Tom Phillips uses ‘slow’ ISO to capture fast Eurovets action
ISO (aka ASA) is a camera setting that lets you choose between capturing action in low light or rich detail in normal light. In the olden days, an ASA setting of 1600 meant a lot of “grain” in a photo print. Nowadays, 1600 is on the bottom end of a digital camera’s offerings. Which leads me to cheer the latest masters track shots from UK sprinter Tom Phillips, who attended the Eurovets meet in Ghent, Belgium. See them here. Tom writes: “I have gone for a moody and artistic look to many of the photos, because the lighting in the stadium was really bad. I refuse to use flash all the time — field athletes hate me at the best of times! As a result, ISO 1600 was a slow speed most of the time. I had to rely on underexposing and mending in the computer. It has given me some good stuff, occasionally with a posterised effect. I could have gone for the Warhol look with some shots, but I am not sure the Masters world is ready for that yet.”
Tom Phillips posted a quadzillion shots from Ghent European champs.
14 Responses
Great shots! The color balance and saturation are especially terrific. Shooting track and field indoors is tough. Not only is the light tricky for action shots, but also it is often bluish-green making people look like they are about ready to upchuck.
Rob, I really appreciate your comments. Thanks.
This was a great stadium, but had a mix of halogen spots, incandescent bulbs, flouro tubes and daylight. Even panning for shots could alter white balance. Average WB just made everyone orange at those ISO/ASA levels. Result was that almost every shot needed some work in the computer. But the plus was that I really like some of the posterised effects I got at times. I also included about three total abstracts that were the result of my lens not being mounted properly! I don’t make a habit of this but was working at quite a pace!
Great job Tom. I have the same problems at the local track. Kamloops, for the Worlds last year was great – windows on four sides!!!
Outdoor season is here !! 🙂
Listen, cats and chicks, my normal look is Warhol so get those cammies ready for Sacto. Smartty
Whilst outdoor athletics is always easier to shoot, I did not experience the same difficulty indoors although it is more difficult to shoot indoors as Tom. I used 1000 ISO and was still able to shoot at 320 and above.
I will send you some examples through Ken.
It does throw open the debate though as to what do athletes want.
Clear action shots or arty farty Getty type shots?
Open to the floor for your comments.
The light in Gent was really low, my small camera did not make anything useful. A colleague of Tom shoot at iso 3200.
GOSH Weia you think the light in Gent was low. You have been blessed with better lighting conditions elsewhere then. Gent was better than the facilities at Lee Valley in England where I have regularly taken pictures and this has to be the worst lighting.
I took a lot of photos at Albuquerque. It is tricky to find that non-existent ‘sweet spot’ indoors.
For you camera geeks, I do NOT have a big telephoto lens, but had serious lens envy when I saw other photographers at the meet. That must have some effect on graininess, blurriness and the like.
I set my Nikon to automatic ISO, and thought I set a fixed manual F4.5 and 1/125 second, and just left it there and got what I got. But in the records kept by the camera, I see the F stop was moving around some. My photos are less ‘grainy’ but more ‘blurry’ than tom’s. Some of them are kind of reddish looking. There are so many parameters with a camera like this its hard to figure out what is changing from one image to the next.
But it really comes down to content. You can see those intense expressions on the faces in Tom’s images, which is great.
I invite everyone to have a look at the website included here if interested and download if you want to.
My key to photographic success:
Take 10,000 photos. If five turn out nice, you’re a winner.
I agree with Ken. Shoot many photos and just keep the winners.
There’s an old saying among photographers “A bad photographer takes many photographs and shows all of them. A good photographer takes many photos and only shows a few.”
David, a couple of tips: Rather than using automatic ISO, set your camera on “shutter priority” and set the shutter speed at 1/500 of a second or faster. You will freeze the action and your photos will be sharp.
Also, try shooting at your camera’s maximum aperture (2.8 if you have it). That will create a shallow depth of field with your subject sharp and the background in a blur.
There’s usually a lot of background stuff going on in track and field and it’s best to shoot with the aperture wide open to blur out the distracting background stuff.
Shooting with a wide open aperture also allows you to shoot at a faster shutter speed and thereby freeze the action.
Just some thoughts.
In all seriousness (which takes an effort for me, of course):
1. Shoot for faces.
2. Shoot the reaction as well as the action.
3. Shoot from way up high or way down low. Not just eye level.
4. Pan.
5. Use fill flash.
6. Crop tightly.
7. SEND ME YOUR BEST SHOTS! TrackCEO@aol.com
Just wanted to comment on David Albo’s last point. By all means have a look at the site, but do NOT just download images. There are plenty of notices on the site about that, and all you will get for your pains is a copy with a large overprinted web address.
Ken, I like your guidelines, but disagree with you on flash. Many technical event athletesfind this off-putting. Vaulters, shot putters, high jumpers and hurdlers, for example. That applies to fill in flash as much as the full blown job. If in doubt, ask some of the athletes, If even one disagrees, switch it off. Certainly do so if anyone complains.
Tja, Dinge können so einfach sein. Besten Dank für die Erläuterungen 😉
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