Boxing clever ??

[Bigbill]

Hello from Sunny but chilly Sheffy,
Now then,i,m covering an upcoming Boxing tournament soon,,,,quite a big one,lasts for 4 days,,,,
thing is ive never done Boxing,obviously flash will be a no no during the fights,,,and the action can be quite fast,,,
Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated,,,,,

Shine On

bill stewardson

[picsfor]

Plenty of memory cards and drive set to highest frame rate possible. One tog i know has been known to shoot 2000 frames in an evening...
Maybe a second battery as well then 
Test out your ISO by the ring to see how high you have to go.

Shoot in JPG i believe is the norm for sporting events!

Oh yes- finally. Do not use a 5D MkII - no good for it at all  (though the 24-105 lens it comes with is quite good)

[Oldboy]

Hello from Sunny but chilly Sheffy,
Now then,i,m covering an upcoming Boxing tournament soon,,,,quite a big one,lasts for 4 days,,,,
thing is ive never done Boxing,obviously flash will be a no no during the fights,,,and the action can be quite fast,,,
Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated,,,,,

Shine On

bill stewardson

They use quite powerful lights on the ring so you shouldn't have a problem. 

[Graham]

    I'VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE SO I INSIST YOU DISREGARD EVERTHING I SAY.
  Now then. 
                 Assuming your "Ringside" your going to be shooting up towards the ceiling where all those bright lights are, so watch your metering. The lighting will at least be consistant so I would sujest spot metering off the fighters faces or depending on the colour and brightness of the ring floor take a reading of there and lock it down in manual.
                If you want one of those classy shots of a boxer collecting a big one full in the face with beautifully backlit sweat spraying in all directions, then I would sugest a shutter speed of around 1000th sec.
                I suspect your going to have to wind up your iso to "11"! (Or at least untill it starts to scream.)
                Unless your absolutley confident in your white ballance setting (and to some point your exposures) I'd shoot raw and get a Tesco's carrier bag full of cards.
                Are you allowed to use flash for the "And the winner is..." moment?
                I imagine it's going to be very hot so take lots of water.
                Take something to wipe your camera and lens down with, there's going to be a lot of sweat (and if your lucky blood.) flying about... and it wo'nt all be yours!
                Are you shooting for anyone? Experiment with slow shutter speeds for a bit of "Arty" blur.
                Enjoy it and lets see some pics.
                           All the best.  Graham.

[Bigbill]

Hewwo from Spring like Sheffy,,,,
Thanks you guys,,most appreciated,,,,
I will indeed be ringside,and was thinking Jpeg for quicker frame rate,However,Graham has got me thinking,,,,,(good to see the Rams picking up),
Primes will be my lens choice,50 and 85 1.8s,,,,,Old Boy,,yahh,,lighting may actualy be very good,,,,,this all runs from March 10th to 13th,,,,,
even i should get some good shots over that length of time,,,,thanks again,but,,,,,,TESCO carrier bag !!!!! please,,,Waitrose only !!
i will post some stuff as soon as i can !!

Shine On

[Forseti]

If the lighting is consistent (as for such an event it should be) then there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to shoot jpegs Bill. Simply take a test shot at the start of the event, adjust the white balance for this image later on in Lightroom/Photoshop whatever, and then sync this WB setting to all the other shots. Worth considering if nothing else. 

[Bigbill]

Hewwo from Shivery Sheffy,,,,,

Well,,i went and spent 3 days trying to learn how to snap Boxing,,,,,and i learnt a lot,lighting terrible,,,,space cramped,action lightning quick,,,,,,ISO 2000 minimum,,,f2 required,,,,,Primes the way to go,
And,,,,its VERY very difficult,my D300 and D80 just arent good enough under the conditions encountered( flash a big no no),,,,,however,a shot is now in my gallery,,,,would be good to see others efforts at Pugilism,,,,,
a few other more experienced togs appeared and were similarly down cast,,,,i would say though that this sort of event is a great place to get you thinking and trying stuff,,,,
Next time i see a top class Boxing shot i will be very impressed.

Shine On

[picsfor]

I can understand that you struggled with the D80 Bill but the D300? This has always been considered a good low lighter after the D3...

I'll bet you'll do a much better job next time round although as said, i'm impressed with the posted shot considering it's taken with the D80.