Some 'effects' used in Olympic photos explained

keps

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/picturegalleries/9461272/London-2012-Olympics-Photographers-tricks.html?frame=2303616

penev10

The miniaturisation one with the show jumping looks totally surreal. Have never seen that effect used so well.

Are these guys using lots of flash or is the arena just really well lit up?

keps

Watching them operate along the track/end of races and other venues they don't seem to use flash at all. Even ringside at the boxing - there is no flash being used by the professionals- in fact I suppose it could hinder the boxers.
I'd say a combination of good available lighting/super-fast lenses and relatively high ISOs can deliver these excellent shots.

kensutz

Not allowed use flash and no point really. The arenas are ok although some of the venues are causing some slight problems with the way the lights are shining. The only event they really used flash was for the cycling as it's part and parcel when riding on the bike shooting as a pillion passenger. The 1DX and the D4's are really showing their worth in the games.

keps

So is there a total shift to full frame by the sports professionals?

Nikon seem far more prevalent than Canon - is that the case?

Skerries

Synchronised Swimming The Wrong Way Up

artyeva

Skerries wrote: »

Synchronised Swimming The Wrong Way Up

they don't look very synchronised do they, specially the last 2 :pac:

kensutz

keps wrote: »

So is there a total shift to full frame by the sports professionals?

Nikon seem far more prevalent than Canon - is that the case?

Yep the 1DX is full frame and entered the market that Nikon had. At the Euros I noticed a lot more Canon shooters than Nikon, same with Europa League/Champions League Final. Premier League games seem to be split down the middle. It took Canon a long time to rival the quality of the Nikon cameras but the 1DX is an absolute beast and loved using it in Poland.

keps

No wonder those pro photographers chase so hard after the winners..


http://shop.london2012.com/Jessica-Ennis-signed-Team-GB-photo-framed---16x20-in/Jessica-Ennis-signed-Team-GB-photo-framed---16x20-in/95013112,default,pd.html

Paulw

keps wrote: »

No wonder those pro photographers chase so hard after the winners..

The photographer wouldn't get anything extra for that image. The photographer is there to get the best images he can. Then the images are used by the agency and Olympic Games, and that is where the money is.

Paulw

For the gear heads -

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/07/31/canons-drool-worthy-gear-room-at-the-london-olympics/

I believe that all the Canon CPS bodies supplied are 1D X bodies.

Some nice selection of gear there. Word is that Nikon didn't bring nearly as much gear.

kensutz

Paulw wrote: »

For the gear heads -

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/07/31/canons-drool-worthy-gear-room-at-the-london-olympics/

I believe that all the Canon CPS bodies supplied are 1D X bodies.

Some nice selection of gear there. Word is that Nikon didn't bring nearly as much gear.

Nope, 5D MKIII's, MKII's, 1DX's (not many in each place as they're all divided into the arenas), 1D MKIV's, 1D MKIII's and a handful of the MKII telephotos.

alb

penev10 wrote: »

The miniaturisation one with the show jumping looks totally surreal. Have never seen that effect used so well.

Made even more surreal by the fact that the arena actually contains miniature buildings to start with. So the horse looks tiny, but also looks large in comparison to the buildings. Great shot.

keps

Here are some photos taken by Usain Bolt when he grabbed a professional's camera

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/08/09/usain-bolt-nabs-photographers-dslr-snaps-awesome-pov-shots/

ScumLord

One thing I don't like when I hear of photography "tricks" is when you read about them and find the tricks all involve really expensive equipment.

Closing the lens aperture right down has the interesting side effect of turning all point light sources into these beautiful stars.

Didn't know that at least.

keps

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201208090071

Paulw

Another interesting clip from Olympic photographers - http://www.tested.com/videos/165213-how-professional-sports-photographers-shoot-the-olympics/

ScumLord

Paulw wrote: »

Another interesting clip from Olympic photographers - http://www.tested.com/videos/165213-how-professional-sports-photographers-shoot-the-olympics/

They said they get the pictures out to the papers in the space of 3 minutes after the race has ended. I wonder what sort of post processing process they have that they can get that many pictures processed that quickly, surely they would need some sort of correction? Would these guys be that good that they're simply coming off the camera perfect or would they have spent a lot of time testing before hand to understand what kind of post processing would be needed on the day?

Paulw

ScumLord wrote: »

They said they get the pictures out to the papers in the space of 3 minutes after the race has ended. I wonder what sort of post processing process they have that they can get that many pictures processed that quickly, surely they would need some sort of correction? Would these guys be that good that they're simply coming off the camera perfect or would they have spent a lot of time testing before hand to understand what kind of post processing would be needed on the day?

Minimal post processing on all sports images. Crop, straighten and maybe a little brightening or darkening, basic colour correction. Nothing else.

If your focus is on a specific event, it's a case of shoot, import to laptop, crop/process, caption and then submit. 3 min is easy enough, especially if someone else is doing the processing/captioning. As long as your exposure is correct and the image is in focus, the post processing is minimal and quick.

keps

I would say that the ' back up team' for the bigger agencies do the processing /captioning - those photographers work so hard they would hardly have time to do that within the 3 mins.

Paulw

Many would be transmitting the images straight from camera back to the backoffice for processing and captioning. Some would be wireless, some would be directly wired to a laptop, or some would dump images from card to laptop, to be picked up by the backoffice.

Big agencies have a lot of photographers, and plenty of backoffice staff to do the tech work.

keps

Good article and photos here from Jed Jacobsohn who is at the Olympics on assignment for the New York Times.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/extremely-close-up-at-the-olympics/

keps

A worthy 'wrap -up' video by Tom Jenkins - the Guardian's excellent sports photographer.




http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/interactive/2012/aug/17/olympics-2012-photographic-highlights