It is currently the hottest time of summer, which is the time when most swimming and diving competitions are held in various places. Knowing the proper techniques and precautions can help photography enthusiasts take great photos of swimming and diving competitions.
The moment Sun Yang won the championship Jiang Wenhua Photographed
Sprinting towards the goal Jiang Wenhua Photographed
Women's high platform diving Jiang Wenhua Photographed
Getting ready to take off Jiang Wenhua When taking photos
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the camera is set to
white balance automatic. The sensitivity is determined according to the body performance and light conditions. The general sensitivity setting is between ISO200-ISO400 for outdoor shooting, and half of the indoor shooting needs to be set above ISO2000. Using high-speed continuous shooting mode, the shutter speed is no less than 1/1000 second. A higher shutter speed will produce clearer expressions, and the shapes of condensed water splashes and water droplets will be more vivid and interesting. Just use a 200mm or 400mm lens, and the anti-shake function needs to be turned on. When shooting swimming and diving competitions held in indoor venues, since the light is relatively dark, the lens aperture can be set to the maximum to ensure the shutter speed. Due to the reflective characteristics of the water surface, the contrast between light and dark in the picture is often large. In order to ensure that there is enough room for adjustment in the later stage of the photo, it is necessary to shoot in the RAW format as much as possible.
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Focus selection
Athletes in swimming events mainly rely on the rapid movements of their limbs to gain forward speed, causing a lot of splashes. If you use autofocus, the focus point will often fall on water splashes or water droplets, causing the athlete's face and eyes to be out of focus. When shooting multiple athletes, you can choose multi-point focus or group focus. When shooting a single athlete, it is best to use single-point focus, with the focus point on the athlete's face.
When shooting diving events, whether it is a single jump or a double jump, you can use to manually focus . Select group focus or multi-point focus for the focus area.
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Camera position selection:
When shooting swimming competitions, the long side camera position of the swimming pool is suitable for shooting athletes’ side faces and sides. For example, it shows athletes jumping into the water, backstroke posture, and athletes' breathing expressions during freestyle competition. The wide-side camera position of the swimming pool is suitable for shooting the front angle of the athletes' faces and eyes, as well as the bulging muscles of the shoulders during jumping into the water and competition. The beautiful posture of butterfly swimming is best shot from the wide side of the swimming pool. The high-angle overhead camera is suitable for shooting backstroke events and butterfly swimming with arms stretched out.
When shooting diving events, the side camera position of the platform and springboard is suitable for showing the athlete's body shape and the integrity and coherence of the competition movements. It is also suitable for photographing the clear outline of the side of an athlete's face, and for photographing arc-shaped splashes formed by water droplets thrown from the hair. The overall performance of the picture is better. The camera position facing the diving platform and springboard is suitable for showing the athlete's facial expressions, eyes and arm movements stretching in the air before taking off. It can also show the athlete's horizontally spreading arms and legs together during the descent, and the cross shape effect formed by tightening the toes. better.
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Key shooting scenes
Generally, swimmers take deep breaths before jumping into the water, their preparation movements, flying into the water, paddling postures, head-up breathing expressions, and various movements and expressions at the edge of the pool after reaching the finish line. These are the key scenes when shooting. When shooting swimming footage, it’s best to be able to see the athletes’ faces. The various strange shapes of water splashes, water curtains, and water droplets around the athletes’ faces are also very interesting to shoot. Swimming seems easy to shoot, but in fact it is very difficult to produce a film, which requires continuous practice and improvement.
In the diving event, the expressions of athletes before taking off, the prescribed preparatory movements before taking off, aerial movements, the moment of entering the water, the moment of coming out of the water, and the expressions of flushing and waiting for results by the pool, etc., deserve special attention.When shooting athletes’ aerial action scenes, it is best to have a platform or springboard element as a foil, which helps to reflect the characteristics of the competition event, the sense of space in the photo, and the atmosphere of the competition. When shooting diving events, it is particularly emphasized that "the shutter is always started before the athlete's movements."
Special reminder
Pay attention to sun protection when shooting outdoors. Due to the need to protect athletes during competitions in the venue, the temperature setting cannot be too low. Therefore, the temperature and humidity in the museum are relatively high, making it easy to sweat, so you need to bring a sweat towel. After the shooting, the equipment should be put into the drying box as soon as possible. Swimming and diving competitions are exciting and can capture a lot of content, but consume a lot of memory cards and batteries, so you need to bring a few more cards and batteries.
The article was published in " China Photography News "·2022·Issue 59·Page 7
Author: Jiang Wenhua
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