Not just Nikon

Moderated by: chrisbet,

Boxing Part2My first foray into sports photography

Author	Post

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 01:23

1^st Post

6 months ago I posted on here that I did an 8 week challenge culminating in a proper Boxing Match (where I got stopped in the 2nd, ref intervened).

Well I made a lot of friends who discovered on the way that I was into photography. The official photos from the night were disappointing. A lot were badly out of focus and a lot were obscured by the ropes. They asked me if I would shoot this match for them. I felt I could do a better job than the last guy (despite lack of experience in this) and decided to back myself and say yes.

The deal is that you shoot the match and make the photos available for sale. As I do not do this for a living and the night was a charity event for Legacy (which helps the families of service men lost overseas) I decided that I would do this, but I would donate any money made to Legacy. I also wanted to make it easy for people to get their photos so put them up at the bargain price of $4. This seems to have worked as they went up midday yesterday and I have $318 in sales already.

I didn't want to bother with prints so I decided digital download and web portal was the way to go. To do this I purchased three products from http://theturninggate.net which allowed me to fully create a nice PHP and database driven website almost entirely from Lightroom, and managing the web once set up from Lightroom's Publisher which is a snip. I'm going to write a separate topic on this as it might interest anyone who wants a web site - even without the e-commerce part.

Jac (my wife) also came with me and did shots of the spectators, couples shots etc. She used the D7000 with an SB800 on it and my 18-200mm lens.

I shot the fights with my D3s and 24-70mm f2.8 lens. I learnt a hell of a lot as the night progressed, there is no doubt that I did better in the later fights, but everyone seems happy with the shots I have published (including the earlier fights).

What changed as I learnt:

I always shoot in Aperture. Well with the lights the exposure was all over the place and I was shooting Jpg for buffer speed purposes so I quickly moved into manual mode (after about 6 shots).

I started at 1/640 but moved up to 1/1000 to better freeze the action.

Even at high burst you miss the perfect moment, by trying to time the sequence to start at that point I caught it more often, though still not enough

Early on I was wimping out and not filling the frame (because this is hard!) I started cropping in much closer and using the AFon button to track focus and got some better shots (a lot of early ones got cropped n Post later, later shots were much closer)

I managed to get some bubble wrap from the interval charity auction to kneel on for the second half - knee pads would be a great idea!

Not to block the TV camera from the balcony (I think if I hadn't learnt this promptly and immediately at first request I would have been thrown out!)

Overall I was pretty please with how it went, but would love some constructive criticism. My ability to execute said advice might be limited, but I have had a couple of people say they are going to ask me to do other events, including a ladies Water Polo match - anybody ever done that?

I'm going to post a couple of shots in the thread below, but please check out the web page:

http://richwhetton.com/EFC6photography/

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 01:27

2^nd Post

The Tats really helped with the focus tracking:

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 01:28

3^rd Post

A couple of heavyweights:

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 01:32

4^th Post

I had fun with a few, this one is based on the UFC images I have seen:

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 01:42

5^th Post

I was going for a comic book look when I edited this one:

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 01:43

6^th Post

And the last of my edits from last night a Monotone version:

Posted by Robert: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 03:32

7^th Post

Stunning!

Well done Rich, You appear to have caught the the atmosphere and the expressions on the boxers faces are exquisite.

I can't see anything to criticise, no doubt you have shown us some of the better ones but you appear to have very quickly refined your technique to deal with the circumstances.

____________________
Robert.

Posted by jk: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 04:20

8^th Post

Nice shots Rich you have got there with the last four images.

The recommendation is that during the fight you always shoot upwards as this produces the most dramatic images. You have done this and the results look great.
Well done.

Look forward to your write up on how you got theturningate.net software working with Lightroom.

____________________
Still learning after all these years!
https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none

Posted by Eric: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 11:43

9^th Post

richw wrote: I had fun with a few, this one is based on the UFC images I have seen:

All excellent work Rich. But I liked the framing ...including the ref in this one.

What processing technique did you use to get this effect?

Its got an almost metallic feel to it.

____________________
Eric

Posted by Robert: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 13:00

10^th Post

I agree on the composition Eric, but there is something about these images that is easy to engage with, I have tried to force myself to look for technical stuff like focus, pixels and exposure and my eyes refuse, they want to look at the image!

____________________
Robert.

Posted by Eric: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 14:08

11^th Post

Robert wrote:
I agree on the composition Eric, but there is something about these images that is easy to engage with, I have tried to force myself to look for technical stuff like focus, pixels and exposure and my eyes refuse, they want to look at the image!
That's what it's all about.

:thumbsup:

____________________
Eric

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 15:34

12^th Post

Eric wrote:
richw wrote: I had fun with a few, this one is based on the UFC images I have seen:

All excellent work Rich. But I liked the framing ...including the ref in this one.

What processing technique did you use to get this effect?

Its got an almost metallic feel to it.

Mainly done in Lightroom (Camera Raw) by cranking the Clarity up to 95% desaturation right down and moving the shadow and highlight sliders to taste. But that metallic 'sheen' comes from Nick Colour Efex 'Beach Bypass' filter. I also over sharpened and added a little noise.

I got Nik's Package about a month ago and initially was disappointed with it but it's growing on me. The Bleach Bypass has three sliders, Saturation, Brightness and Contast, but it seems to be doing more. The top of Courtney's arm (fighter on left) looked evenly coloured going in but this process has massively increased the contrast there, although the contrast slider was only slightly over mid point 55%. Not entirely sure what it's doing.

Posted by richw: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 15:39

13^th Post

P.S. There is a lot of luck in the framing, you are really locked into position and the Ref stalks the ring. I spent a bit of time shooting past his hand and through his legs. I have loads of shots with his fingers out of focus in the foreground and top right of image. I cropped most out in post.

Posted by TomOC: Mon Oct 28th, 2013 15:56

14^th Post

Rich-

Great work !!! You really have hit the sweet spot in processing - just take a look at Ring Magzine and you will see you have the style of image right for a bit COVER !!!

Tom

____________________
Tom O'Connell

-Lots of people talk to animals.... Not very many listen, though.... That's the problem.

Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

1st new

This is topic ID = 742
Nikon DSLR Forums > Photography > Photography Projects > Boxing Part2	Top
Users viewing this topic

Current theme is Blue

A small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondsl.uk Thank you.