Swimming pool shoot

Hi All,

I've got the opportunity to do a pool shoot of a local swim team (at one of thier training sessions so I can stage any shots I want).

My thoughts / comments / worries so far :-

- It will be outside in fairly bright sunsine so a bit worried about the amount of natural light. (Could a ND filter help?)

- As sunjects will be moving, what focus mode ?

- Expect to basically meter of ambient light and then a just a bit of fill from stobe(s) maybe even indirect bounced of the walls ?

- Glass selection, thinking to start with 17-70.

Any tips / hints / pointers of classic shots etc.. will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Cheers,

Richard B.

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Check out latest underwater exploits :-

http://www.images-underwater.net/

You'll have a blast!

To answer your questions - keep it simple. You'll be swimming a lot and will want to be able to go fast. One WA strobe for fill, on a short arm eh? You'll want to shoot in an "action" mode where you're not constantly having to adjust your SS and aperture as you change direction. I like aperture priority as I don't have to monkey w/ the strobe power. You'll need exposure compensation because your meter will be metering for all the ambient light floating around off of the white walls. Use your flash for fill. As for lenses, the 17-70 isn't wide enough to get a whole swimmer into the frame and still get some flash onto him/her. I'd use a 12-24mm type of zoom lens.

Watch your backgrounds - you want to set up somewhere in the pool where you have a clean background. As for shots and angles, that's up to you! Have fun!

I recently shot all of the photos for "Mastering Swimming" a book by Human Kinetics - I used the above techniques. Here are some sample photos:

http://www.reefpix.org/wpg2?g2_itemId=20247

Cheers

James

Hi James,

Many thanks for the tips, much appreciated, particlularly comment regarding exposure compensation.

Loved the photos, the backstroke swimmer comming out of tumble turn and the head on (freestyle ?) shots are my favourite.

Cheers,

Richard B.

><(()">

Check out latest underwater exploits :-

http://www.images-underwater.net/

Hi Richard,

nice photos.

skip

You'll have a blast!

 

To answer your questions - keep it simple. You'll be swimming a lot and will want to be able to go fast. One WA strobe for fill, on a short arm eh? You'll want to shoot in an "action" mode where you're not constantly having to adjust your SS and aperture as you change direction. I like aperture priority as I don't have to monkey w/ the strobe power. You'll need exposure compensation because your meter will be metering for all the ambient light floating around off of the white walls. Use your flash for fill. As for lenses, the 17-70 isn't wide enough to get a whole swimmer into the frame and still get some flash onto him/her. I'd use a 12-24mm type of zoom lens.

 

Watch your backgrounds - you want to set up somewhere in the pool where you have a clean background. As for shots and angles, that's up to you! Have fun!

 

I recently shot all of the photos for "Mastering Swimming" a book by Human Kinetics - I used the above techniques. Here are some sample photos:

 

http://www.reefpix.org/wpg2?g2_itemId=20247

 

Cheers

James

Hi: I don't recommend you to use any filter. The more natural light the higher shutter speed you should use to freeze the subject.