Busy Winter

[camjam]

It's been a busy winter shooting sports. In addition to swimming and girls' basketball, this winter we shot some wrestling and a cheerleading competition. Still struggling with Photoshop and removing noise. Please let me know your thoughts on this photo; particularly the noise aspect.

I thought the action was good, captured the face of our team's wrestler, bright enough. But I think it's noisy. Shot with a D7000, F2.8, 1/500s, ISO 3200 at 116mm. As far as gyms go, this one was well light compared to others. No flash allowed.

Not an action shot, but I was very pleased with being able to capture this young lady sending her appreciation to her parents. She was very quick, but I was able to dial down some of my settings I was using to get swimmers in the pool. D7000, F2.8, 1/250s, ISO 1600. I think I used to much noise reduction and softened up the photo. Typical pool, poor lighting. Unfortunately, with my son moving up to college swimming, we lost pool side access when he swims and have to shoot from the stands like all the other parents.

 

[imagemaker46]

They are both a little soft, the noise reduction software may have had something to do with that. To be honest I rarely use any noise reduction as this can happen. I like the swim "heart" it's a good capture and something a lot of people would miss if they weren't paying attention. Sports isn't always about the action, so much goes on around the event,especially swim meets. It can be tough shooting from the stands unless you have a good lens(200mm or longer) and hope that your son is swimming in lane 0-2 or 8-7, depending on which side you're on. I'd be hoping he's swimming in lane 4-5 in the finals.

 

[camjam]

Imagemaker.....I wish I had something longer than 200mm. The college found out I was taking photos at the meets and asked to use them on their website, so I am hoping I can talk someone into giving me deck access next year. You "rarely use any noise reduction." I need to upgrade my camera...I am pushing everything to keep my pictures exposed correctly. It's not uncommon for me to use setting like F2.8, ISO 6400, 1/500s with my D7000 and the photos are very noisy without running some type of noise reduction. BTW, I am shooting in RAW not Jpeg.

 

[imagemaker46]

I know how bad the pools are for light, it's never easy. I have always tried to shoot around 1250iso, but in some pools have been at 3200iso and yes the quality isn't that great. I am using a 5D Mklll now and have been shooting in pools at over 6400iso without any real noise, it's great. Most of the pools I shoot the big meets in are pretty well lit. I shoot eveything as jpegs, but can understand why you would want to shoot raw, getting more information into the image will help you with the high iso. I have a big meet coming up in April, I know the pool very well, for heats it's sunlight and finals it's darker, the pool has a glass roof. I'm not too concerned shooting in those conditions.

Good luck with a deck pass, sure would make life easier for you.