Punch Out!
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Well, here's a new one for me: boxing. On Saturday, August 4, challenger Erik Morales of Mexico took on Chicago native David Diaz for the WBC World Lightweight Championship. Don't ask me what that means, because I have no idea. Is it just me or does every boxing match seem to be some sort of championship bout?
Now, I've been to the Allstate Arena many times to cover DePaul basketball games, so I knew the lighting was going to be pretty crummy: roughly 1/500, f/2.8 at ISO 1000. However, I also knew that my assigned shooting position was from the 200 level seats, which means I would probably need to use a 1.4x teleconverter (which makes me lose a stop of light) otherwise the fighters would be too loose in my frame. So for the fights, I was shooting a touch underexposed at 1/500, f/4.0 at 1600 ISO. Eeesh. Thank goodness I shoot Canon.
Anyways, I thought boxing would be a really easy sport to shoot. I figured it'd be a lot like other individual sports like swimming or track: just focus on the athlete and machine gun away anytime someone flinches. While that is pretty much how one would go about shooting boxing, the problem is that the "hit percentage" of good shots is extremely low. I found boxing to be somewhat similar to baseball or hockey where the photographer tries for the "bat-on-ball" or "puck-on-stick" photo. In boxing, we go for the "fist-on-face" photo. Of course, those plays happen all the time, but actually getting that moment is surprisingly difficult (although there is timing involved, a lot of it is just luck of when you mash the shutter). Although the speed of someone's fist is obviously significantly slower than a speeding baseball or hockey puck, it was still surprisingly difficult to nail one of them "fist-on-face" photos. I think I only ended up with two "fist-on-face" photos the entire fight out of about 500 photos.
Luckily, like baseball and hockey, it's not just about the "fist-on-face" photo. There are other types of action as well, like deflecting or dodging punches:
And of course: VICTORY!
So why was I shooting from the 200 level for the fight? Well, I was there as the second photographer, so the other, more experienced staff photographer (as opposed the less experienced freelance photographer) got to shoot from ringside. I guess it worked out well because that meant a couple of things: 1) no risk of blood, spit, slobber, or miscellaneous bodily fluids from hitting me or my equipment and 2) I didn't have to worry about action shots from the other fights that evening: only worry about jubilation/dejection photos.
Of course, like any other photographer, I shot some action anyways, just to get a feel for the lighting and timing the action even though those probably weren't going to be moved to the wire unless I shot something exceptional in those other bouts. Well, I got something all right! To quote our editor that evening: "Well, we were doing well as far as action goes on those other fights.... and then we found this one!"
Ouch! I can't figure out why anybody would want to be a boxer. Seems pretty ridiculous making a living either beating the crap out of someone or getting the crap kicked out of you. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
Well, here's a new one for me: boxing. On Saturday, August 4, challenger Erik Morales of Mexico took on Chicago native David Diaz for the WBC World Lightweight Championship. Don't ask me what that means, because I have no idea. Is it just me or does every boxing match seem to be some sort of championship bout?
Now, I've been to the Allstate Arena many times to cover DePaul basketball games, so I knew the lighting was going to be pretty crummy: roughly 1/500, f/2.8 at ISO 1000. However, I also knew that my assigned shooting position was from the 200 level seats, which means I would probably need to use a 1.4x teleconverter (which makes me lose a stop of light) otherwise the fighters would be too loose in my frame. So for the fights, I was shooting a touch underexposed at 1/500, f/4.0 at 1600 ISO. Eeesh. Thank goodness I shoot Canon.
Anyways, I thought boxing would be a really easy sport to shoot. I figured it'd be a lot like other individual sports like swimming or track: just focus on the athlete and machine gun away anytime someone flinches. While that is pretty much how one would go about shooting boxing, the problem is that the "hit percentage" of good shots is extremely low. I found boxing to be somewhat similar to baseball or hockey where the photographer tries for the "bat-on-ball" or "puck-on-stick" photo. In boxing, we go for the "fist-on-face" photo. Of course, those plays happen all the time, but actually getting that moment is surprisingly difficult (although there is timing involved, a lot of it is just luck of when you mash the shutter). Although the speed of someone's fist is obviously significantly slower than a speeding baseball or hockey puck, it was still surprisingly difficult to nail one of them "fist-on-face" photos. I think I only ended up with two "fist-on-face" photos the entire fight out of about 500 photos.
Luckily, like baseball and hockey, it's not just about the "fist-on-face" photo. There are other types of action as well, like deflecting or dodging punches:
And of course: VICTORY!
So why was I shooting from the 200 level for the fight? Well, I was there as the second photographer, so the other, more experienced staff photographer (as opposed the less experienced freelance photographer) got to shoot from ringside. I guess it worked out well because that meant a couple of things: 1) no risk of blood, spit, slobber, or miscellaneous bodily fluids from hitting me or my equipment and 2) I didn't have to worry about action shots from the other fights that evening: only worry about jubilation/dejection photos.
Of course, like any other photographer, I shot some action anyways, just to get a feel for the lighting and timing the action even though those probably weren't going to be moved to the wire unless I shot something exceptional in those other bouts. Well, I got something all right! To quote our editor that evening: "Well, we were doing well as far as action goes on those other fights.... and then we found this one!"
Ouch! I can't figure out why anybody would want to be a boxer. Seems pretty ridiculous making a living either beating the crap out of someone or getting the crap kicked out of you. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
posted by Jerry at 9:53 PM
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