Advice for boxing photography

glenfieldman

I was asked to shoot a boxing competition in a Dublin boxing club, because it would be my first time I am doing it FOC.
Has anybody on here ever shot a amateur boxing match, and if so what is the important things to be careful of. I know that flash should not be used encase it put off the boxers.

My gear is Canon 70D, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 10-20 2.8
Would it be essential to have a full frame camera

Balfey1972

Not essential to have a full frame camera.

The biggest challenge is going to be lighting. Try and pick a spot around the ring where there is some areas of light in the ring where you can focus on getting shots.
i have been to very few events where the lighting has been good.

I know it is stating the obvious but don't use flash.

The 24-70 will be your best bet once your are close to side of the canvas.
Experiment with the wide angle for crowd and atmosphere shots.

70-200 limits you when they are close to where you are ringside. and it's typical, put on the 24-70 they will be at the far corner and use the 70-200 and they will be on top of you.

It will be a trade off in noise v shutter speed. Try aim for 1/1000 and see what iso you have to push out. if too much drop it back.

Best of luck and enjoy.

Myksyk

Yep, all good advice from Balfey1972. You've got to stop the action without flash so wide open aperture, high shutter speed and upped ISO - with the price of noise. You'll have to shoot a few to see what balance of these settings gives you acceptable results. Zoom in on screen to review levels of noise and blur and reset as required.

magicbastarder

i've never photographed boxing, so i don't know what i'm talking about, but that never stopped me before. so what follows is speculation.

i wouldn't be so concerned about freezing the action pin sharp. a little blur - if it helps portray motion - may be your friend, and dropping back a couple of stops on shutter speed may be useful for you in terms of regaining ISO. that said, some people may like grainy shots in the context of boxing.
as mentioned by balfey, the lighting - not just the level, but the positioning - may not be your friend. you may be shooting up into the lights so they may be hard to avoid getting in the frame.

glenfieldman

Balfey1972 wrote: »

Not essential to have a full frame camera.

The biggest challenge is going to be lighting. Try and pick a spot around the ring where there is some areas of light in the ring where you can focus on getting shots.
i have been to very few events where the lighting has been good.

I know it is stating the obvious but don't use flash.

The 24-70 will be your best bet once your are close to side of the canvas.
Experiment with the wide angle for crowd and atmosphere shots.

70-200 limits you when they are close to where you are ringside. and it's typical, put on the 24-70 they will be at the far corner and use the 70-200 and they will be on top of you.

It will be a trade off in noise v shutter speed. Try aim for 1/1000 and see what iso you have to push out. if too much drop it back.

Best of luck and enjoy.

Very much appreciated

duckmusic

Obviously it depends on the lighting in the venue, but just to give you an idea I took this at f/4, iso 3200 and 1/400 shutter speed. Looking back I think I should have been using a faster shutter speed, they were moving incredibly fast. You can usually see one of the fighters faces better than the other so I'd try my best to focus on the the one that you can see, but its not always easy as they are constantly circling and changing directions.





Good luck with the photoshoot.

glenfieldman

Oh one more thing
RAW or jpeg
I prefer RAW for obvious reasons but a mate suggested jpeg for the faster shutter bursts

magicbastarder

duckmusic wrote: »

I took this at f/4, iso 3200 and 1/400 shutter speed. Looking back I think I should have been using a faster shutter speed, they were moving incredibly fast.

i'd argue that the slight blur enhances it, that if anything you should have gone slower?

magicbastarder

not that it's the same thing, but i took the camera to a track cycling event a few months back. the ones where the cyclists were frozen using short shutter speeds were very static compared to ones where there was blur.

Balfey1972

glenfieldman wrote: »

Oh one more thing
RAW or jpeg
I prefer RAW for obvious reasons but a mate suggested jpeg for the faster shutter bursts

I would use Jpeg for speed, just make sure to test and set your white balance.

Also worth keeping in mind that if the colour is not important, like a home international etc. try processing them in B&W, easier to compensate a bit more if there is alot of noise and it adds a bit of grit to the images.

Balfey1972

magicbastarder wrote: »

not that it's the same thing, but i took the camera to a track cycling event a few months back. the ones where the cyclists were frozen using short shutter speeds were very static compared to ones where there was blur.

Defo mess about with slow and fast shutter speeds and get a mix of shots.
You will want a mix of shots for your client. Also between rounds as they are spraying water etc in the corners watch out for some good shots from shooting low down.

Also neck strap around your hand or hand strap as it one or two of them come down where you are you will want to be shifting fast. Best not leaving the camera behind you.

CabanSail

Have not done this myself but it sounds like a good opportunity.

Have a look at some other Boxing images. See what works. In my mind I see Mono high contrast shots which are quite grainy

Some of the best stuff will come from a day when ISO was a lot more limited and there were just single shots.

I would shoot RAW unless you have to upload immediately. You should still have a burst but maybe a shorter one. The ability to use the full data set when processing would be my main priority. You may be different.

Borderfox

Shoot 1/500th or lower, start with the 10-20 for some keepers then change to the 24-70 for something a bit closer. Coming near the end of the fight back to the 10-20 and real low for the result (unless one is knocked out)

glenfieldman

Thanks for the advice lads.
The gig went perfect in my eyes and the clients

magicbastarder

any chance you could share any of the photos? or lessons learned?

glenfieldman

magicbastarder wrote: »

any chance you could share any of the photos? or lessons learned?

Will in time
I took 3,500 raw files, so I’m deleting the crap then I’ll hve to edit the RAW
So hopefully I should have something so show by Friday