Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Beginner's Questions => Topic started by: LukeH on November 07, 2010, 05:52:01 am
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Hey people,
I've scored a traineeship photographing the new baseball team in Sydney, and am looking to get the equipment as follows
canon 7d (my next camera of choice anyway, just gives me the chance to go out and buy it)
canon ef 70-200 f2.8
monopod (my first one so not sure of what to expect apart from the obvious)
People's thoughts or tips? Anything else I should be looking at?
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Anybody?
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Hey people,
I've scored a traineeship photographing the new baseball team in Sydney, and am looking to get the equipment as follows
canon 7d (my next camera of choice anyway, just gives me the chance to go out and buy it)
canon ef 70-200 f2.8
monopod (my first one so not sure of what to expect apart from the obvious)
People's thoughts or tips? Anything else I should be looking at?
I've never photographed (or even watched) a baseball match and I don't know what special access you might have. My only thought is to wonder if 200mm is really long enough.
Jeremy
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I am hardly a sports photographer, but I can't help but think that 70-200 is too short for many shots you will want to take.
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Anybody?
It's a good start. Not ideal, but start with what you have. On the 7D you'll have an equivalent to a 100-300mm lens, which is fine for infield coverage. The 7D should be quick enough at focus and shooting speed, too.
A couple of suggestions:
1. Try to shoot from the end of the dugout on the first base side, a little past first base. There is often a photographer's position ("well") there. This lets you shoot action at home plate (right-handed batters and defensive plays at the plate), first base (pickoff attempts), second base (double play attempts and normal defensive plays), and some side-angle shots of left-handed pitchers. You can also shoot the short stop in action, and possibly some defensive play in shallow right field.
2. WATCH OUT FOR FOUL BALLS. You can be seriously injured. NO CHIMPING when there is a batter in the box.
3. If you want peak action like bat-on-ball or the pitcher throwing, be prepared to shoot a lot of pictures and have most of them come up empty. Not a big deal, it's only pixels. (Buy large memory cards.)
4. Shooting from the third-base side gives you a good look at right-handed pitchers, and left-handed batters. You can usually move around between innings.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the info. So you would think that a 300mm 5.6f would be the way to go?
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Thanks for the info. So you would think that a 300mm 5.6f would be the way to go?
Probably not a good choice unless every game is played during the day. The 70-200 will be fine, maybe get a 1.4x teleconverter to use with it. Later, if you want outfield action, a 300/2.8 or maybe a 300/4 would be useful. Wider apertures are better, especially for night games.
Professional baseball photographers use 400/2.8, 500/4, and 600/4 lenses, depending on the shooting position. Often there are remote cameras set up on clamps aimed at various specific places (second base, home plate), fired with a radio release.
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Hey people,
I've scored a traineeship photographing the new baseball team in Sydney,
I see that it was you who started the previous topic "Gear for Shooting Baseball", where this was previously discussed.