Martial Arts and OCF...

[Hardrock]

So I know nothing about martial arts but was helping a friend get some shots for advertising and since I just got my second flash I thought why not. Well I realized real quickly that one OCF is kind of difficult but 2 was very difficult. The lighting was horendous in the studio and I did not have a gel for the flashes. I was constantly moving umbrellas and adjusting the camera settings and realized real fast I need to do a lot more reading and playing with OCF! Some where taken with flash on camera to try and get a faster SS but the light was very flat.But these were the best of the bunch and would love to hear suggestions and comments. Also the whole series can be seen at Zenfolio | Harrison Photography | Martial Arts .

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[cpeay]

Very good shots. Nice action!!!

 

[crimbfighter]

Very good start! My first thought, would be to get them out of the Dojo. They have too much stuff cluttering up the walls and it detracts attention away from stances, strikes, ect that the subjects are demonstrating. Having a simplistic background, of say a park or lake shore, would really help bring that focal point back to where it is supposed to be, on THEM! Getting them out of their "controlled" environment also, IMO, helps give that added element to the photo of real world applicability. It's also the area where martial arts is rarely seen by the general public, so it might make for an interesting photo that helps step outside the box a bit. Just my two cents. Though coming from a guy who once thought the mullet would never go out of style, it might be worthless in the end...

 

[Hardrock]

Thanks guys! Yeah its was a good day to go outside to I just didn't think about it. We are definitely going to do it again.

 

[ks0385]

Sweet, post up the ones from outside when you get to them. What locations are you thinking? Beach? Forest? Mountain tops?

 

[FattyMcJ]

I'm not a fan of the balance you have chosen here, between ambient and flash exposures. I like that you tried to bring down the ambient but I think you over-did (yes, that's a technical term...write that down lol) the flash exposure. I'm guessing you wanted to expose for the black parts of the Gi thus overexposing the white parts and the skin. Keep in mind, this is all with the assumption that you deliberately chose not to process these "artistically" as you'd likely see in magazines for the sport...but instead went for the "natural" look.

If you HAD gone the artistic route in the processing, what I like to call the "Ultimate Fighter" look, then the lighting might have worked better.

IMO, throw on a CTO gel, probably 1/4 or 1/2 CTO, bring the flash exposure down a bit, or more if you can open up the aperture to really throw the background OOF (not sure what lenses you have), and they'd be better...but...as has been said, the backgrounds are incredibly distracting.

On the plus side, I like how you framed the shots, no missing appendages, but not too loosely either, and you caught the "action" (albeit obviously staged) at the right times. :thumbup:

 

[Hardrock]

Thanks FattyMcJ! Yeah to be honest I did not even think of the ultimate fighter style! I was using a 17-40 f4 lens. Thanks agian and going to give it another go.