fortunately for Canon, they have the relatively affordable 135 f/2 though I think the ideal lens for badminton action shots is the 200 f/1.8 in order to have maximum blurring of the background. regarding positioning etc, this year's Singapore Open was the first time i had photographed a sports event , however, i noticed that there were certain set pieces that you could anticipate in advance... the easiest was the men's doubles jump smash.... when you see a high lift from the opposing side, you have 1-1.5 seconds to prepare to shoot the rear man doing a jump smash. That should be enough to get the rear man in focus. Similarly for men's singles... you can use your 'badminton experience' and figure that sooner or later, the opponent is going to put a high clear into the forehand or backhand rear corner. At this higher level, it's possible that the player will smash the return even if in the rear corner. So just prefocus into the backhand or forehand corner and watch the match. When the opponent does a high clear into the corners, look into the viewfinder and fire away to capture the jump smash (or drop shot disguised as a smash) As a bonus, when the player is smashing from the rear corners, this means the net is further away and not so distracting in the photo.
to all photographers what do u guys think. what's the best looking action posture that we can capture on court. can be a forehand smash, backhand drop shot or peforming some net tricks etc etc..... for me. the best looking action posture would be a player who's peforming a crosscourt smash from his/her backhand side. like this shot which was taken by ants in the singapore open 05. i like that shot not just because she's jiang yanjiao hehe.. that's really nice indeed! it's funny that. that kinda posture can't be found from all players. somebody can perform it beautifully. somebody can't!
high jumpsmashing pose with legs, waist, shoulder, elbow, arm all cocked ready to unload for me please
Kung fu master Sigit is really good. My favourite posture are: 1) The Korea player jumped very high, with limbs fully extended preparing for the smash. 2) Xie Xingfang is very beautiful, we can see her face after she hit the shuttlecock. 3) Kellogg's facial muscle is tense, good expression.
Photo like forehand stroke with fully extended elbow is less preferably to me, although shuttlecock can be seen.
Strokbill, Is the Sigit photo taken by primes Canon 200mm f/1.8? The quality is very good indeed. Which model of carmera and setting for the photo you've used?
Ok went to look at the exposure details The Sigit shot is f/1.8 1/1250 ISO 1250. This was my first setting as I was still figuring out how to shoot badminton photos and didn't know what shutter speed was needed for a jump smash. Now I go fastest 1/1000 which means f/1.8 1/1000 ISO 1000. For the technically minded, sometimes I overexpose by 1/3 stop if i feel it's necessary, which means f/1.8 1/800 ISO1000 because it helps with dynamic range (that's what I do sometimes, may not be right, just works for me).
I use manual mode because the artificial lighting is constant and never changes, while the auto mode can be fooled by an all-white shirt or an all-black shirt. The 200 f/1.8 is discontinued, Once there is sufficient demand, Canon will re-release the 200 f/1.8 sooner or later, maybe with even faster AF speed?
taken durin the singapore open last year. this year thought be linesman got better chance to take but so busy that didnt really get any good shots. taken at ISO800w 180/2.8 nikkor on a monopod. manual exposure...like hat storkbill says, the lighting never chance, wB also.
Oh my god... the second posture is nice... I like it very much.. Football has a super beast, ie Didier Drogba from Chelsea Now badminton has a super beast as well..
A little question for storkbill. Did you removed the net or is it only because it is out of focus that we don't see it? We see it just a little bit and I'm not very used to this. By the way, very nice picture. Hope to be able to take pictures like that any time soon!
hi Snowblad, welcome to the forum. I don't think sotrkbill remove the net. it look because of out of focus (outside DoF).
