Wasn't quite sure where to put this - hopefully this is the right forum.
I don't do a whole lot of sports photography, but I have an opportunity to go a little nuts so I'd be interested in getting some feedback on some ideas. One of my other interests is curling, and I've kind of established myself as the club photographer. We held a bonspiel last summer which I shot, and the images came out... fine. The club was very happy with them, but I'm kind of a perfectionist so maybe I'm being overly critical. I did the "action" part of the event with available light (overhead flourescents) only, because I was told the players would be very sensitive to strobes going off. The light's about what you would expect from a bunch of industrial fluorescent lighting. (This is what I shot last year - Flickr album). Generally kind of flat and unflattering light, darkened faces.
I'm going to shoot the same event this year, and I know I can do better. I want to do better! I have several months to think this through (and many league nights to experiment ahead of time). I've read through Strobist's old posts on shooting local basketball, and I'm thinking a lot of the basics would be pretty similar with the one added wrinkle of trying to make the strobes as unobtrusive to the players as possible. I'm thinking either clamp a strobe to the glass at either end of the rink or some tall light stands, pointed down at the ice and then... flag the light so it doesn't carry down the rink?
I'm willing to put some money and effort into this.
I don't do a whole lot of sports photography, but I have an opportunity to go a little nuts so I'd be interested in getting some feedback on some ideas. One of my other interests is curling, and I've kind of established myself as the club photographer. We held a bonspiel last summer which I shot, and the images came out... fine. The club was very happy with them, but I'm kind of a perfectionist so maybe I'm being overly critical. I did the "action" part of the event with available light (overhead flourescents) only, because I was told the players would be very sensitive to strobes going off. The light's about what you would expect from a bunch of industrial fluorescent lighting. (This is what I shot last year - Flickr album). Generally kind of flat and unflattering light, darkened faces.
I'm going to shoot the same event this year, and I know I can do better. I want to do better! I have several months to think this through (and many league nights to experiment ahead of time). I've read through Strobist's old posts on shooting local basketball, and I'm thinking a lot of the basics would be pretty similar with the one added wrinkle of trying to make the strobes as unobtrusive to the players as possible. I'm thinking either clamp a strobe to the glass at either end of the rink or some tall light stands, pointed down at the ice and then... flag the light so it doesn't carry down the rink?
I'm willing to put some money and effort into this.