Wrestling

sandiphete

New member
Hello. I have a D5100. I have been using it for several years to take pics of my son's wrestling tournaments, but have not been happy with the results. They don't seem very sharp or they're too dark. When it's my son wrestling, I admit, I usually switch to my phone for video so he can review the match later. So, his club is having their tournament this weekend, and I have been asked to take photos during the tournament. They aren't expecting professional quality photos, but I would like to produce some nice pictures. Suggestions? Advice? Settings?

Thank you!

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Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

The lighting is probably pretty low. You may want to get a powerful flash unit.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Wrestling is very hard to shoot. The lighting is always terrible, the action can be very fast, and editing plays a huge part.

Ideally I'm wanting to be at least a 1/1000 of a second on shutter.

Glass, you need fast glass. A lens that not only lets in a lot of light f/2.8, but a lens that can focus quickly.

Lastly, ISO. Because you know that you need the fast shutter speed to capture the action, and you will probably shoot wide open, or nearly wide open, the only think you can do is now crank up the ISO to get what you need for exposure. Depending on the lighting, you may really be pushing the capability of that sensor, but if everyone is aware of that then so be it and damn the ISO noise.

Really lastly now, editing! Cleaning up the photo, adjusting the exposure, and cleaning up the noise are all going to come in post. Shooting raw will give you the greatest leniency to adjust.

Here is an example of before and after with what can be done with a raw file. The cutting off of the feet is bad, but it's intended to be an example shot.

https://capturedimagesphotography.shootproof.com/gallery/1397487/home
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
I have a Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6. Not sure if lenses can be rented locally.

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If you are in the US, rent from borrowlenses.com or similar. I rent from my local camera store because they are available, but wouldn’t hesitate to use one of the popular online rental companies for something like this.


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nikonpup

Senior Member
I have a Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6. Not sure if lenses can be rented locally.

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if nothing local (it would help if you filled out date about yourself) rent on line. Usually they will have the lens to you ASAP (overnight or they may have a dealer near you) and gives you time to shoot with it before the match. Tamron makes a very good 70-200 f2.8.
 

TKC_D500

Senior Member
I struggled with wrestling. Most of the matches we attended frowned on flashes and quite a few outright prohibited them. My answer was a bit easier as there are several local places to rent in the DFW area. My favorite was the “mortgage the kids honey, I’m buying a lens” 200mm f2. I was never able to purchase one, but I did rent it a few times. My recommendation mirrors what the others have said. Try to rent a 70-200mm f2.8 and give it a try. You might just end up buying one after you do.


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sandiphete

New member
if nothing local (it would help if you filled out date about yourself) rent on line. Usually they will have the lens to you ASAP (overnight or they may have a dealer near you) and gives you time to shoot with it before the match. Tamron makes a very good 70-200 f2.8.
I am using tapatalk. I can't figure out how to fill out tree data from here.

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spb_stan

Senior Member
How close will you be, and what is the light level. If I was given this assignment, I would go look at the venue to see the light levels at the time of day of the event. Take a photo with the fastest lens you have if you do not have a light meter, to get an idea of what ISO is needed for the fastest aperture you have available. Wrestling in not terribly fast so a shutter speed in manual exposure mode of 1/500 should be enough speed for HS level. College is faster.
Take all the shots in RAW NEF format so selective noise reduction can be done in post processing

if you are 20 feet away or less, f2.8 will present depth of field problems but whole bodies should be in the DOF with a 200mm lens at about 30 feet. f/4 is about as slow an aperture as you could get by with in a high school gym. There will be a big difference in light and shadow on the mat than the overall scene so use spot metering mode and single point center AF point. Pre-focus on the center of the mat so your AF time is shorter on whatever lens you use. A 70-200 2.8 is a good choice for focusing speed and aperture. Any other focusing point other than dead center will slow down the AF and end up with fewer keepers in low light.
If you have problems with enough light for proper exposure, don't slow the shutter to get exposure, but let is underexpose. Modern sensors are mostly ISO invariant when means there is no difference in IQ underexposed using lower ISO and boosting brightness in post processing than exposing correctly in the camera, but the former way allows keeping the shutter speed up for freezing action. They will look dark in the monitor but you can boost shadows 3-5 stops in post processing with modern Nikon cameras. That is one important reason to have Nikon over Canon sensors which do not have ISO invariance, if you had Canon and needed to boost brightness in post, you would end up with a noise mess with banding and color artifacts. Use no more shutter speed than you actually need however. Raising it to 1/2000 will result in frozen action but too much noise to be usable.
 
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