Badminton Photography

Discussion in 'Badminton Photography' started by Shabok, Dec 13, 2002.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Badminton Pics : looking for advice

    Hi all,

    I took some badminton shots during the finals of a local tournament (organized by my club) last week-end :

    http://www.nobrakes.ch/sbce_071202.php

    I should attend a similar event tomorrow. Do you have any tips concerning placement, shooting angles, etc. so that I can improve myself ? Thanks.

    Shabok
     
  2. Yong

    Yong Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 24, 2002
    Messages:
    254
    Likes Received:
    12
    Occupation:
    ICT consultant
    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Hi Shabok,

    Very nice pictures !
    For the individual action pics i can't come up with tips, they seem already very good quality to me.
    Maybe for the ambiance of the tournament itself it might be nice to take some pictures with some audience on the background, or both the player(s) and opponent(s) on the picture.
     
  3. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Yong,

    Thanks for your comments ! Your suggestions are very interesting, I will try some of them at the next tournament. I will for sure post the results here if they are worth it :D

    Shabok
     
  4. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2002
    Messages:
    2,096
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    T.O.
    Nice gym!

    A couple of points:
    - Catching people in awkward positions is fun at first, but (a) they'll be pissed at you at first, and (b) it confuses non-badminton players into thinking this is interpretive dance or something. Get more "traditional" shots in. If you look at shots of Tennis matches, a large number of players are resting, rather than running, because the results are more flattering.

    - Is this with a Digital camera or film? You've got a nice scanner and film if its not digital. If it's digital, you have nice camera :)

    - Pictures are out of focus slightly, lock in the focus of the target before shooting. There's no need for blur here.

    - Motion Blur: if you can set your caerma's shutter at a higher speed, do so. It looks pretty good now though.

    Great job so far :)
     
  5. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    bigredlemon, thanks for your reply.

    Do you have any examples of "traditional" shots ? I like when the shots capture a dynamic pose, so that people don't think we are playing "beach-badminton" :D But I agree that some of those could be more flattering...

    It's a digital SLR (Canon D30).

    I agree 100% with you, but my camera has trouble following moving targets in low light (or is it operator error :D), actually many shots are slighty back-focused... And given the aperture I was using, depth of field is quite shallow, which doesn't give a big error margin.

    The first 9 pics have been taken at 1/320th, f/1.8, and I switched to 1/400th, f/1.6 for the remaining ones. Maybe should I have increased ISO speed from 800 to 1600, but the pics would have been much noisier. I'll try that next time.

    Thanks :)
    Shabok
     
  6. kwun

    kwun Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2002
    Messages:
    41,041
    Likes Received:
    2,065
    Occupation:
    BC Janitor
    Location:
    Santa Clara, CA, USA
    Shabok,

    not sure how you can improve the current pictures. i think they are really nice and you managed to capture the motion of the player and also the facial expression.

    the composition of the pictures are similar though, full frame just the player. perhaps you can consider including other objects, like wait behind the net and shoot through that (you will need manual focus for that). or get a 24mm and go to the back court and take in the whole scene.

    really nice pictures. very sharp, i like the DoF, blur enough for attention, not too blur to disassociate the player from the background.

    how about share more with us how you approached it?
     
  7. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Actually, the approach was quite simple since I had many constraints.

    Concerning the lighting, my incident light meter gave the following readings : ISO 800, 1/250th, f/2.0. Therefore, if I had used my 70-200 f/2.8 zoom I would have had to use ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/250th. However, I knew from various forums that 1/250th is barely sufficient to freeze action in basketball. Badminton needs faster shutter speeds. So all lenses slower than f/2.0 were out of the question. I have 2 lenses that meet this constraint : 50mm f/1.4 (80mm equivalent in 35mm format - remember I'm using a digital SLR with a field of view crop of 1.6) and 28mm f/1.8 (45mm equivalent). The 28mm is not wide enough for group shots, and unsufficent for medium telephoto shots. So I sticked with the 50/1.4, which allowed me to shoot at ISO 800, 1/400th, f/1.6. I could have tried shooting wide open (f/1.4), but that lens is quite soft at this aperture.

    Concerning my location, I was sitting on the ground, almost under the net, 1-2 meters from the court. I prefer the perspective when the shots are taken near the ground. Being almost under the net allows me to have a global view of the court without moving, as well as having the players' face in my field of view, if I'm located on their left side if they are right-handed (and vice versa). Since I didn't have a zoom, I had less flexibility for the framing (and my location), but shooting indoor sports is a matter of compromises :)

    I hope it makes some sense :)
    Shabok
     
  8. willie

    willie Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 15, 2002
    Messages:
    137
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    draftsperson
    Location:
    canada
    How about the famous jump smash of Lee Dong Soo posted by kuwn ?:D
     
  9. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2002
    Messages:
    2,096
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    T.O.
    NP :)

    I'm thinking of non-action shots like a player walking away after winning the rally, or in position, anticpating the return. They aren't as exciting as action shots, but it adds variety. Even though they are not jumping or lunging, it is still obvious (to us anyway) that they aren't playing beach-badminton.

    Pricey :)

    What resolution are you using? I know the D30 can handle 3 megapixels. You're pictures are about half a megapixel only. If you get grain at 3megapix, you should add smart blur (radius=3 to 5, threshold=15 to 25) and then resize. Grain should be gone. You might get an airbrushed/cartoony look though, depending on the settings. Great for closeups, i think.

    Not as problematic with film camera, not 1600 film only affordable in black & white :(
    You sound like you know what you're doing, probably more than me. I only get into photography a couple years ago.... expensive hobby !
     
    #9 bigredlemon, Dec 13, 2002
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2002
  10. kwun

    kwun Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2002
    Messages:
    41,041
    Likes Received:
    2,065
    Occupation:
    BC Janitor
    Location:
    Santa Clara, CA, USA
    i thought that's because in a tennis game there is so little action. ie. they *are* resting most of the time... :)
     
  11. kwun

    kwun Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2002
    Messages:
    41,041
    Likes Received:
    2,065
    Occupation:
    BC Janitor
    Location:
    Santa Clara, CA, USA
    back to topic.....

    another way is to look at www.badmintonphoto.com and try to pick out some ideas from Raphael, who takes all the badminton pictures for worldbadminton.net
     
  12. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Thanks a lot ! Great pics... :D

    Shabok
     
  13. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Now I see exactly what you mean. You can capture great facial expressions when taking shots *after* the action, or between strokes.

    Actually less pricey than the lenses you mount it to :)... I bought the camera second hand, ditto for most of my lenses.

    I shoot in RAW, which is 3MPixel with no compression (12bit per color channel, each file is 18MB after conversion from RAW to 16bit-TIFF).

    Expensive but rewarding :)

    Shabok
     
  14. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2002
    Messages:
    2,096
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    T.O.
    LOL! Good one :p
    odd how they always look so tired eh?
     
  15. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2002
    Messages:
    2,096
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    T.O.
    At 18MB each, you'll run out of space fast eh? I'd shoot in Jpeg (SHQ or 10 or MAX) mode. I'm not sure if it's called for your camera, but it should be the highest setting. Each pic should come out to about 500Kb to 1MB. You would be hard-pressed to find the difference between the two. BTW, how come you are converting to 16bit TIFF? The only real advantage TIFF has over JPEG is that it supports 32bit. Since your camera supports up to 36bit, it'd be ashame to lose all that colour data, which could be useful in enhancing the resolution if you ever decide to magnify it, or reduces the colourloss from converting to CYMK mode for printing/publishing.
     
  16. wind rider

    wind rider Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2002
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    UK + HK
    i know nothing about piture taking but the girl in the red top post by Shabok looks quite attractive :D
     
  17. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2002
    Messages:
    2,096
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    T.O.
    You mean, you were impressed with Shabok's ability to bring out the beauty of his subjects, right? :D :p
     
  18. wind rider

    wind rider Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2002
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    UK + HK
    Dont know about that until i see her in person....
    maybe Shabok can arrange that :D :D :D
     
  19. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Shooting in RAW has many advantages over JPEG. Like I said, the camera captures 12bit per color channel. The RAW format retains all this information and is losslessly compressed so that each picture takes approximately 3-3.2MB on my compact flash card. Later, I convert the RAW files to TIFF (or JPEG), but the TIFF format cannot store 12bit per color channel, only 8bit or 16bit. In my case, I convert to 16bit (per color channel, that is 48bit TIFF). This is very useful when correcting exposure or to avoid losing information in the shadows or highlights.

    Using the RAW format has also other advantages, like less noise at high ISOs and the possibility to redefine white balance before the conversion to TIFF.
     
  20. Shabok

    Shabok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2002
    Messages:
    91
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Switzerland
    :D :D :D
    LOL ! But you are not quite correct, she looks much better in person ;)
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page