How do I shoot....?

A

Al de Man

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Name
Alan
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Basketball
Dance
Drama
Football
Judo
Volleyball

I've offered my services to a charity in London who work with disadvantaged young people in the above activities and would like some very basic pointers in shooting any of them. They also do table tennis which is how I got to hear about them and why I've offered to help, but I hope I've got that covered. I guess it's going to be training programs designed to present photo opportunities rather than competitive action.

I'm looking to take a selection of fast primes and no flash. 24mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8 and 135mm f2. I have a 70-200 f2.8 but don't think I'll need anything that long and want to travel relatively light as I'm going up by train.

Any help to save me from making "schoolboy errors" would be hugely appreciated.
 
Far too vague

Will you be shooting indoors or outside if inside do you have a flashgun and do you know how to use it?

You can use any settings you want it depends on what the client wants........do they want everything with the action frozen or do they want you to use slower shutter speeds?

Why have you offered your services if you have no experience?
 
Rovers_Andy said:
Why have you offered your services if you have no experience?
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Beat me to it :)

I would take the 70-200 for sure.. football if nothing else?

I am guessing indoors or you wouldnt have mentioned flash.. witht he equipment list you mention you shouldnt need flash and best to leave at home

such a wide range of sports I cant give tips on every one.. just general tips

stay low ..take a stool or sit on flor.. just dont stand as the picture have a far greater impact from low position in sports

ball in pic.. apart from some arty stuff the general rule is to have the ball in the picture.. no matter how good you think the pic is.. no ball will probably mean its not

fronts of players.. even a fantastic basketball pic wiht two players jumping and the ball getting in the net... its rubbish if its the backs of players... you should see more faces than backsides in a sports pic

keep your shutter high.. dont be afraid of high iso


i think your 85mm will be used more than anyhting for most of your list of sports :)
 
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Is it really that vague Andy? :shrug: I did say I was only after "very basic pointers". I also said I won't bother taking a flash and listed the fast prime lenses I plan to take because there certainly would be some indoor activities looking through that list.

I was hoping to avoid a discussion on why I'm offering my services to this charity, but since you asked, I came across them through their participation in a tournament I'd recently covered. I researched them, checked their Website and offered the use of my photos. I spoke to their Communications and Marketing Manager who thanked me because she'd just moved in to the position and found the stocks of photos she'd inherited were dated and, in her words, "lacking in professional quality", not just in table tennis but for all the activities. I offered my services to capture some of their more basic and intermediate table tennis players in training, but whilst I'm there said I was prepared to help them in their shortfalls in other coverage.


Thanks KIPAX. Very simple tips was all I was after (a bit like ears pointing forward in equestrian, etc.). It sounds like the rules I'm already following for table tennis will stand me in good stead for numerous other indoor sports. :thumbs:
 
I saw your table tennis stuff when you posted and its really good stuff, you already have a good grasp of whats needed to shoot indoors so just use your instinct and shoot.
 
Basically what's been said above. You already have the photography skills and they are transferable.

The most useful thing that you can do is to mug up on the action that you're going to be covering so that you have a good idea of the shots that you're after.
 
One of the best things you can do when shooting a new sport is watch a few games without the camera at all, to get feel for where people go, and how the games goes. It's much harder to learn this is you are looking through the viewfinder...
 
Al de Man said:
Is it really that vague Andy?
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To be fair.. the more information you give.. the better the advice that can be given :) Andy would ahve been happy to offer lots of detailed advice but wasnt able to.. like me he could only generalise :)
 
KIPAX said:
To be fair.. the more information you give.. the better the advice that can be given :) Andy would ahve been happy to offer lots of detailed advice but wasnt able to.. like me he could only generalise :)
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Fair enough, but I thought it was apparent in my opening post that I wasn't after an in-depth guide.

As it happens, I only got to cover two locations and three sports because of the timings of the activities throughout the day and time it took to travel across London.

The trickiest for me was judo, having never shot anything similar and turning up twenty minutes before they were due to finish, I probably only got about two or three usable shots.

I got a cracking shot from volleyball but, as with all of the shots from yesterday, will need to acquire a model release before I'm able to show it. :rules:

Thanks for everyone's advice. :thumbs:
 
Al de Man said:
as with all of the shots from yesterday, will need to acquire a model release before I'm able to show it. :rules:
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No

I have over 100 thousand pics on my website.. all from sporting events and all different age groups.. all on public show and all for sale.. not one single model release..
 
KIPAX said:
No

I have over 100 thousand pics on my website.. all from sporting events and all different age groups.. all on public show and all for sale.. not one single model release..
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Ok, I could show it without a model release, but given the vulnerable nature and age of some of the subjects from yesterday, I'm not prepared to publish it anywhere before acquiring a model release in order to protect myself from potential litigation.
 
Al de Man said:
Ok, I could show it without a model release, but given the vulnerable nature and age of some of the subjects from yesterday, I'm not prepared to publish it anywhere before acquiring a model release in order to protect myself from potential litigation.
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Sorry to labour the point.. but what potential litigation do you envisage.. I ahve been photogrpahing childrens sports events for years.. including last week.. There simply are no grounds for potential litigation

Seriosuly your worrying for nothing... Each to his own and whatever your more comfortable with of course.. but I cant stop myself from passing on my best advice on the subject gained from experience :)
 
KIPAX said:
Sorry to labour the point.. but what potential litigation do you envisage.. I ahve been photogrpahing childrens sports events for years.. including last week.. There simply are no grounds for potential litigation

Seriosuly your worrying for nothing... Each to his own and whatever your more comfortable with of course.. but I cant stop myself from passing on my best advice on the subject gained from experience :)
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That's fine and you're probably right as I have never acquired a model release for anything I've published either. It's just that the nature of the charity I was shooting for demanded that everything was done by the book and nothing assumed.

As part of the registration process, the parents/guardians are asked to give consent to their child to be photographed for the purposes of promoting the charity, so it's clearly been considered and approximately a fifth at the first venue opted out. Bear in mind that's was only for the charity's use and not a third party such as myself.
 
Al de Man said:
That's fine and you're probably right as I have never acquired a model release for anything I've published either. It's just that the nature of the charity I was shooting for demanded that everything was done by the book and nothing assumed.

As part of the registration process, the parents/guardians are asked to give consent to their child to be photographed for the purposes of promoting the charity, so it's clearly been considered and approximately a fifth at the first venue opted out. Bear in mind that's was only for the charity's use and not a third party such as myself.
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Yes... Most organisations do that nowerdays.. i think every junior league in all sports I do have the kids sign a consent form to be photogrpahed when they sign up for the teams ..... then its up to the club to inform me if i am not to publish a certain person... I never get the forms or anything.. Only time I will be told is if there is someone on the reg list not to be published :)
 
KIPAX said:
Yes... Most organisations do that nowerdays.. i think every junior league in all sports I do have the kids sign a consent form to be photogrpahed when they sign up for the teams ..... then its up to the club to inform me if i am not to publish a certain person... I never get the forms or anything.. Only time I will be told is if there is someone on the reg list not to be published :)
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I once had to pull a game offline at the request of the RFL, it was an under 16's cup match and un beknown to me the mother of one of the kids playing was on some sort of protection scheme and had been for several years, the mum and 2 children were moved from another part of the country to round where i live to protect them from a violent spouse, as small a possibility as it was the dad could have recognised his child from the photos even though he had not seen him for several years and as the kids were wearing club colours he could potentially tracked them dowm.

I asked and was given permission to shoot by the club and both coaches and the kids mum had even signed it was OK for him to be photographed when he signed on for the club, i was for obvious reasons not told which child it was so was asked to remove them all which i did.

I discussed this at great length a few years ago when i signed up to this forum
 
Al de Man said:
I got a cracking shot from volleyball but, as with all of the shots from yesterday, will need to acquire a model release before I'm able to show it. :rules:
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Well, I've been chomping at the bit having been given the verbal go ahead and although I've not received written confirmation yet, it had been promised and if the subject does have a problem with being identified, being published on a photography forum is the least of his worries. ;)


_L2_6795 by Al de Man, on Flickr


12 August 2011 by Al de Man, on Flickr
 
Congratulations.... Looks like they have edited the ball to the left a little too..
 
Original definetely looks better than how it ended up in the paper.

Missing the net and the floor takes away a lot I think.
 
It does lose a bit of perspective without the net, I bet most people glance and think it's a football shot.

As I might be heading for some indoors stuff this winter can I ask if you used your 85mm much? I've been toying with the idea of getting one, but have a 70-200 and don't know if I would get much use from it:thinking:
 
Wookee said:
It does lose a bit of perspective without the net, I bet most people glance and think it's a football shot.

As I might be heading for some indoors stuff this winter can I ask if you used your 85mm much? I've been toying with the idea of getting one, but have a 70-200 and don't know if I would get much use from it:thinking:
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Definitely, definitely and thrice definitely. I found the indoor focusing speed of the 70-200 is far too slow and adding the additional complication of zoom meant I was at least a second or two behind the action all the time.
 
Al de Man said:
Definitely, definitely and thrice definitely. I found the indoor focusing speed of the 70-200 is far too slow and adding the additional complication of zoom meant I was at least a second or two behind the action all the time.
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Cheers, I'll take that as a 'yes' then!:D

Off to the Classifieds....
 
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