How To | Photograph Competitive Swimming

[@smdconcepts5762]

Great video. Got me started with covering my teams swim meets

[@TonyJulienDesignVideo]

This was amazing. So inspiring

[@WexPhotoVideo]

Thank you so much!

[@NikCan66]

Great tips and tricks

[@WexPhotoVideo]

Thanks for tuning in

[@NikCan66]

@@WexPhotoVideo so enjoyable I will re watch

[@davet3530]

Great tips Eddie and insightful - thanks. When you say you use a button for face detection, could you elaborate on that a bit more please. There is so much customisation available on the R3 (and other Canon models) and its always helpful to see how someone like yourself sets up the camera.

[@eddiekeogh9752]

I have the subject detection turned off in the autofocus settings but I have set a back button so it comes on when I press it. This is configured via the Q (Customize Quick Controls) button. Go in there choose the button you’d like to use for it and then choose subject detection on. Im doing this off top of my head as Im away on holiday in Corfu. Hopefully Ive explained it well enough. Cheers, Eddie.

[@davet3530]

@@eddiekeogh9752 Thank you Eddie.

[@WexPhotoVideo]

Amazing how little time you get to capture athletes at full race speed.

[@stubones]

Its all pretty easy except for front crawl. We shoot up to three or four lanes for a race, but when they older lads are doing front crawl sprints all you see is a wall of "foam" so its often a write off. We have two days of swimming to shoot weekend of next... its hard work, on our feet for up to ten hours and they heats are relentless, just one after another....

[@hanscnilsson7136]

Enjoyed viewing this episode ⭐️ As a Nikon Pro I use the Z8 for this kind of event shoots. But of course with the same lens lineup with a Z in front 😊

[@WexPhotoVideo]

Glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@stubones]

I shoot a lot of swimming using these techniques. Unfortunately its always indoors under terrible lights so always high ISO (and you need at least 2/3rds exposure compensation to get the water a nice bright blue), sometimes up to 25600.... and we have to contend with swimmers, judges and other officials walking up and down the side of the pool, all the while ensuring we don't fall in with thousands of £££ worth of gear... Although we always just a 70-200 f/2.8 and put the camera into crop mode for reach since we shoot jpg for onsite print sales and don't edit.

[@WexPhotoVideo]

Thank you for your insights!

[@stubones]

@@WexPhotoVideo It took me two days to recover from the last weekend job... Ten hour a day on my feet on the side of the pool with my R3 and 70-200. Got some great shots though :)

[@whiterock1865]

Thank you for the video. But I admit I am always a bit dumbfounded when I see people putting their $13,000 lenses on concrete and I’m particularly talking about the foot without anything in between it and the floor. I guess I’m just much more protective but I always have a plate on mine cause I’d much rather replace the $30 plate than a $200 plus foot.

[@WexPhotoVideo]

Totally agree-lens protection is crucial, especially with high-end gear. Your tip about the plate is a great one.

[@christill]

I feel like seeing all this heavy and bulky gear is a great advertisement for Micro Four Thirds. I really don’t see the benefit of this stuff when 99% of people won’t be able to tell the difference anyway. But in terms of the actual photography and the tips themselves, I thought it was really good.

[@davidsherrington59]

That's why you're not a pro photographer. Pros shoot full frame for dof

[@christill]

@@davidsherrington59 Pros use MFT. Amateurs use full frame, and the other way round.

[@christill]

@@davidsherrington59 That’s a pretty silly thing to say.

[@whiterock1865]

@@christill I happen to be a micro 4/3 and a full frame user and I think if given proper light as in not indoor sports, I would fully agree with you that the 25 megapixel G9 Mark two and Olympus cameras are pretty great. And my Olympus 40-150 mm 2.8 is about a quarter of the size of my full frame RF 100 to 300 F 2.8. At about 1/8 the price. The newer micro 4/3 camera bodies are about the same size as the full frame, but the lenses are by far much more compact and less expensive if you’re talking the pro level stuff. Regarding corporate events and indoor events where you can’t use flash full frame is definitely gonna do better for you and I know this from experience as I’ve tried both to see if I could get away with micro 4/3. Also, I will say that the EL-1 camera flash from Canon is the best flash I’ve ever used to get accurate exposure. The other brands are pretty good, but I’ve never found one that did as well as this one and I know Panasonic still has more of an afterthought with on-camera flashes. So each tool has its pros and cons, but full frame given the range of lighting circumstances, the Bokeh and developed platform for sports photography is likely superior in an all around sense. But I agree that given proper lighting, it would be very difficult to tell one versus the other if using top end lenses on both platforms.

[@christill]

@@whiterock1865 Thanks for your insight. Definitely agree. And how big would the photo be on a website? 1 megapixel or something? And the other thing that's so bizarre to me is that MFT was designed to be a professional system. So if it's good enough for professionals, how are they not dominating sales charts for beginner and enthusiast cameras? And then you have Taylor Swift using one, and somehow that hasn't lead to them being the top selling camera company? None of it really makes sense. You would think everything was aligned for them to do well. This kind of snobbery seems to have in my view ruined fun in the photographic world. No Nikon 1. No Pentax Q. A struggling MFT.