Shooting Indoor Cheerleading Competition and Blurring

[connie_wagner]

I have a new Canon 40D w/28-135 f/3.5 IS lens and 430EX Speedlight. I am

shooting cheerleading inside a gym with poor lighting. I just started using the

speedlight as it seems to help with the lighting and I shoot from right in

front of the girls and not from the stands. What I'm having trouble with is

blurring the background. Any suggestions?

[bob_sunley]

Is is out of focus or blurred from camera movement?

 

If the latter, try a monopod/tripod, and what shutter speed setting are you using?

 

If out of focus, that sounds normal if you are at the telephoto end of your zoom. Which will also enhance camera movement blur as well.

[phule]

Bob,

 

I believe Connie is asking specifically about producing out-of-focus backgrounds and is not having any problems with camera shake or similar.

[bob_sunley]

Hmm, that could be very true.

 

If you want to blur the background, dial back the iso setting and open up the aperture to reduce the depth of field. If you are at the wide end of your zoom, try moving back so you can use the zoom. You get way less depth of field and blurrier backgrounds at the tele end at any given aperture.

[connie_wagner]

Thank you Bob. Yes, I'm trying to blur the background so that my subject stands out more. My photos have both my subject and the fans in the background all in focus.

[victor_virtucio]

Hi Connie,

 

The OOF background that you seek (what's called bokeh in some circles) is best achieved with a long focal length AND shallow depth of field. Meaning, if you shoot with an 80-200 set at 200 mm and f/2.8, you'll get nice bokeh. The way you shoot cheer, from right in front and I'm assuming wide-to-medium focal lengths, you won't get a creamy out-of-focus background -- just soft focus.

 

Shooting cheer (which is 33% of what I do) means balancing between getting group shots to show off the routine and individual shots to showcase specific cheerleaders. You won't get good OOF backgrounds when shooting group shots (for obvious reasons) but for individual shots, sit as far away from the mat as you can and shoot long.

 

Hope this helps.

[mark u]

You're not the only one who has been looking for advice about shooting cheerleading lately: you may want to take a look at these threads:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00OFep

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00OSlp

 

The key is to shoot with a wide aperture if you want blurred backgrounds. The second point is that the background will be more blurred if it is further from the subject. For a background at infinity, the blur depends on the physical diameter of the lens aperture. The physical aperture diameter is the focal length divided by the aperture f-number, so your 28-135 has an aperture of 28/3.5 ~=8mm up to 135/5.6 ~=24mm. However, the crowd is not at infinity, so the advantage can be lost as they approach the rear depth of field range.

 

I think you can readily see that you would have an advantage using a faster lens. For example, the 85mm f/1.8 gives a ~= 47mm physical aperture wide open, for twice as much blur as your 28-135 shot at 135mm, even though the 135mm is a longer lens. The Sigma 30mm f/1.4 can give much the same background blur as the 135mm f/5.6 - perhaps more, because you will be focussing much closer.

 

Other advantages of fast lenses include less need for flash: with 8-10 times faster shutter speeds compared with the f/5.6 end of your lens, you may not need flash at all. Where you do use flash much lower power will be required, saving batteries and giving fast recycle times for the next shot.

[connie_wagner]

Thank you all. These are all great suggestions and I'll try sitting further back and shoot long for hopefully a better OOF. I think the flash will still be sufficient at a longer distance. I'll let you know how it works out after this weekend's competition. Should I use the Tv setting on my Canon 40D for cheerleading?

[mark u]

No. Shoot in M mode so you control both shutter speed and aperture. With a lens as slow as your 28-135 you will be needing flash to have enough light at anything other than a rather long shutter speed. In order to have a consistent look to your photos, you need to ensure a similar contribution from the ambient light background, which can only be guaranteed shooting in M. A further disadvantage of the slow aperture is that it will make inverse square falloff from the flash much more obvious unless the gym ceiling is white and low enough to act as a good bounce reflector. This is because more of the light depends on the flash.

[connie_wagner]

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. I shot with my zoom from the stands on Sunday and got pretty good "OOF" (I just love that term OOF)! I was concerned about the lighting and using my speedlight from that distance. Attached is one of the shots I got (if I can figure out how to attach a photo to this forum). I would appreciate any suggestions and/or critique.

Thanks again.