Indoor Gymnastics Photography

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This post was written in 2011 on an old blog platform; I have repeated it here so it can live on  , , 


These photos are taken at the USA Sports Winter Spectacular. Flash photography is not allowed as this distracts and endangers the athletes. Flash is a no-no in these competitions as it will distract the athletes and can  cause serious injury.  


There photos are taken without flash, using a very fast 85mm or 50mm f1.4 lense at 1600 to 3200 ISO at 1/500sec to 1/1000sec on a Nikon D700.  Speed in the lens is very important.  ("speed" is the ability of a lens to open to a very wide aperture.)  Even the fast and expensive f2.8 telephoto zoom lenses will struggle to perform well in this lighting; remember f1.4 is 2 stops, or double-double the amount of light as f2.8..  Slower f3.5 lens will have a difficult time working in this dim lighting.  


Full frame DLSR with lower (10mb to 16mb) resolution tend to handle higher ISO with less noise than crop frame or mega-pixel monster bodies with 24+ mp.  Simple reason is pixel size on the sensor; the smaller pixels found on higher resolution sensor have more trouble getting rid of heat, and heat equals noise.  Technology is changing all the time, and new (and expensive) bodies are being produced that have both very high pixel count resolution.  


Spot or center focus tends to work best or you might find your camera focusing and metering on the back wall or crowd while following these fast routines. I shoot in bursts as fast as the camera will allow.  Color balance and exposure is always an issue with Gym lighting.  Shooting in raw, presetting color balance and pre-shooting grey cards helps.


The good news is that new, less expensive "consumer" mid-mp cameras in the 16mb range are being produced that handle high ISO very well and take fantastic images.  "Consumer" means less expensive (typically under $1,000,) not cheap!  Professional bodies (typically $3,000 and up) are made tougher and heavier, and are geared towards full time photographers who want full control over the camera with minimal "auto" settings.  Don't lug one of these rocks around unless you need this type of manual control, the current "consumer" cameras are fantastic! 


All the tech stuff is great, but it helps to know the gymnast routines and get to the best spot possible to shoot.  As the “official” photographer at his particular event I was able to move about the periphery of the floor to take photos.  I never place myself where I block the parents view; these shows are for family to see these gymnasts. I do mange to bang my head on equipment as I move quickly around the gym, , , ,


Please visit my web page at Steve Loos Photography
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