Swimming Pool Photography

Retrophonica

Retrophonica

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Name
Andy
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Hello everyone

I'm looking for some help and advice - I have been asked to take some photographs at a swimming pool for a business that teaches children how to swim.

All the parental consent and DBS side of things are ok – I’ve got all that covered – and the pool will be closed for the public so anyone potentially in the shot will be under parental consent. It’s the actual taking of the images that I need help with.

I’ve never shot in that environment before. Previous images that have been taken in the past are pretty awful. Dull, out of focus etc

So a pretty fast ISO and a decent shutter speed seems logical – But what about flash? I have a fairly decent speedlight – I guess I have to think about no ceilings to bounce from but I'm going to have to be pretty close for fill in

The brief is fairly brief!! Shots of happy kids in and around the pool – Including while swimming – These would be images for Social Media and their website

Any help, suggestions, experiences would all be very gratefully received

Thanks

Andy
 
Not flash IMHO when swimming AND ceiling will be miles too high to bounce off unless your in a wierd pool..

With any moving subject.. best shutter speed you can get...up the ISO and remeber the golden rule.. You can save a noisy picture You can't save a blurred one.. To be honest if using for social media and web then dont be worried about noise.. resizing to small will make the pics a lot cleaner anyway..


Some of mine here but i tend NOT to do out of pool shots.. Obviously you need to though http://www.kipax.com/index.php?g=SWIMMING


set your white balance...before you shoot :)
WB22.jpg
 
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KIPAX said:
Not flash IMHO when swimming AND ceiling will be miles too high to bounce off unless your in a wierd pool..

With any moving subject.. best shutter speed you can get...up the ISO and remeber the golden rule.. You can save a noisy picture You can't save a blurred one.. To be honest if using for social media and web then dont be worried about noise.. resizing to small will make the pics a lot cleaner anyway..


Some of mine here but i tend NOT to do out of pool shots.. Obviously you need to though http://www.kipax.com/index.php?g=SWIMMING


set your white balance...before you shoot :)
WB22.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Ahhh - Thanks for the link - That's pretty much exactly what I had in my head - Great photos!!

So these are all without flash?

I may need to really pick your brain - especially around ISO

Thanks a million
 
Yep - Underwater shots too - Mainly video - But that's for another forum I think - Do you guys cover video too ???

would love to hear stories and experiences if you do

Thanks
 
@KIPAX - I've just seen you list all your settings - Wow ISO 6400
They still look so sharp - I thought ISO that high would be really noisy
 
Retrophonica said:
@KIPAX - I've just seen you list all your settings - Wow ISO 6400
They still look so sharp - I thought ISO that high would be really noisy
Click to expand...

I've just looked at the first image of the first set on the link.

What I suspect is happening is that there IS noise in the image - but because the 'background' (water) is quite a 'random pattern', with no large plain areas, you simply don't notice it - the noise is hidden by the nature of the image!
(If you look in the top right corner you can see there is some - but only if you are looking for noise).
 
Faldrax said:
I've just looked at the first image of the first set on the link.

What I suspect is happening is that there IS noise in the image - but because the 'background' (water) is quite a 'random pattern', with no large plain areas, you simply don't notice it - the noise is hidden by the nature of the image!
(If you look in the top right corner you can see there is some - but only if you are looking for noise).
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that they will let me do a dummy run so I can play with the settings beforehand
I remember shooting film ISO 1600 at the Isle of Wight festival and the shots were too grainy - I know that was a long time ago but I've always been careful not to go that high

But if it works and I get good results then I'll do it

In my head, the shots I want are bright but pin sharp with slightly blurred movement (sounds stupid saying this on photography forum)
 
Retrophonica said:
I'm hoping that they will let me do a dummy run so I can play with the settings beforehand
Click to expand...

If they're a swimming school then they should be meeting regularly, probably several times a week - if you can do your 'test shots' a few days in advance that will give you time to properly look at them and try processing before the 'real' shoot, and enable you to give the best results.

Good luck.
 
Faldrax said:
I've just looked at the first image of the first set on the link.

What I suspect is happening is that there IS noise in the image - but because the 'background' (water) is quite a 'random pattern', with no large plain areas, you simply don't notice it - the noise is hidden by the nature of the image!
(If you look in the top right corner you can see there is some - but only if you are looking for noise).
Click to expand...

its iso 6400 on a 1dx not a 1dx 2 .. of course theres noise at that level.. hardly needed proving :)
 
I took good advice from Kipax on football photography. I was also worried about IS.

I needn't have though. I think most of my shots came out at 6400 and I small amount of post processing had the shots looking pretty decent.

I even got the Kipax seal of approval, So don't give that bit a second thought if you have a half decent camera.

What camera are you going to use?
 
IanD said:
I took good advice from Kipax on football photography. I was also worried about IS.

I needn't have though. I think most of my shots came out at 6400 and I small amount of post processing had the shots looking pretty decent.

I even got the Kipax seal of approval, So don't give that bit a second thought if you have a half decent camera.

What camera are you going to use?
Click to expand...

Hi Ian - that's really reassuring - thanks. I've got a Nikon D7100

I don't mind any photoshop afterwards, I just want to get a good idea on my plan of attack - it certainly looks like a high ISO is essential
 
KIPAX said:
its iso 6400 on a 1dx not a 1dx 2 .. of course theres noise at that level.. hardly needed proving :)
Click to expand...

It wasn't meant as criticism, but instead to point out that how 'intrusive' noise is depends on the particular image - and that these type of shots appear to be very amenable to 'disguising' noise, so Andy can probably shoot at a higher ISO than he would normally, and still get shots he is happy with.

(and given how picky many photographers are, compared to non-photographers, he can probably then push further still and get shots his target audience will be happy with!)
 
Faldrax said:
It wasn't meant as criticism, but instead to point out that how 'intrusive' noise is depends on the particular image - and that these type of shots appear to be very amenable to 'disguising' noise, so Andy can probably shoot at a higher ISO than he would normally, and still get shots he is happy with.

(and given how picky many photographers are, compared to non-photographers, he can probably then push further still and get shots his target audience will be happy with!)
Click to expand...

Absolutely - I would never have thought to go that high so this feedback and suggestions are so valuable - thanks guys

I'm just a passionate hobby-ist (I hate that phrase) so I need all the help I can from the experts

Thanks again

Andy
 
Andy, I reckon your D7100 will give useable images at ISO 3200 if not even higher as long as you get them correctly exposed. Noise can get to be a problem when you try to rescue underexposed images. Have a play with high ISO settings and see how high you can go before the noise is a real problem at the end use size - as KIPAX has said, at normal web sizes, you'll probably not see it unless you're trying to!
 
One problem nobody has mentioned in condensation, in the past I've got there ages early to let the camera warm up to pool temp.
 
swanseamale47 said:
One problem nobody has mentioned in condensation, in the past I've got there ages early to let the camera warm up to pool temp.
Click to expand...


OMG yes... starnge what you forget ... dont bother trying to do anything.. as said time....let the lens warm to the room no point trying to wipe it ...
 
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