps to cut some water reflections and off axis flash would be what Id say.

This was covered really well in the Strobist DVD set.
 
i'm keen to get into this with the permission of the club, both my daughters swim for the local club and event almost every weekend.

my question is, would the chlorine have an effect on the camera over a long period ? (dry obviously......lol)
 
How close can you get? Can you move around - I've done some poolside shots of the Army Swimming Championships while I was in Germany and with a 70-200 on a DX-format camera, you have to be at the water's edge to frame the head and shoulders of a swimmer in say the 3rd lane out from you...

I shot at 200-400iso (the light was pretty good) and shutter speeds of about 125th wide-open - that gives enough sharpness to the water drops and some motion-blur on the arms of the swimmer, while isolating them from the other competitors.
Try to time the breathing cycle as the shot you want is obviously the one of the swimmer's face as they take a breath...
Some breathe to the right and some to the left - some both sides - you'll have to watch each individual and suss their own style and tailor your position accordingly...

If you shoot slightly from behind, you get a false 'eye-contact' as the swmmer's head seems to be positioned just right so their eyes are apparently looking right into the lens...

The other shots you'll want are right down the lane with the swimmers approaching you, especially for breast-stroke events as the heads bob up and out of the water...
 
Cheers guys, there's some good advice here - I always like to have some sort of plan worked out before I turn up and not being going in blind and trying to make it up as i go along.

Rikki - I think the polariser is a worthy point, except for the fact that I've already got a challenge with the light, to loose another 1.5 stops probably would be too much, but maybe if I can successfully reassemble my 77mm polarizer (it pinged apart a few weeks back :() I might give it a whirl. If I can use the (off camera) flash then I might be tempted to try.

Donky - I don't really care about those effects - well, short of me dropping it in the water itself! My camera is a tool that I use, whilst I take care of it as much as possible it never stops me from using it in the first place! I'm out in all weathers and conditions shooting motorsport (including motocross which is about as abrasive as you could imagine, the "cotton wool" brigade on here would probably not even take the camera out the car when they see what a MX track is all about!)

The thing to bear in mind with all of this guys isn't that this is a planned shoot with lots of controlable elements, this is news reporting so its turn up and take it as you find it and make do with how the dice lands... oh and I don't have all day and a thousand shots to get it right!
 
I tried to shoot a school gala that my daughter was competing in but ran into all sorts of opposition with the PC brigade so it was a non starter in the end.

There is a form you can get that makes it more official but i dont know much about it but maybe someone else can fill you in with the details.
 
Don't worry, the usual "PC angle" is well and truly covered on this one, but thanks for the warning :D
 
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