A good badminton photo

[jianzhi94]

taken by a friend of mine. i think this is an excellent photo.

no doubt the subject is sharp and shuttlecock is visible

[kwun]

no doubt the subject is sharp and shuttlecock is visible

coincidence that i managed to take a similar photo of the same player in the same situation. but in much worse lighting condition.

[jyeung]

Hi Kwun,

I really appreciate your posts and this web site! It is this web site that inspired me to pick up photography recently. While going over some of the badminton photos here, I noticed that some are leveled and others not. I would like your opinion, and perhaps others, when and how leveling is applied.

Obviously with wide angle lenses, one can choose the floor, the roof line, the net, or a net post as the reference. Or use no leveling for special effect. And I find some really close-up shots can present problems because cropping would not be possible without amputating some body part of the subject!

Personally, I try to level the area closest to the center of the photo as my target of leveling.

Best Regards,

Joseph

[kwun]

glad to hear that you pick up photography. it is a really fun hobby!

leveling, or the reverse, tilting, is simply a matter of taste. there is no right and wrong, imho. the debate goes on forever whether photos should be tilted or not.

tilting a photo give it a slightly different look and make the picture slight more dynamic. but opponents says it is just a trick to make something out of an ordinary photo.

my take on it is that to do it in moderation. don't have a whole album of tilted photos, that will give your viewers a stiff neck, but at the same time, try out different things, maybe some pose and composition works better with some tilt.

there is no right and wrong.

[jyeung]

Thanks Kwun!

That makes sense. As long as tilting the photo doesn't weaken the story line, it would give different flavor on multiple shots of similar view points, especially on nearside perpective angled shots. On more distance shots, specifically end-to-end shots, facing the net straight on, it would be like landscape photography, even a 1 degree tilting would spoil the whole photo no matter how good the rest of the photo is.

Since this is a thread discussing what makes a good badminton photography, I find it is crucial that the face of the one playing the birdie has to be in the photo, is there exception to this observation?

Joseph

[kwun]

Thanks Kwun!

That makes sense. As long as tilting the photo doesn't weaken the story line, it would give different flavor on multiple shots of similar view points, especially on nearside perpective angled shots. On more distance shots, specifically end-to-end shots, facing the net straight on, it would be like landscape photography, even a 1 degree tilting would spoil the whole photo no matter how good the rest of the photo is.

Since this is a thread discussing what makes a good badminton photography, I find it is crucial that the face of the one playing the birdie has to be in the photo, is there exception to this observation?

Joseph

face: again there is no right and wrong on this one. it depends on your taste and the purpose of the photo.

for myself, my rule is that the photo needs to be attractive. but that do not necessarily mean the face must be there. here is one of my recent favorite from a tournament:



i like it because it is very dynamic, and very graceful. and at the same time, give the view some context. to me, it makes badminton look very good. but it doesn't show the face.

however, this photo will probably not fly if you are shooting for newspaper. newspaper people need to have a face, the closer it is, the better. therefore you usually see very close up shots of players. they need that as people tend to like to see their idol's face when they open up the newspaper or the web article.

personally, i don't shoot that way. as long as it pleases my eyes, it is good. i like to show off the beauty of badminton. some of the best photos i have seen of badminton don't show faces.

again. there is no right and wrong. different artist, different style, pleases different audience.

[jyeung]

That's certainly a great photo, capturing the moment when her body is at the high stress point; with the birdie perfectly located against the black ceiling; the colors distribution of the venue that is not so monotonous as found in most badmimton clubs; the positioning of the opponent, etc. Could it be that the name on her shirt gave the photo the face?

[ctjcad]

Compression artificating with a touch of softness filter to make it presentable? Colours and exposure don't look. Look like they had the cellphone postprocessing treatment and/or taken with a 50 cent lens...
You can just go the website on the pics and choose the gallery of the currently held English National Championships

Having a hard time choosing the worst of the bunch Should probably move to the D7000 thread by now .

demo, imo, type of lens plays more a factor as well as lighting, hence affecting the ISO, than the body type..

[demolidor]

demo, imo, type of lens plays more a factor as well as lighting, hence affecting the ISO, than the body type..

Already found the "technical term" for it I believe since: oil painting (... effect from too high ISO). Of course I had already seen what a D7000 can do which is why it's even more amazing something like that can come out https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...full-exif=true

[ctjcad]

Already found the "technical term" for it I believe since: oil painting (... effect from too high ISO). Of course I had already seen what a D7000 can do which is why it's even more amazing something like that can come out https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...full-exif=true

..put in the same setup/scenario, i'm sure it can come out to something like that even from a 1dmk2 or similar type bodies..

[demolidor]

There is no excuse for coming up with shots like this https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...89470879601074 with a D7000 and that many events covered

But ... holding this event in an indoor cycling stadium where the least important part for lighting is the infield it sure is imaginable conditions were far from ideal or decent even.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6B2fYChFSY [obviously lightning was adjusted for the badminton event above, english national championships https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...2653781439586] https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...87376902254002

[om4r_s]

thanks for sharing..

another things..what your preferred/favorite lens from an angle for a badminton photography. i prefer 135mm and shoot from the corner of the court. for close up, 70-200 is my all-time favorite.

[ctjcad]

There is no excuse for coming up with shots like this https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...89470879601074 with a D7000 and that many events covered
...

i'm not that surprised..again, imo, it has more to do with the user, settings, lighting condition and lens than the camera body..
I can't really tell the lighting condition of that hall with the gyms where i usually shot baddy actions. But just by looking at the last pic of the overall gym, that one seems to have a bit more lighting than the local gyms here and OCBC.
Btw, do you have any other pics from the same tourney, with the same settings, which in your opinion have the same quality? Or those are just 1 or 2 samples?

[demolidor]

i'm not that surprised..again, imo, it has more to do with the user, settings, lighting condition and lens than the camera body..
I can't really tell the lighting condition of that hall with the gyms where i usually shot baddy actions. But just by looking at the last pic of the overall gym, that one seems to have a bit more lighting than the local gyms here and OCBC.
Btw, do you have any other pics from the same tourney, with the same settings, which in your opinion have the same quality? Or those are just 1 or 2 samples?

Erm ... click on the folder/link for Day Two? Yes I already mentioned many pages ago it was the photographer with a new toy going crazy for (too) high ISO imo, from a layman's pov anyway . Too aggressive noise reduction on the thing?

Model NIKON D7000
ISO 5000
Exposure 1/500 sec
Aperture 1.8

Random selection: https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...17380633196834
https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...88690764163714
https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...89102693609922

You can look for the finals folder as well somewhere around week 1 February. It has lighting good enough for tv broadcast so I will assume the pics should be better ...

slightly https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...85696788814674

Seriously a cellphone can take pics like this: https://picasaweb.google.com/stevecu...85923124951474

Model NIKON D7000
ISO 1600
Exposure 1/25 sec
Aperture 5.6
Focal Length 130mm

Different lense for Day 3 it seems ...

[ctjcad]

Erm ... click on the folder/link for Day Two? Yes I already mentioned many pages ago it was the photographer with a new toy going crazy for (too) high ISO imo, from a layman's pov anyway . Too aggressive noise reduction on the thing?
...

..so looking at all the pics (from Day 1-Final), what's your own conclusion?..

[ctjcad]

Erm ... click on the folder/link for Day Two? Yes I already mentioned many pages ago it was the photographer with a new toy going crazy for (too) high ISO imo, from a layman's pov anyway . Too aggressive noise reduction on the thing?..

demo, check this thread out http://www.badmintoncentral.com/foru...pen-2011-Final and the pics and see post #16. Check out the gears being used and all the settings. The dude even set up to ISO5000...
so is it really the camera or other factors?..you make the conclusion.

[drifit]

equipment and technique/skill must come together to produce good photos.
as either one failed, post process it. - this is the current way for "photographer" now.