Today was the 13th Daehan Moodokwan Kumdo Competition held at Burwood PCYC and I went along to support my team; USYD Kendo Club. Overall it was a great day with some great action and it was good to see some of the club members perform at their fullest potential. Not only was it good to see our own members compete, but it was a good experience as I got to see how the other competitors perform as well. If anyone from USYD Kendo Club is reading this, sorry I couldn't stay until the end and watched the Men's Team matches but I did stay for as long as I could.
OK now about the photos for the day, they didn't turn out as good as I expected because I was expecting a bit more space and lighting in the centre, instead it was a bit crowded and I pretty much shot from the same spot the whole day. Lighting was bad as well so I had to increase my ISO to 800 which lead to my photos containing a lot more noise than I would of liked and also to reduce camera shake I had my shutter speed at 1/30 - 1/50 throughout the day. As there was a lot of movement and to be able to capture a nice "action shot" I needed a much higher shutter speed but that was impossible with the lighting available in the centre and I didn't want to use a flash and distract the competitors. So what I was left with was noisy, dark and badly composed pictures, although I did manage to salvage a couple of photos which are of average standard.
Here's a little preview:
Our very own Jacinta Fong who did very well going up against a very worthy opponent.
This is the USYD Kendo Club members and supporters.
The rest of the photos can be viewed here:
Burwood Comp Photos
Thanks for viewing my photos, be sure to leave both good and bad comments.
-Steven
Hi Steven, the ones you 'salvaged' looked fine to me ^^
ReplyDeleteAction shots do not always have to be 'crisp' in the sense of no motion blur, some of the most interesting kendo pictures is where there is motion blur happening, especially with the shinai because it gives you a perspective of how much speed and movement is happening.
I noticed you're using a 400D which is a nice rig, what lenses were you using? I typically have my 28-105mm lens on my 20D for 95% of the pictures I take, and like you, during Founders Cup I was running 400-800 ISO. I shoot normally on aperture mode with the lowest possible aperture (4.0-5.6 which is pretty crummy.. I use 8-10 for daylight portrait if it is bright enough) for brightness since if you have the plane of focus on the kendoka, depth of field in front and behind isn't relevant for composition ^^.