Chris Tofalos wrote:
mpgxsvcd wrote:
Why in the world did you use F3.5 and F4.0 with the 7D and F7 and F8 with micro four thirds? I still can't understand why so many people stop m4/3s WAY TOO FAR DOWN.
I guess I just didn't have enough confidence in the equipment and my brief required a certain number of shots (to illustrate the story of the game on a website). The extra DOF was useful in giving me slightly more keepers than I'd have got, say, with the lens wide open.
OK, it's a poor substitute for getting sharper pix with shallower DOF (as in the 7D pix) but I had to provide enough pix for my client. Am I happy about the way I achieved this? No, that's why I made the OP.
Would I go back to DSLRs? Not unless I got a five year contract to shoot football at a great rate - but that isn't going to happen. I'm very, very happy with my Lumix cameras for the vast majority of work I do (i.e., everything except football & similar sports)...
Hiya Chris
Not to belittle the real difference in equipment capability, a lot of your problem is in your headspace, I would suggest. Here's what I think after reading your OP. K;m writing as someone who has gone through something of the same thing -- in my case after nearly 50 years in photography, on again, off again, on again pro (but not dedicated sports photography).
Like mpg, I wondered about your choice of apertures. Your response to him shrieks headspace!
1. GO BACK TO THE FUTURE
A big fat part of your problem now seems to be that you are trying or wanting to use your 7D experience and process while shooting on the G5. Not going to work -- two difference machines with different capabilities.
The solution, I suspect, is to go back to the future. You have been photographing football for 30 years. That means you started in the business long before autofocus was available and even when it became available it was not nearly as good and as fast as it is now.
So banish the 7D from your head; go back to your photographic roots as your starting point, and work out a new process of picture taking based on moving forward directly from there to the G5. Use the strengths of your process back then to exploit the G5 to the max. Judging from my own experience, I suspect a mix of good old fashioned pre-focusing, AF, and burst shooting will do stuff for you.
And just going back that far will make you feel decidedly spritelier!
You mention problems with the EVF. For starters, turn up the brightness. Can you do this with the G5? I expect so; it would be rather odd if you could not.
2. STOP COMPARING APPLES WITH ORANGES IN TECHNOLOGY
This is pure headspace stuff. Consciously or unconsciously, you are comparing the 7D --
the best sports camera you have ever used, in hour own words -- with the G5, not only a different kind of camera but even a different class of camera, it costs about half as much before we even start mentioning lenses. The G5 is a great camera but I suspect everyone who spends any time on this forum can just about recite by rote the fact that it is not going to match the speed of focus, etc., of a good DSLR for sports photography.
Maybe the G6 with its vaunted extra focusing speed will do a better job for you when it comes out. Maybe the two top of the line m43s, the E-M5 and the GH3, would be more competitive.
3. STOP COMPARING APPLES WITH ORANGES IN SUBJECT MATTER
You’ve shifted from pro football to amateur football. My experience of such things is that in the pro game there is much, much more opportunity for the dramatic picture because the pros are hard at it. They will take risks and put their heads and feet into places where no amateur would go. You see head clashes in amateur football but a lot of them are accidental -- and therefore hard to predict and snatch a picture of. You see more head clashes in pro football and you can predict them because they are not accidental -- you
know there is a good chance of a head clash because any pro near enough who doesn't get his head into a contest will get hell from the fans who know he squibbed it and is likely be looking for for a new job next week.
In addition, the pro game is more predictable in that the pros are working to plans and are highly trained in executing them. As a result, you can expect play to move in certain directions and into certain zones and you will know before the game who will be marking who in attach and defence especially in set plays. Amateurs have plans too but because they are not as highly trained their plans tend to break down much more often and much more easily so movement of the ball and likely clash points simply can’t be anticipated nearly as well.
And finally, there is the atmosphere. There is nothing like a crowd in the stands to get the old adrenalin flowing. Don’t tell me this doesn’t boot you up too!
Players lift a notch or even two when they are in a professional stadium with a good crowd in yelling for death or glory!
Everyone is affected and that includes you as the photographer. In a pro football environment, with the old adrenalin surging through your arteries, you will take more risks to get your shots, you will just go for it just like the players and the fans! That's what being a human being is all about. We are herd animals! In a suburban park with half a dozen family, friends and hangers-on leaning on the fence … nah! quite different. You actually have to crank yourself up to get moving.
And never forget the background in your pictures. Even an ordinary shot looks much better with the stands and fans as the background -- even
empty stands -- than even a good shot with a couple of trees and a scrap of suburban house behind it!
---
So there you go -- my thoughts, Chris, after some similar although not exactly the same experience.
Go back to the future and do what you did. Take the risks! (One of the great things in digital photography is that we can do burst shooting then review before we leave the shot or venue so we can take more risks than we formerly could.)
And most of all, enjoy yourself with this new beginning!
Cheers, geoff
