-New to Sports and need a LOT of help

[momo3boys]

My son loves wrestling and I took my camera to the tournament and found out that wedding photography is SO much easier! Wow! So much to think about. The lighting was horrible so I did have to use my flash, but with the diffuser at least. Here are the best of the day, if that tells you how bad it went. I know I used to low of a shutter speed, man those guys are fast. What else am I missing?

1.

2.

3. No I did NOT up the saturation on this one, his blood really was this bright!

 

[Big Mike]

Shutter speeds look fine...but your exposure is inconsistent. Since your settings were identical in these shots, that means that the flash output was changing...and that has to do with the auto TTL flash metering. I'd guess that the shiny metal in the background, threw it off in #2, the exposure is better in the last one, where it's not in the frame.

This is would a good situation to put the flash in manual mode (as well as the camera). Once you find the right combination of setting to get the exposure that you want/need...then you won't have to change it because the lighting won't change.

On the topic of the background, it looks terrible. Nothing you can do, but I think the last one is so much better, because you chose a better angle and it hid the background. It could also help if you were able to use a larger aperture for a shallower DOF.

If I were tasked with shooting something like this, I'd see if I could mount some remote flashes/strobes up high somewhere. In/on the ceiling or on high stands. Have two, three or four of them, aimed down at the mat from different angles. Maybe also a camera mounted flash for fill.

 

[momo3boys]

Thanks Mike, I had the Camera on Manual because I didn't want the settings to change, but I'm new to flashes so I didn't think about changing that to manual too. I think they intimidate me a bit. Also, the subject is constantly moving closer and farther away from me. Maybe that is what happened to the darker shot? I am recovering from an injury that keeps me from running around like the ref does, so getting a good angle is a challenge. I'm not the 'team' photographer, and she wasn't there for this one, so mounting flashes isn't really an option. They are constantly moving rooms too so that doesn't help. Tournaments are quite crazy with lots of people and little room so this adds to the challenge.

I was worried about the DOF and actually changed my Aperture smaller, because they are so fast I didn't want to miss focus. I'm not bad at processing so I'm sure I could 'fix' the background, if I ever took a decent shot...

My flash is mounted to the side of the camera on a bracket. Its a NIkon SB-26, if that tells you anything. It was a gift and I know very little about how they work.