High Speed Action Shots

[Bretski]

Hi All

After a great weekened photographing some action shots at a local Tae Kwondo Grading and some rather mixed results... mostly dissapointing... from my limited lenses I've decided to purchase a more suitable lense for my 350D for these type of shots as I will be doing a lot more...

Here are the criteria

1) Needs to be fast
2) Suitable in low/poor light conditions as flash is often a no no...
3) have reasonable range, wide to good zoom 35-150 ish
4) CHEAPish but not cr@ppy









I look forward to your suggestions...

[redline]

actually i like the blur to be honest.
the door is the most annoying thing about all these pictures.

why not shoot next to the guy with the ps?
you have a door as a light good light source why not open it up more?

[Bretski]

actually i like the blur to be honest.
the door is the most annoying thing about all these pictures.

why not shoot next to the guy with the ps?
you have a door as a light good light source why not open it up more?

Unfortunatly doors on other side were just as bad...

[Alex]

I like the 2nd and the last one.

Fantastic.

Alex

[redline]

outside?

[Bretski]

outside?

Unfortunatly just shooting as a spectator... had no say in where they performed their breaks etc...

[TonyH]

Hi Bretski,

I've been photographing Taekwondo for 25 years, it is a very difficult sport to shoot.

My suggestion would be to get a fast prime lens. Shoot in RAW and whatever your burst speed is on the camera shoot continuously at your subject.

I had to recently print a brochure for my club and even setting up the shots, knowing what actions were going to occur and where, I still only finished with 11 out of 80 frames I considered useable. A lot of what I was eliminating was from a technical position, open hands, incorrect foot position etc. However, some frames were just completely mistimed.

The reason I say all of that is to let you know that the shots you have posted are great considering the position you were working from.

I sincerely believe that a fast prime lens is eesential for what you want to do. It is pretty much photgraphy at close quarters, indoors, fast action (125 min shutter speed), all white subjects (primarily), and techniques coming from out of the frame without the abilty to pan a shot. I have a 70-200VR plus the kit lens available, but I get most consistent results with either my 50mm 1.8 or my 28mm 2.8 lenses.

Look forward to more TKD shots!

Tony

[Bretski]

Hi Bretski,

I've been photographing Taekwondo for 25 years, it is a very difficult sport to shoot.

My suggestion would be to get a fast prime lens. Shoot in RAW and whatever your burst speed is on the camera shoot continuously at your subject.

I had to recently print a brochure for my club and even setting up the shots, knowing what actions were going to occur and where, I still only finished with 11 out of 80 frames I considered useable. A lot of what I was eliminating was from a technical position, open hands, incorrect foot position etc. However, some frames were just completely mistimed.

The reason I say all of that is to let you know that the shots you have posted are great considering the position you were working from.

I sincerely believe that a fast prime lens is eesential for what you want to do. It is pretty much photgraphy at close quarters, indoors, fast action (125 min shutter speed), all white subjects (primarily), and techniques coming from out of the frame without the abilty to pan a shot. I have a 70-200VR plus the kit lens available, but I get most consistent results with either my 50mm 1.8 or my 28mm 2.8 lenses.

Look forward to more TKD shots!

Tony

THankx Heaps...

Cheers

Bretski

[DaveB]

Perfect application for the 50mm/1.8 MkII, which happens to be the cheapest EF lens available!

[DionM]

Perfect application for the 50mm/1.8 MkII, which happens to be the cheapest EF lens available!

Seconded!

50mm 1.8 is about $150. Fast aperature (f1. and 50mm on a 1.6x crop will keep you far enough away to not be a pain. Next would be the 85 1.8 or maybe 135 f2, but they are getting up there in $$$.

Bottom line is you need a prime, there are no zooms faster than f2.8 and I think you need more aperature than that.

The perfect lens would be the 200 1.8 ... but well ... unless you sell your car ...