My thoughts on the craft, the process and the subjects
In sports and action photography, capturing the decisive moment of the action is most important. High framing rate of a modern DSLR greatly helps in this respect. Having said this, there is a fine balance between capturing an interesting moment and shooting too much during a sports event.
This balance between shooting and observing has some parallels to the larger issue of presence over productivity, which has been raised by many authors (e.g. Anne Dillard in her “The Writing Life
Two days of covering a national swimming championship made for a very long photography weekend. Even though it was one of high-volume photoshoots, which I typically enjoy less than more relaxed personal projects, I was able to experiment with various types of shots and settings.
What I did not have a chance to try, due to the pressure to deliver images for press releases, is shooting with super slow shutter speeds to produce motion blur. Typically, I try to freeze the motion, which pretty much guarantees some interesting shots, since the spectators cannon see this level of detail in the swimmers’ facial expressions with the naked eye (or even with telephoto lenses) from the stands. A shutter speed as slow as 1/500 sec can freeze the motion of the swimmers, but capturing the sharp images of the water droplets requires am minimum of 1/800 sec (with a 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens
Another variation from my typical camera presets was in the autofocus tracking settings on my Canon EOS-1D X
In my experience, apparent sharpness of a photograph depends not only on the quality of the lens and precise focussing, but also on correct exposure. This issue came up recently in an email exchange with a photographer friend, who shot the same kendo tournament as I did, using an identical camera (Canon EOS-1D X
When photographing indoor sports, achieving correct exposure while maintaining fast stutter speeds that are necessary for freezing the motion requires a combination of “fast” lenses (ones with large maximum apertures) and high ISO settings. The drawback of using high ISO is that it increases noise in the photo, which also leads to loss of detail. However, I generally find that noisy, but correctly exposed, images look sharper than under-exposed ones even if the actual amount of detail is the same.
It should be noted that both the exposure and noise can be corrected n post-processing, to some degree. Having this ability to adjust images post-factum is the main argument for shooting in RAW format. Having said this, I find myself shooting JPEGs more and more often, particularly if the lighting conditions do not change (which is true in the case of indoor sports), and I am confident that I can obtain a “good enough” exposure during shooting (checking the histogram on the LCD screen periodically throughout the shoot is still a good idea).
One of the most interesting aspects of sports photography is the ability to show the action up close. I think this is the reason the photos taken with long telephoto lenses generally produce most appealing shots. I wrote earlier about my favourite lenses for shooting indoor basketball. Recently, I have been preferring longer lenses, because they provide a point of view that a spectator cannot replicate from the bleachers. This gives the photos instant “interestingness.”
For tomorrow’s kendo tournament, I am going to shoot mostly with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens
“The world is full of obvious things”
– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Hound of the Baskervilles
I noticed a while ago, that many of my colleague in academia (most of them engineers or scientists) have strong personal interests in creative activities like art, photography, writing, etc. I have been wondering what aspects are common between the creative process and knowledge work, such as academic research. This question comes up every now and then in the discussions of whether artistic training is meaningful for people of other professions (I think there is an implicit assumption that is different parts of the rain are responsible for intuitive and logical thought processes, the two ways of thinking are not generally applicable to the same problems).
Of course, observation alone is not sufficient. The process of creating an object of art also involves communicating the information crystallized through observation to the audience. The skills of observation, processing of information (identifying key elements) and communicating it to others easily translate to academic work, or most other activities, for that matter. So I would like to think that my taking photos or practicing kendo indirectly benefits my research. This seems to work for many prominent colleagues, so I am sticking with it.
When I photograph people without flash or studio lights, which I do most often, I operate in a shutter priority mode. Even though I set my 1D X
Actually, depending on the lens (wider lenses can tolerate slower shutter speeds for the same subject), I sometimes obtain reasonable results while shooting sports with really slow shutter speeds, e.g. 1/125 sec. I should mention that I usually do not do this on purpose. Sometimes, I just forget to change the setting after shooting a relatively stationary subject and continue to shoot action, only to find out that among mostly blurry images, there a couple of nice ones. The benefit of the slower shutter speed is, of course, lower ISO and, therefore, less noise.
I was also happy to discover a shutter priority mode in the Camera+ app on my iPhone. Now I can can set the ISO to “Auto” and set the shutter speed to a reasonable value (around 1/60 sec) when photographing my daughter. The default setting of 1/30 sec is way to slow to capture a 3-year-old in her continuous motion. Incidentally, because kids are constantly moving, I find the fully manual mode of the iPhone Camera+ app (where shutter speed, aperture and ISO are all controlled separately) too cumbersome to use for spontaneous children’s portraits. While some control of the exposure mode and focus are nice to have, the point-and-shoot aspect is what makes the iPhone useful to me as a pocket camera.
Recently, I have been listening to a podcast about military strategy and tactics of Mongols during the Genghis Khan’s campaigns. It is interesting that the Mongols valued leadership abilities of their commanders very highly. For example, there is a quote sometimes attributed to Genghis Khan (although it is more likely a variation of a quote of Alexander the Great or the Socrates) that “an army of donkeys led by a lion is better an army of lions led by a donkey.”
For me personally, working with a research group of colleagues and graduate students, teaching a course or taking photos of people – all these activities involve leading or directing others. There are many details of leadership that are specific to a particular activity, but some key aspects are common. Here they are, taking a typical portrait photo shoot as an example:
“…sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
– Marilyn Monroe
Although planning is a crucial part of a photo production, things often do not go according to the plan during the actual photo shoot. This is not always a bad thing (some believe that anything that happens, happens for a reason), but it is important to mentally flexible if such situation occurs.
To explain a mental attachment using a chess example, assume that I looked at a position on the board and decided to implement a certain combination. As the game unfolds, the opponent tries to implement his/her own plan, which changes the situation – what used to be a good plan, becomes not so good, because the objective situation has changed. (This is what makes chess and martial arts so much like real life.) If I stay mentally attached to the original plan of action, my own actions would make the situation worse, because they would be out-of-touch with the objective reality. In martial arts also, one of the fundamental concepts is to be present in the moment, “read” the opponent and not to be absorbed by one’s own thoughts and fears.
I believe that like any fundamental skill, mental flexibility in the face of unexpected changes requires practice. In photography, for example, if my arsenal of shooting and lighting techniques is fairly diverse, I would be able to adjust my shooting if the location, models or props do not work the way it was planned.
When photographing fast action, such as sports or dance, I usually concentrate on two technical aspects – capturing the expression of the motion and isolating the subject from the surroundings.
To show motion in a still photo, I typically try to freeze it, i.e. to shoot with sufficiently fast shutter speed, so that the athletes appear sharp, but their poses and facial expressions convey movement and emotion.
An alternative to freezing the motion is to blur it, with a slow shutter speed, so that the moving subject is smudged, while the surroundings are sharp. Blurring the motion is particularly effective when combined with a flash that illuminates the subject just before the camera shutter closes, freezing that phase of the movement (so called back-curtain sync).
Yet another approach is panning, when the camera follows the moving subject, and the image is taken with a shutter speed that is short enough to freeze the motion, but long enough to blur the background. This technique requires a lot of practice, and the success rate is typically very low. Also, it can only be applied in situations when the subject is moving more or less parallel to the sensor of the camera. If the subject is moving towards or away from the camera, it cannot be followed by swinging the lens around.
To isolate the subject from the background, I shoot with a fast lens, such as Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM
To freeze the motion and blur the background, I need to control both the shutter speed and the aperture at the same time. Before upgrading my camera to Canon EOS-1D X
With a 1D X
I wrote yesterday about involving other people in photo shoots. A particularly effective way of doing this is showing the photos to models during the shoot and asking if they would like to make any adjustments. The models would have an opportunity to see if there is anything wrong with the pose, the hair, the makeup, etc., and give the feedback to the photographer. I usually show the photos on the camera’s LCD screen, but it can be done on a computer screen if shooting tethered (having the camera connected to the computer by a USB cable, so that the photos are downloaded as soon as they are taken).
Professional models are different from amateurs people in that they know the poses that work well for them and can produce those poses repeatably. They are also used to critically reviewing photos of themselves from the technical viewpoint. For me personally, having the model’s feedback is tremendously helpful, as it allows me to tap into their experience, which can save a lot of trial and error in producing the best possible image.
Even if the subject is not a professional model, it is very useful to show the photo to her/him and ask for feedback. First of all, it helps the model relax and feel more involved in the shoot. Also, most people have preconceived ideas of what the final photo would look like. Showing the photos to them during the shoot can make a difference between satisfaction and disappointment with the final images. Seeing the photos during the shoot adjusts the expectations of the final product, and sometimes all it takes for a bride to be happy with her portrait is adjusting the position of the bouquet so that it does not cover a detail of the dress.
At first, I hesitated to show “unfinished” photos to other people, especially to models and clients. However, in my experience to date, nobody ever complained that the images were unprocessed or not sufficiently polished. At the same time, people were often able to make small, easy adjustments during the shoot, which saved a lot of post-processing work and resulted in much better final photos.
