Badminton Photography

**Shabok** · 12-13-2002, 07:54 AM

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

**Yong** · 12-13-2002, 08:19 AM

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.

**Shabok** · 12-13-2002, 09:20 AM

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

Shabok

**bigredlemon** · 12-13-2002, 10:07 AM

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

**Shabok** · 12-13-2002, 10:36 AM

bigredlemon, thanks for your reply.

- 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.

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"

But I agree that some of those could be 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

It's a digital SLR (Canon D30).

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

I agree 100% with you, but my camera has trouble following moving targets in low light (or is it operator error

), 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.

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

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.

Great job so far

Thanks

Shabok

***kwun*** · 12-13-2002, 11:48 AM

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?

**Shabok** · 12-13-2002, 01:08 PM

Originally posted by kwun
how about share more with us how you approached it?

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

**willie** · 12-13-2002, 02:38 PM

How about the famous jump smash of Lee Dong Soo posted by kuwn ?

**bigredlemon** · 12-13-2002, 04:33 PM

Originally posted by Shabok
[/B]bigredlemon, thanks for your reply.

NP

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" But I agree that some of those could be more flattering...

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.

It's a digital SLR (Canon D30).

Pricey

I agree 100% with you, but my camera has trouble following moving targets in low light (or is it operator error ), 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.

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.

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.

Not as problematic with film camera, not 1600 film only affordable in black & white

Thanks
Shabok

You sound like you know what you're doing, probably more than me. I only get into photography a couple years ago.... expensive hobby !

***kwun*** · 12-13-2002, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by bigredlemon
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.

i thought that's because in a tennis game there is so little action. ie. they *are* resting most of the time...

***kwun*** · 12-13-2002, 04:49 PM

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

**Shabok** · 12-13-2002, 06:09 PM

Originally posted by kwun
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

Thanks a lot ! Great pics...

Shabok

**Shabok** · 12-13-2002, 06:25 PM

Originally posted by bigredlemon
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.

Now I see exactly what you mean. You can capture great facial expressions when taking shots *after* the action, or between strokes.

Originally posted by bigredlemon
Pricey

Actually less pricey than the lenses you mount it to

... I bought the camera second hand, ditto for most of my lenses.

Originally posted by bigredlemon
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.

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).

Originally posted by bigredlemon
You sound like you know what you're doing, probably more than me. I only get into photography a couple years ago.... expensive hobby !

Expensive but rewarding

Shabok

**bigredlemon** · 12-13-2002, 07:05 PM

Originally posted by kwun
i thought that's because in a tennis game there is so little action. ie. they *are* resting most of the time...

LOL! Good one

odd how they always look so tired eh?

**bigredlemon** · 12-13-2002, 07:14 PM

Originally posted by Shabok
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

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.