Technical Difficulties
NOTE: This post was written over 3 days..it might not be grammatically correct.
I would be remiss if I didn't add a bit of technical background today.
As I go through the pictures from the Cheer Ltd. competition and I remember the parents that sat next to me with their own cameras I have to reflect on what I think I know.
Preface: Human eyes see light very differently than an electronic camera sensor. A professional photographer has moderately to significantly different expectations than most people with or without a camera.
The first thing I look at when entering a venue is the light. Without light, we cannot take pictures. Secondly, I look at the backgrounds. Are they colorful, cluttered, dark, bright....lots of variables to have to deal with. Sometimes moving a few feet one way or another can make or break a picture. Even to the point by moving to a different location altogether to change a background. In many cases, you have no option of changing locations and have to work with what you have been given. Third, the subject. Is it fast paced, slow, colorful, drab or highly detailed? Add all this up and you have a venue. An opportunity. For success....or failure.
In the 2,200+ images I took Sunday, I will end up with only a few hundred or less acceptable images. Of those few hundred I could probably narrow them down even more to about 10 that are really good and possibly 1 or 2 that I think are worthy of saying...yeah...I took that picture.
Is that good or bad? Well, I have vastly different expectations for an image than many people I know. To ME, a great image has a perfectly clear subject. The sharpness of the subject is so I can count the eyelashes or the way they tie their shoes. Anything less is essentially unacceptable TO ME. I want to see the facial expression and emotion for the task at hand. Cheer and dance have great expressions. But the serious difficulties at these events are they held indoors, with poor light for cameras. We professional photographers don't get to use cameras with flash. Parents can get away with it, we cannot.
Add to the dark venues the incredibly fast pace and active jumping, dancing, tumbles, basket tosses, scorpions and.....lions tigers and bears..oh my!
When a cheerleader or dancer begins a tumbling run, it's easy to put your focus points in him or her and take pictures. But when they jump to perform a flip, they are no longer in the middle of your frame and the camera refocuses on a point that is usually the bleachers in the back. Which is much different than what you wanted....that...is the reality of the sport. Add in a dozen other dancers running in front of each other, passing combining and separating and it makes for a terribly difficult situation to get the perfect picture. Remember, the camera doesn't know you are following a subject, it only looks for contrast where you point it.
Note: Most anyone can take a picture of a cheerleader standing waiting for her run. But I challenge you to get a shot of her coming out of her tucked back flip and be able to see her eyes as she spots the landing. Not once, but every time! I know I can't do it....yet. (After the first round of these pictures, I have a dozen girls coming out of their back flips spotting the landing. But because of the slow shutter speeds, their faces are blurred enough so the pictures are not usable. I have the timing, just not the equipment to capture it.)
Another fun part of shooting indoor with available light. The lights in gyms actually change color. From blue to reddish. Humans don't see the color shift too much. But cameras do and they see it well. My camera can take 8 pictures in one second. I saw the color shift several times. Red skin, blue skin...it's so much fun. Kind of like a Dr. Seuss book. I can't do it justice, but Guy Rhodes can..and did on this old link. www.sportsshooter.com
Sunday cheer pics coming in a few hours.
I would be remiss if I didn't add a bit of technical background today.
As I go through the pictures from the Cheer Ltd. competition and I remember the parents that sat next to me with their own cameras I have to reflect on what I think I know.
Preface: Human eyes see light very differently than an electronic camera sensor. A professional photographer has moderately to significantly different expectations than most people with or without a camera.
The first thing I look at when entering a venue is the light. Without light, we cannot take pictures. Secondly, I look at the backgrounds. Are they colorful, cluttered, dark, bright....lots of variables to have to deal with. Sometimes moving a few feet one way or another can make or break a picture. Even to the point by moving to a different location altogether to change a background. In many cases, you have no option of changing locations and have to work with what you have been given. Third, the subject. Is it fast paced, slow, colorful, drab or highly detailed? Add all this up and you have a venue. An opportunity. For success....or failure.
In the 2,200+ images I took Sunday, I will end up with only a few hundred or less acceptable images. Of those few hundred I could probably narrow them down even more to about 10 that are really good and possibly 1 or 2 that I think are worthy of saying...yeah...I took that picture.
Is that good or bad? Well, I have vastly different expectations for an image than many people I know. To ME, a great image has a perfectly clear subject. The sharpness of the subject is so I can count the eyelashes or the way they tie their shoes. Anything less is essentially unacceptable TO ME. I want to see the facial expression and emotion for the task at hand. Cheer and dance have great expressions. But the serious difficulties at these events are they held indoors, with poor light for cameras. We professional photographers don't get to use cameras with flash. Parents can get away with it, we cannot.
Add to the dark venues the incredibly fast pace and active jumping, dancing, tumbles, basket tosses, scorpions and.....lions tigers and bears..oh my!
When a cheerleader or dancer begins a tumbling run, it's easy to put your focus points in him or her and take pictures. But when they jump to perform a flip, they are no longer in the middle of your frame and the camera refocuses on a point that is usually the bleachers in the back. Which is much different than what you wanted....that...is the reality of the sport. Add in a dozen other dancers running in front of each other, passing combining and separating and it makes for a terribly difficult situation to get the perfect picture. Remember, the camera doesn't know you are following a subject, it only looks for contrast where you point it.
Note: Most anyone can take a picture of a cheerleader standing waiting for her run. But I challenge you to get a shot of her coming out of her tucked back flip and be able to see her eyes as she spots the landing. Not once, but every time! I know I can't do it....yet. (After the first round of these pictures, I have a dozen girls coming out of their back flips spotting the landing. But because of the slow shutter speeds, their faces are blurred enough so the pictures are not usable. I have the timing, just not the equipment to capture it.)
Another fun part of shooting indoor with available light. The lights in gyms actually change color. From blue to reddish. Humans don't see the color shift too much. But cameras do and they see it well. My camera can take 8 pictures in one second. I saw the color shift several times. Red skin, blue skin...it's so much fun. Kind of like a Dr. Seuss book. I can't do it justice, but Guy Rhodes can..and did on this old link. www.sportsshooter.com
Sunday cheer pics coming in a few hours.
Labels: cheer, learning, on location, opportunities
posted by Brent Rust at
10:02 AM
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