FIRST Photography: How do YOU cover it?

[geeknerd99]

**Now, I realize that shooting a digital point-and-shoot and DSLR are two completely different schools of photography (Let us pray for those still shooting film). Still, other than creative control, the results are similar enough. **

After meeting a few photographers at VCU, I became inspired to meet more FIRST photographers and maybe even create a small CD community of photographers. Thus, the following:

For you photographers out there, tell a little about yourselves:

How prominent is your role as a photographer on your team?

What do you use?

What subjects are you good at shooting? (Robots on field, Candids, group photos, etc.)

What subjects do you prefer to shoot?

When at competitions, where do you shoot from?

Anything you'd like tips with?

*EDIT*: WILL YOU BE IN ATLANTA?

(Any other things you'd like add)

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With that done, I'll start.
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When not doing anything at competition or in the shop, I take photos on my own. Otherwise, unless I've been told to go take photos of things, I work on the robot. Robot First, Camera Second.

I share my equipment with me dad, so I've got plenty of gear that stays at home (macro lenses, etc.), but the following I'm planning to bring to Atlanta: 2 Digital Rebel XTs, Tamron 28-75 f2.8, Canon 70-200 f4, Tamron 17-35 f2.8-4, Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, 420EX Speedlite, 4-5 gigs of memory. As you can tell, I'm taking this perhaps too seriously.

At VCU, I shot candids on and off the field, as well as action on the field. As the competition went on, I got better at shooting action on field as I learned good angles and such. In the pits, mostly documentary and candid, just like in the shop.

I prefer candids and candid portraiture. Frankly, a non-moving robot tends to be quite boring. However, people at a FIRST competition or during build season....not quite the same story.

As for tips, I just want to meet fellow photographers on CD. Here's my Flickr. I've got a dedicated "Robotics" photoset. Feel free to look through the rest, of course.

Well, lets see where this thread goes. I seem to have a knack for starting threads like this that flop.

[irishninja]

How prominent is your role as a photographer on your team?
I'm probably the second most recognizable person with camera after Nathan Keyes.

What do you use?
Canon Powershot SD200

What subjects are you good at shooting? (Robots on field, Candids, group photos, etc.)
Almost anything.

What subjects do you prefer to shoot?
Things in midair.

When at competitions, where do you shoot from?
Anywhere.

Anything you'd like tips with?
Yes, my camera can't adjust for the light levels inside the NY Regional. with Flash on, it focuses on near objects and makes the field darker, and w/o flash its too blurry and still dark.

[fimmel]

How prominent is your role as a photographer on your team?
Last year mike wast the team photographer but he is also our main machinest so my dad bought a camera and now my dad and i are the team photographers.

What do you use?
A Nikon D50

What subjects are you good at shooting? (Robots on field, Candids, group photos, etc.)
Almost anything

What subjects do you prefer to shoot?


When at competitions, where do you shoot from?
Anywhere

Anything you'd like tips with?
good angles of the field

soon (in a couple of months) i will create a gallery on the green team website.

[MrForbes]

How prominent is your role as a photographer on your team?

I'm not really on the team! I just happen to be around the team and I like taking pics...and I put them on my web page.

What do you use?

3 yr old Canon S200, fits in my pocket


What subjects are you good at shooting? (Robots on field, Candids, group photos, etc.)

Good at or what do I waste a lot of shots on? I like takign pics in the pits, they come out ok generally


What subjects do you prefer to shoot?

I'd like to get more action shots, but it's not easy


When at competitions, where do you shoot from?

Pits/stands.


Anything you'd like tips with?

Not really, I have some ideas for what I need to work on. I think that getting good action shots of the playfield requires a much bigger lens than I have on my little camera, for one thing.


http://www.selectric.org/nerds/2006ca/

http://www.selectric.org/nerds/2006az/

http://www.selectric.org/nerds/svherald20060329.jpg

http://www.selectric.org/nerds/svherald20060329a.jpg

show some of my results. The paper thing was totally unexpected...the teacher/adviser/coach on our team told the paper that I had some pics, and so they called me asking for them....


WILL YOU BE IN ATLANTA?

yes!!!!!!

[Rick TYler]

I just want to toss out two ideas for the young camera gadget nuts in the forum.

1. Film has a much wider range of colors than digital. We gave up a lot when we abandoned Kodachrome.

2. The photographer matters a lot more than the gadgets. If you have an eye for composition, it doesn't much matter what kind of camera you have. If you doubt that, take a look at the WWII combat pics, nearly all taken with TLR cameras, or photojournalism from the 50's. Lots of incredible pics using cameras that frequently didn't even have built-in light meters.

It's fun to play with the hardware, but that's not what makes memorable images.

[KenWittlief]

I only have one comment: big lens - wide F stops.

Whether you are shooting digital or film, you need a lens with at least an F2.8 (35mm SLR equavelent) to be able to shoot ambient light photos on the playfield and in the pits. ASA 800 film works well, or if your digital camera response is adjustable set it accordingly. Keep your flash off whenever possible, otherwise the background in almost all your photos will be black.

At most events the lighting is marginal, if you want to zoom in your lens for distant shots you will need a tripod.

I borrowed a Kodak Z7590 5Mpixel w/10:1 optical zoom and was pleased with the shots I was able to get at the FLR this year.

This thread really needs photos to illustrate :^)

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

This thread really needs photos to illustrate :^)

yup...here are a few from the Davis regional:




1. Action shot, handheld camera with too small of lens, flash off, zoomed in, result is blurry but it was good enough for our local paper to use!




2. Pit action shot, team 1671 had their robot completely apart on Thursday morning, with team members strewn across the floor working on different subassemblies. I didn't notice till later that the General was overseeing the troops!



3. Another one from the pits Thursday morning, I was trying to get each team either working or standing by their robot. 114 was a great subject...nice team outfits, neat robot.




4. Our team being intervied by two judges, and explaining the various features of the robot.

Comments/critisism/suggestions welcome!

[Bur540]

How prominent is your role as a photographer on your team?
I am the main photographer on the team

What do you use?
Canon EOS 20D
18-55mm canon lens
28-300mm tamron lens f3.5-6.3

What subjects are you good at shooting? (Robots on field, Candids, group photos, etc.)
I am good at shooting all subjects

What subjects do you prefer to shoot?
I like the action, robot shots

When at competitions, where do you shoot from?
Anywhere allowed

Anything you'd like tips with?

[Matt Royek]

How prominent is your role as a photographer on your team? Pretty large, I'm one of 3 that take pictures, the other two being Doug and Kyle.

What do you use?
Canon FT QL 35MM Camera with normal lens and Telephoto zoom lens. I usually pack higher speed film, with at least 400, but going for 800 for larger and more prominent shots.

What subjects are you good at shooting? (Robots on field, Candids, group photos, etc.)
I mostly take pictures of the robots on the field and the guys in the pits/booths on field, and have taken only a few candids and groups.

What subjects do you prefer to shoot?
On field competitions and robots

When at competitions, where do you shoot from?
I try to get the best vantage point usually from the stand and get a telephoto lens which allows for more coverage of the field and less light disruptions

Anything you'd like tips with?
Probably focusing. That's about the hardest thing, but I've got it down to an almost exacting science.

*EDIT*: WILL YOU BE IN ATLANTA?
Heck yeah!

[Carol]

I am usually volunteering so am not the "official" photographer, but I did get some good shots this weekend at Philly. I use a Canon Rebel SLR Digital which I am still learning to use. To get shots of the stands was very hard; I set the camera to ISO 800 (no flash) but they were still somewhat blurry - the first attachment is when the Volunteer of the Year Award was announced (Bill Enslen - a mentor on the team) and is reduced in size in order to get it to upload.


The second is my favorite and was taken from the sidelines with the camera on Auto - the flash went off but I don't know if it had any effect. I took several in a row to get the balls right at the goal (again, reduced to fit as an attachment.)

Any hints on how to get the low light shots and not get blurry?

Another question - how do you get the pictures pasted into the note?

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Carol

Any hints on how to get the low light shots and not get blurry?

Tripod would be your best solution. Things that move will be blurred, but that will be part of the action.

Letting the flash fire for shots like that comes out good sometimes. The flash will freeze the subject, but if the shutter stays open you will also get some blurring from the frozen-part showing the motion along with the detail.

[geeknerd99]

*Edit: Oh wow. Ken posted a quick and easy answer while I was writing this guide! Tripod works, but is a pain in the neck on field. Usually. If you can get one and don't mind hauling one around, tripod is the best solution. Use the below guide for handheld shooting*

Originally Posted by Carol

Any hints on how to get the low light shots and not get blurry?

I can't tell from your reply if you're using the original Rebel or the Rebel XT. There were some (very useful) options that were locked out in the Rebel, and could be unlocked through downloading a hacked firmware. The XT has all of these features unlocked. I don't know if ISO was one of them.

Arrgghh... the problem with CD is that you don't know how much experience a person has in photography. Carol, If I make you look like an idiot, I apologize now. I'm just starting from square one. Heck, might help others anyways.

With that matter out of the way, I would suggest setting your ISO to 1600. If you're using the XT, 1600 isn't that bad, as long as the exposure is good. Secondly, I would suggest taking a little more control of your camera in shooting, rather than leaving in automatic.

I assume you're using the kit lens. Not to rub it in your face that you don't have fancy lenses or anything . The kit lens is actually quite nice, and is often underrated and laughed at. It's got a decent range, it's lightweight, and has surprisingly good glass for a kit lens. As a matter of fact, I should probably use it more often, since at the moment all it does it rot on my bookshelf. Anyways even though it's not nearly as fast as most people would want to use in such dim lighting, but evidently it's still usable, seeing as I shot VCU mainly with a f/3.5-5.6 too.

Back to the task at hand, you can probably try doing what I did for VCU.

Seeing as everyone's lenses (unless you happen to own the $5k 50mm f/1) won't have a wide enough aperture to effectively use shutter-speed priority ("Tv"), set your camera to aperture priority ("Av"). Then, open your aperture all the way up or stop it down a notch for a (usually dramatic, not sure about kit lens) increase in image quality.

This should give you a somewhat usable shutter speed. As a coup de grace, if you can under the lighting on field, set your exposure compensation to -2/3 or -1/3. This will not only reduce the glare from the excessive lighting, it will also give your shutter speed a rather hefty boost. Note that so far, I've yet to mention flash. With my 420EX and the above settings, I was getting about 1/125 for most of my shots on field. With the built-in flash, I'd guess anywhere from 1/60 to 1/100 would be your result.

In case you got lost, heres a checklist.

1. ISO 1600 (or highest you're willing to go)
2. Aperture Priority.
3. Open the aperture up, wide open (smallest number).
4. Ehhh... I'm not sure about built-in flash. Experiment and see.
5. Experiment! That's the great thing about digital! Shots not working? Play with exposure factors like shutter speed and shooting angle!

Oh, and this hastily written guide can be used for any DSLR. Needless to say, the better equipment you've got, the better result's you're going to get. Still, almost anything can be used to counteract a slow shutter speed. If you've got an SLR, you can play with many factors. Together they all add up.

Well, covered shooting on field. Now, onto getting the crowd.

Unfortunately, I had lots of trouble with this too. Even a full-power blast from my flash wasn't that good. All it did was blind the people in front of me and dimly illuminate the crowd a little more. What I discovered you can do is get a more general shot of the crowd, perhaps walking as far away as you can, and then getting the entire field and as much of the crowd as you can in a single shot. This helps also create a sense of atmosphere. As for individual teams and such in the stands, this is very difficult. If I couldn't do it with decent gear, then no one can with insane gear. That's the way light works.

Man, this is a huge post. I hope it helps.

Daniel

[Carol]

[quote=geeknerd99Man, this is a huge post. I hope it helps.

Daniel[/QUOTE]

Daniel, thanks a lot. I'm going to play around with it some more. I am reffing at the Championships so don't know how much I will get to use it (although the striped shirt lets me take pics from positions most people can't get to ). But on Thursday during practice runs I can snap away. Come say hello if you see me and I can admire your camera....

[vadyr]

taking pictures and videotaping the competitions is one of the biggest pains in the neck ever! nobody wants to do it on my team because they all want to cheer...so i get stuck with 3 video cameras and a stills camera....talk about lame!

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by vadyr

taking pictures and videotaping the competitions is one of the biggest pains in the neck ever! nobody wants to do it on my team because they all want to cheer...so i get stuck with 3 video cameras and a stills camera....talk about lame!

it is definately a sacrifice. When you tape or photograph an event you only get to see one small part of it, and that only through a camera viewfinder. You really do miss a lot of whats going on around you. Its almost like you are not really there, you are seeing it remotely on a tiny little screen.