List of equipment I use to shoot Winterguard
Camera bodies
Canon 5d Mark iii
Canon 5d Mark ii
Nikon D3s
Nikon D300
Lenses used to shoot Winterguard
Canon 70-200mm F2.8
Canon 135mm F2
Canon 85mm f1.8
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8
Nikon 85mm F1.8
Nikon 50mm F1.4
Sigma 35mm F1.4
Wish List
Canon EOS 1DX
Canon 200mm F2
Canon 85mm F1.2
Sigma 120-300mm F2.8
I’ve been shooting Winterguard for over 4 years now and over that time I’ve tried and tested many methods of trying to get the best results on both the Canon and Nikon systems. I’m going to say right upfront that Winterguard is the most challenging discipline of photography I shoot and here are a few reasons why.
- All the rehearsals and competitions take place in large sports halls which notoriously have very bad light.
- You can’t use flash which means you have to shoot wide open and use high ISO.
- High shutter speeds and wide apertures can be a challenging for your autofocus system meaning you must be an accurate photographer
- Once you are in spot you can’t move making both your composition and variety of shots challenging
- The movement of the performers is constant and you have to also consider their equipment too
- You need to master your cameras auto focus like a boss whilst composing your shots
Here are some tips on how to get some great results at your next Winterguard shoot
You need to anticipate the movement of the performers
- If you waiting to see something pretty in your viewfinder then I’m sorry to say that you have already missed the moment. Winterguard is a very fast activity so you have to anticipate the throw and catch. Like other performance art it’s all built on technique so if you pay attention to the body language of the members you will be able to predict when a big throw catch or jump is going to happen because of the technique they use in the initiation of the move.
Setup your camera for the amount of light in the arena and speed of the performers then forget it.
- You can’t look at the back of your camera during the performance because you will miss too many moments. Taking a photo and checking the back of your camera is a bad habit anyway. Simply setup your camera at the start of the day and keep shooting. The one good thing about shooting in a sports arena is that the lights won’t change. The perfect exposure will change from uniform to uniform but you can correct that in post.
- In order to get sharp photos you must have a shutter speed of 1/640 of a second and even then you will have motion blur on a Sabre, Rifle or Flag toss. The ideal shutter speed is 1/1000, if you shoot at this speed then you will find that most of your photos will be sharp providing you have good camera holding technique. Some photographers have said they can get sharp photos at 1/250 but that is only true if your performers are not moving at all.
- Setup your camera up to get your perfect exposure even if that means shooting at a high ISO. In other words do not under expose your photos to try to keep your ISO down and then increase your exposure in post. You will only introduce more noise to your photos. It’s important to get it right in camera.
Keep an eye on the information in your viewfinder
Shooting Winterguard will demand all of your attention so you must keep your eye on two things. Firstly , you must monitor the available space on your memory card. You can be so focused at trying to capture great moments that it’t easy to run out of space on your card! It could take you one minute to find another card and load it into your camera but a performance its just 4 minutes long.
Secondly , you need to keep an eye on your battery meter. Most people shoot in high speed continuous mode when photographing any type of performance arts and that will lead to your batter draining faster. Don’t let your battery run out in middle of a performance.
Learn how to change your auto focus point without thinking about it
It’s important that you know your camera inside out so that you can change your composition without thinking about it. Most sports photographers will change the location of their focus point whilst the action is taking place. I must admit that it’s easier to do this on the Canon system by way of a button press and a wheel but the Nikon D pad also works tell too. I never let the camera decide what to focus on so I’m constantly changing my focus point myself. It takes a lot of practice to master this but once you’ve got it you will find shooting competitions even more exciting because of the varied amount of photos you’ll be able to take.
Practice changing your focus points without taking your camera away from your face.
Practice , Practice , Practice
I sit in my living room for days on end practicing how to lock focus on all the different objects i can see. I’ll photograph the Television, set top box, door handle , chair , fireplace and window all in quick succession. Then review your images to see how many you managed to get in focus.
You will begin to learn how your camera and lens combination focuses and what you as a photographer need to do to help it. Once i had mastered that I then worked on doing the same thing on whilst on the move to simulate action shots in reverse. It’s sounds silly but it gave me so much more confidence when it came time to photograph a Winterguard show.
Happy shooting!