Shooting Gymnastics

From Nikonians Wiki

1. This was my first foray into indoor sports, so there has been a steep learning curve and most of the learning has been about understanding the routines and personal differences between athletes and then mastering techniques in Photoshop that become a key to making indoor shots look good. O.K. on to photo tips.

2. The first big learn is the lighting is about as bad as it can get for an action shot. Two apparatus in gymnastics require a lot of room (vault and floor) and this means that most gyms have to tuck part of the performance on these apparatus into a corner. That corner is almost always very dark.

3. Because of the darkness and the need to cut down on the background clutter in your image, you’ll always want to shoot in aperture mode with the lens wide open. Don’t even think of using a lens with an aperture less than f/2.8.

4. Always set your white balance for the specific gym. Carry a grey card and shoot a few images off the card, to produce the right color. Some gyms have clear-story windows that let in a lot of natural light if your working during the day. This means you’ll have to test your light temperature, not just when you start, but also as the day progresses because the sun moves and the amount of natural light entering the room will change over time.

5. When you are shooting you want to keep in mind that gymnastics is a performance sport, i.e. it is graded by its look, not by reaching the goal line. Because of this you’ll want to be looking for ways to capture the line of the body.

6. Because your looking for body lines you need to watch the athletes warm-up and see what direction they are running their routines on the floor and beam. Then pick your spot for the best view.

7. Great shots capture three things: A. body line, b. the face and its emotion and effort (a very big), C. a sense of dynamism, the motion is key. Let me use words to bring this to life: imagine in your minds eye a picture of a vaulter hanging upside down in the air, the arms are outstretched and there is a sense of motion in the feet as they turn through the air, the face is tack sharp, looking down at the floor to spot the landing point and you can see the intensity in the eyes as they struggle to pull it all in preparing to stick the landing. Capture that and you are golden.

8. Dynamic shoots can be created by getting down low and shooting upward, but do your best to avoid getting the ceiling lights in your lens (for beam, vault, bars and rings). It’s hard to avoid burning out the top of the athlete with the lights in the image.

9. If you feel like you’re not getting enough speed, speed up your exposure by using the exposure compensation to under-expose and then correct for this later in Photoshop. You can always add some light back in with the software.

10. Many gymnastics routines have pause points where the athlete is not moving, but these always precede a burst of action. Be ready and shot that action sequence like a movie. Floor, beam and vault routines are like this, so be ready to hammer out many continuous frames and find a timing method in your mind to be sure your not caught buffering when the most intense action is happening.

11. To freeze the action you want to be sure you can shoot with at least a shutter speed of 1/500. Some say you need 1/640.

12. Don’t be shy when there is a pro around. Photographers love to talk about their work, so if you’re at an event being shot by a pro, go over at a quite moment and ask about their equipment, what they like to shoot best, settings, any tips, etc.

13. Always be there for warm-up time. Here is where you can get the routines down in your head and make mental notes on what you want to be prepared to shoot. Freeze these images in your mind and figure out where you need to be later to capture them and the timing in each routine for those magic moments.

14. Each apparatus will present different types of photo ops, but most photographers concentrate on floor and beam for girls and pommel, rings and high bar for men. These seem to yield the best photos.

15. Go for the action. Gymnasts and coaches always talk about sticking the landing, but that landed shot is really boring. Catch them in flight.

16. Capturing the action. Often in photography we talk about filling the frame. You can't do that in gymnastics and also capture the body lines in motion. Back the zoom up and leave plenty of space around the moving athlete; this will capture the entire body and you can crop-in later where you have a great shot worthy of some post-shoot work.

17. Lenses. Two lenses should cover 85% of what you do. An 80-200 2.8 will handle the floor and any other situation where you can't get right alongside the event; while a 30-70 2.8 is good for things like the beam or pommel horse where you often can be within 30 feet of the apparatus.

18. Get creative after the meet. Get good with Photoshop or ind someone that is. Then turn your multi-frame sequences into one combined photo. Coaches love these shots, they are like learning tools and it will really separate you from just the average photographer.

19. Speaking of coaches, learn the sport and find a way to engage them before and after a meet. Learn how to help them and what they want. If the coaches love you, you’ll have a client for life.

20. How to learn the sport in a short time? Try UTube; there are probably many videos available there for viewing that will help you learn the components and timing of great routines. Or buy some of the videos available from NBC and its Olympic coverage.

21. One last thing. Although you rarely see emotion in the athletes as they perform. They are filled with emotion on the inside and you can see this in the tension as they chalk up or talk with a coach before starting on an apparatus, or as they celebrate after finishing a good event. Capture those personal moments off the apparatus. Parents love this stuff.

Best wishes

Jim Watkinson (jimw10)

• This page was last modified on 2 April 2009, at 19:11.
• This page has been accessed 4,645 times.