Several parents have asked me to explain some of the equipment being used at our weekly wrestling meets for photographs. This article describes the steps I use to photograph these events. The equipment can be obtained relatively inexpensively, and it will more than pay for itself given the results which can be obtained. The techniques are very general, and can be applied to all sorts of events, sports or otherwise.
These types of wrestling tournaments are normally held in a gymnasium. The lighting is usually from large overhead flourescent bulbs, although there may also be large banks of windows or doors around the side walls of the gym. Even the best lit gyms are very dark and murky, and it is difficult to capture the action without cranking up the ISO (sensitivity) on your camera (resulting in noisy images) or using a flash. In this case, the best way to get consistently good results (without making your subject look like a deer caught in headlights) is to move the flash off-camera using a radio trigger.
The steps I am going to describe below are going to focus on the bare-bones setup and techniques. You can always add more flashes, or use different lenses, or different techniques to expand on the basic idea. If you stick to these simple guidelines, your images will be excellent and you will have a very good foundation when you are ready to move on to bigger and better things.
Step 0: Setup
Arrive at the gym early with your little bag of camera gear. The bag should be small, since you do not need very much stuff. Let’s look at the contents of your bag.
First, the camera. There are many cameras to choose from, anything from the very affordable to the ridiculously expensive. The only requirement is: your camera will need to have a hot-shoe, which is the little square slot at the top of the camera body where an external flash can be affixed. Why is this necessary? So that the hot-shoe can be used to trigger your remote flash. [NOTE: there is an alternative to using your camera's hot-shoe, see the addendum at the end of this article.]
Next, the remote radio triggers. You should have two of them: one for the top of your camera and one for the remote flash. Affix one to the hot-shoe of your camera. When you depress your camera’s shutter button, the radio trigger will fire and activate the trigger which is attached to your remote flash, causing it to fire. There are many radio remote triggers available, including Pocket Wizards. There are also cheap radio remotes available on eBay.
Finally, your flash. There are also a ton of flashes available. You should use one which has a manual setting, and it able to be activated by your remote radio trigger. When your flash is connected to its radio trigger, turn it on, and check that it goes off when you press the camera shutter button. You are now ready for the next step.
Step 1: Settings
Once your radio triggers are working, it’s time to configure your camera. Turn off your flash, or turn off your radio remotes so that the flash will -not- fire. We will adjust the flash later. There are three settings on your camera to consider, and your choice for each one is dictated by our subject: fast-moving wrestlers competing in a dark gymnasium.
First up, the ISO setting. This controls the sensitivity of the camera. Since we want to capture fast-moving action inside a dark space, turn this value up. Don’t turn it up too high though, since large ISO settings will introduce unwanted noise into your images. I chose a value of 800, which provides good sensitivity and relatively low noise. If your camera does not allow you to adjust the ISO value, see if there is a setting for “sports” or “low light” which will achieve a similar result.
Next, set your shutter speed. This dictates how long the shutter is open to allow light into the camera’s sensor. Since we are shooting some fast action, select a fast shutter speed such as 1/160. Don’t choose a slow shutter speed, otherwise you will see significant blur as the wrestlers grapple with each other. You want to “freeze” the action as much as possible.
Finally, choose an aperture. This setting adjusts how wide the camera’s iris opens and controls the depth-of-field of your picture. Since there is not a lot of ambient light to work with, choose a relatively wide aperture, such as f4.
We have not yet taken a picture. We have merely dialed in some basic settings based on what we are about to photograph. Now, take a picture and look at the result on your LCD screen.
Our first picture, to check our settings (1/125 sec at f3.5, ISO 800, no flash)
This is very close to what we are looking for: we want the camera to capture a crisp image (using a fast shutter speed), but overall we would like the appearance to be dark. If the image is too bright, crank the shutter speed even higher so the resulting image is more muted. The reason we want a slightly dark overall image is because we will be adding our remote flash to the scene to highlight our main subject.
Step 2: Flash
Once we have established a baseline image (high shutter speed, and appropriate ISO and aperture settings to produce a relatively dark picture), we can add the flash. Turn on your radio triggers and flash unit, and place the flash next to you on the floor. We are going to take a few more sample pictures to “dial in” a flash power which gives us the right amount of highlight. From prior experience, I felt a 1/16 power setting would work well:
Our second picture, to check the flash settings (1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 800, with 1/16 flash power, below camera on floor)
This is pretty close, and shows how the flash creates a nice highlight on our main subject, while the background remains muted but still visible. If your flash is too overpowering, dial it down and take another test picture. Once you have a well-lit subject, you can place your flash in position to actually shoot the event.
Step 3: Shoot
Once you have your camera and flash configured, there are many ways to light your subjects. If you had some clamps, you could stick the flash on a chair, or wall, or in the stands. You could suspend it from the basketball hoop. You could hand it to an assistant and have them run to different positions. But since this is a one photographer show, I’ve found that the best place to position the flash is right underneath the scorer’s table. The following diagram illustrates the setup:
Lighting diagram for youth wrestling (click to expand)
I stick the flash right on the floor near one of the table legs. I’ve found the scorer’s table is the best position for a few reasons. The scorers always have an unobstructed view of the action. Positioning the flash on the floor also provides good light on the competitors, who are extremely low to the ground already. Finally, there is very little foot traffic there, so I am not worried about my flash getting stepped on and destroyed.
There are a few small tweaks you can make to your flash before leaving it in its final position. First, add a -tiny- bit extra to your final flash power setting, and then aim it in such a way that it shoots just over the heads of the wrestlers. This allows the light to reach a little further out (across to the other side of the mat), and since it is shooting over their heads, it softens the light just enough so there is less of a chance of harsh highlights bouncing off of foreheads or uniforms. With your flash in place, you are now free to roam around and take pictures.
Wrestlers in action right near the flash (1/200 sec at f3.5, ISO 800, 1/16+ flash power, off-camera left)
Action on the opposite side of the mat from the flash (1/200 sec at f3.5, ISO 800, 1/16+ flash power, off-camera left)
Since the flash power is so low, it recycles very quickly. This means you can shoot very rapidly and capture almost all the action.
Shooting right at the flash, which is under the scorer’s table (1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 800, 1/16+ flash power, directly in front of
camera)
What about the lens?
Your choice of lens is up to you. I favor an 80-200mm lens, which allows me to get as close as possible to the faces of the wrestlers. You can also get great results with wide angle lenses, or anything in between. The lens should be an artistic choice. The main concerns should be 1) your camera settings which emphasize shutter speed and 2) your flash power. Once you have these in balance, you are free to frame your shots as you see fit.
Alternative to radio triggers
Some flashes can be activated without radio triggers. For example, the Nikon SB-800 can react to other flashes firing, and trigger itself based on that. This is a bit of an issue if other people in the stands are taking pictures (since your remote flash will fire every time they take a picture), however if you do not have radio triggers, this is a viable option. Simply use the built-in flash on your camera to “trigger” the remote flash. Make sure you dial-down your on-camera flash to the lowest setting possible. The on-camera flash will give you additional lighting from the front, of course, but the basic technique for lighting with a remote flash will still work.
Getting ready to wrestle! (1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 800, 1/16+ flash power, off-camera right)
Last minute instructions (1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 800, 1/16+ flash power, off-camera right)
More instructions (1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 800, 1/16+ flash power, off-camera left)
Going for a pin! (1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 800, no flash (the sun started streaming in from off-camera right)
All the images above are untouched, and right out of the camera. View the complete gallery here.
I learned all the information above (along with many other photography-related bits) at the Strobist site. You should have a look there also.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions, and I’ll be happy to answer them. Thanks and good luck with your photography!
Comments
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jpg on 03.03.2010
“we want the camera to capture a crips image”
I think you meant CRISP, not CRIPS.
db on 03.03.2010
Typo fixed, thanks.