Thanks to @Krs_2007 for some pointers on shooting wrestling. Even though I have plenty of experience to have figured it out, why reinvent the wheel. So a big thank you to krs_2007.
I went in armed with my D600, 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 2500, exposure compensation +2, 1/500th. I knew from having been in many high school gymnasiums that the lighting is bad, but this school had really bad and no outside lighting to help bring up the ambient light. Fired off a couple test shots and it was bad - too dim. I then kicked up the ISO 3200 and that got me to a point where the images were still dim, but knew a raw file would allow me to pull things back. From there it took careful positioning mat-side because there were areas in the gym where light just didn't seem to reach.
The D600 was quite amazing and the image noise was amazing well controlled. To clean up the image I used the luminance slider. I then used Topaz Detail / Highlight or Shadow combined with masks to to pull back detail on the wrestlers. To finish I used a High Pass filter overlaid to accentuate the stronger lines in the photo.
What I learned - A seated position mat-side works well, but don't be sitting along the circle of the wrestling area as it will put you too close even at 70mm. The best position I found was on the physical corner of the mat. It gets you far enough away to use 70mm when they are close up and the 200mm will pull them in to you when they are on the far side of the circle. When in the seated position you need to be ready to flop down on the mat for a different perspective as well as needing that angle for when the wrestlers are down on the mat.
After all that long winded info... here are the photos.
I went in armed with my D600, 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 2500, exposure compensation +2, 1/500th. I knew from having been in many high school gymnasiums that the lighting is bad, but this school had really bad and no outside lighting to help bring up the ambient light. Fired off a couple test shots and it was bad - too dim. I then kicked up the ISO 3200 and that got me to a point where the images were still dim, but knew a raw file would allow me to pull things back. From there it took careful positioning mat-side because there were areas in the gym where light just didn't seem to reach.
The D600 was quite amazing and the image noise was amazing well controlled. To clean up the image I used the luminance slider. I then used Topaz Detail / Highlight or Shadow combined with masks to to pull back detail on the wrestlers. To finish I used a High Pass filter overlaid to accentuate the stronger lines in the photo.
What I learned - A seated position mat-side works well, but don't be sitting along the circle of the wrestling area as it will put you too close even at 70mm. The best position I found was on the physical corner of the mat. It gets you far enough away to use 70mm when they are close up and the 200mm will pull them in to you when they are on the far side of the circle. When in the seated position you need to be ready to flop down on the mat for a different perspective as well as needing that angle for when the wrestlers are down on the mat.
After all that long winded info... here are the photos.