Barbell Business Shout Out

February 2, 2015

On this week's episode of Barbell Business - a weekly podcast that's become a do-it-yourself to growing a successful gym business - the gang focus on the importance of video marketing in a successful gym. CTP - recovering pizza delivery guy, and filmer of Barbell Shrugged productions since day 1 was kind enough to plug the #photofit blog as a resource to learning the basics of CrossFit-centric photography.

The episode is a great listen if you're on the fence about hiring a professional photographer or videographer to help grow your gym, but even more importantly it empowers the gym owner in the myriad ways they can produce their own top-notch content. Check it out!

What a venue -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/3200, f 3.5, ISO 100

Wodapalooza 2015 (How to shoot outdoor sports - PhotoFit #6)

January 30, 2015

The last few weeks I've been on the road so here come the recaps!

I had the privilege of heading down to Miami to shoot Wodapalooza 2015 for Progenex. I know, tough gig.... Miami in January. Quick setup - Wodapalooza (WZA for short) has become one of the largest functional fitness competitions and festivals in the world. It takes place at the incredible Bayfront Park in Miami, with three separate workout zones, 17 divisions, and a massive vendor expo, all along the Miami waterfront.

WZA was sponsored by Progenex, and my gig was to cover their athletes across three days of competition.

Sam Briggs and Emily Bridgers going back and forth during the final event - and during the whole weekend.  Sam took the title two years in a row.  Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70, 1/400th, F2.8, ISO 320 — Sam Briggs and Emily Bridgers going back and forth during the final event - and during the whole weekend. Sam took the title two years in a row. Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70, 1/400th, F2.8, ISO 320

From a technical standpoint, outdoor events are far easier than indoor events because you know going in it will be an low ISO setup. The real challenges comes from realizing you're going to have to work with the changing light (the sun) over the course of the day. From the incredible golden hour light of the morning and early evening, to the brutal harsh mid-day sun. And the extra bonus, shooting wods at night with extremely limited lighting.

My setup: Nikon D4, Nikon 600 as backup. Go-to lens for the majority of the weekend was the Nikon 70-200 2.8 VRII. I've called this lens magical on more than one occasion, and under optimal shooting conditions like this it didn't disappoint. For large events like this, I bring along my Sigma 120-300 2.8 (an epic lens for big field events), but I wound up having amazing access that let me get very close to the action, so that focal length wasn't really needed. Not that I was complaining, that lens weighs something like 15 pounds. The two other lens I had handy were my Sigma 35 1.4 for some wider stuff (and to bust out during the night events) and my Tamron 24-70 2.8 for some wide zoom during daytime events.

Team Progenex Brute Strength --- These dudes are huge.  Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/2500th, F2.8, ISO 160 — Team Progenex Brute Strength --- These dudes are huge. Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/2500th, F2.8, ISO 160

Shooting outdoor sports - Aperture vs. Manual

In my mind, there are two main ways to shoot outdoor events: Aperture priority (AP) and full manual each has its advantages and drawbacks. In most situations, I'll lean towards full manual, and I did that for most of the weekend. Aperture priority, means I'm setting aperture and ISO, and letting the camera's computer figure out the shutter speed. If I'm in full manual, I'm setting everything myself, and those settings remain locked until I change them again. AP is extremely helpful if we have a bright sun with clouds sneaking in and out. If I'm in manual and have completely dialed in my exposure when the sun is blocked, I'm great. But, if those clouds blow over, the exposure is going to be completely different, and if I'm not on my game and forget to change that, I could have completely blown-out over exposed images that can't be saved in post processing. Sounds great, but the flip-side of this is if your cameras meter sees something that throws it off, you could have images with your subjects woefully underexposed. Where would AP go wrong? Let's say during any of the bayfront events: where athletes were working on a huge rig built right next to the water. Depending on how you have your cameras metering set, when you point at your subject you might get a meter reading for the bright and reflective water behind them, not your exerciser. If you're not aware of this and anticipate for that, you're going to have a very very dark subject with some nicely exposed water. Of course, their are ways to deal with this (using exposure compensation, as well as using center-weighted, or spot metering) but once it gets that complicated, I'd rather switch to straight manual.

Chelsie Morter during the Sit-Shoot-Swim event.  Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/1000th, f4.0, ISO 100 — Chelsie Morter during the Sit-Shoot-Swim event. Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/1000th, f4.0, ISO 100

How do I set my base exposure in full manual for an outdoor event? I like to look at the exposure triangle like this: set as much as you can, and then only have to adjust a single setting once you're shooting. So first off, I'm going to select an aperture just a bit back from wide open - maybe 3.5. It's outdoors, it's bright. I'm not battling for shutter speed, so I'd rather have a little wiggle room if my focus isn't perfect. Next, I'll set my ISO. I'll have this anywhere between 100-640. At these levels, there is absolutely no noise. I'll use that upper range if I want a little more shutter speed. So now, while I'm shooting the only setting I'll change on the fly is my shutter speed. Now that we're out of a dark gym, we should aim to always be hitting 1/1000th of a second. If that is underexposed, just crank up the ISO more. You can easily shoot at ISO 800 outdoors without even the slightest hint of noise. The added sharpness from the shutter speed makes for amazing images. So while manual might seem like there are a ton of settings you have to be adjusting, realistically, I'm just adjusting my shutter speed based on the results I'm getting. I'm not really touching my aperture, and my iso might just be a slight tweak every hour or two as the sun moves. Shooting in manual also keeps me extremely engaged in what I'm doing. I'm not pointing and shooting: I'm thinking about the environment around me and how the light is influencing the frame. Is it brighter or darker? What direction is it coming in from and how can I situate myself to get the best results with it. I've shot plenty of scenes with AP, but I'll usually stick now to the more consistent results I'll get with manual. There is nothing more frustrating to nailing the perfect moment, only to realize the camera's meter went bezerk because something bright (or dark) caught it, and your subject is now blown out or completely black.

Rasmus Wisbech during the complex ladder -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/800th, f 2.8, ISO 400

Organizing a big event shoot

The biggest challenge on this job (other than dealing with the incredible weather and delicious cuban food) was tracking some 25 athletes, all competing at nearly the same time, across three workout stations, over 8 WODs, as early as 8am and as late as 830pm. The number one tip I can offer here is to plan ahead. Once I got a list of athletes from my editor, I then setup a complete schedule, detailing where/when each athlete was supposed to do each workout, and updated this each morning as their heat assignments were updated. With so many moving pieces, the worst thing I could do is not going into it with a strategy to cover it properly.

A little peek at a very small part of my heat sheet

Looking over the spreadsheet, I could plan out my day, and quickly see if there were conflicts - multiple athletes going at the same time at different locations. Instead of panicking in a scenario like this, it's easier to just discuss with your clients where they'd like you and set expectations clearly. Instead of pretending that you can do literally everything, I tried to make sure I could focus on different athletes at different workouts, and markoff who I was able to get where. That way as the event went on, I knew if I was having trouble capturing certain athletes, or if I was only focusing on the same people over and over. This was helpful because I could then easily coordinate with my editor. To boil that down - plan ahead, decide where you need to be, and then make the most of that time! Revaluate over the course of the event and if you're missing coverage, adjust accordingly.

Lauren Fisher during the dumb bell snatch workout -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/640th, F2.8, ISO 320 -- notice my shutter started slowing.  The stage had a crazy split light scenario that gradually got brighter as they got farther from the back … — Lauren Fisher during the dumb bell snatch workout -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/640th, F2.8, ISO 320 -- notice my shutter started slowing. The stage had a crazy split light scenario that gradually got brighter as they got farther from the back of the stage. On the fly I just adjusted my shutter speed as she got into the brighter light.

The monkey wrench came quickly on day 1 as each workout station ran to differing degrees of on-time-ness. Once one station started running nearly an hour behind, that sort of shot my perfect plan. Easy enough, I just worked with the event organizers to get updated schedules and worked around it.

Shooting at Night

As the lights went down, we all expected the Miami nights party setup to turn on, but the lights that did switch on - while awesome for the spectator experience were basically nothing more than rotating strobes. The night events were dark, I mean really dark. These sorts of moments, instead of being a stressful disaster, should be a time to try and do something different. Dark is dark. There is no way to add light to an unlit subject no matter how much you crank the iso and drag the shutter. You cannot shoot with a flash at an event like this, so don't even reach for it. It's distracting for the spectators and worse, can be dangerous for the athletes. It's better in these times to try and create something new and different. It's now time to play around with the backlight, wider shots showing the scale of the event, or any number of other "unique" shots. You're simply not going to get those sharp perfect exposures from the middle of the day, so it's easier to adapt instead of stressing over what's impossible. For the night shoots, I switched to my 35 1.4 to benefit from the wider aperture and shot a lot of wider images hoping to catch some of the strobe lights as they rotated around. There were a ton of misses here, but still a few cool moments.

The legendary Taylar Stallings during the team Clean and Jerk complex ladder, with her team she set the event record.  Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/250th, F2.8, ISO 8000 — The legendary Taylar Stallings during the team Clean and Jerk complex ladder, with her team she set the event record. Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/250th, F2.8, ISO 8000

Hopefully, somewhere in this ranting I've laid out a few techniques for shooting outdoor sports, as well as organizing your time during long complicated shoots. Please, feel free to comment if you'd like to explain anything at all at length (or more clearly). And a huge thanks to Progenex for having me down in Miami, and my amazing hosts - Guido, Dylan, Steve, et al for putting on such a sick event. Next up will be a recap from a totally different sort of event, the Kill Cliff East Coast Championship!

Emily Bridgers after her first event.  Always smiles, she eventually took second place.  Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/1000th, f 2.8, ISO 320 — Emily Bridgers after her first event. Always smiles, she eventually took second place. Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, 1/1000th, f 2.8, ISO 320

If you like what you've read, please share. Feel free to post some content suggestions below so I know what you're looking for in my next post. For bookings email shaun@superclearyphoto.com. And as always, follow @supercleary on instagram and SuperClearyPhoto on Facebook.

Some other images from WZA 2015 - click to see full-size

Nikon D4, Sigma 35 1.4, F 1.8, 1/500th, ISO 2500

EVF Performance Battle of the Fittest Part Deux (Event Recap)

January 12, 2015

This weekend I headed over to EVF Performance CrossFit Columbus Circle to shoot their annual in-house competition, The Battle of the Fittest.

For the most part, the room had decent light - shooting between ISO 3200-6400, and the crowd was awesome all day. I shot exclusively with the Nikon D4 and rotated between 4 lens. The Tamron 24-70 2.8, Nikon 70-200 2.8, Sigma 35 1.4, and the Sigma 15 2.8 for a few establishing shots. For video I shot with the Nikon D600 on a minimalist shoulder rig setup - just rails and a shoulder stock from Photography & Cinema.

Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70 2.8, F 2.8, 1/400th, ISO 6400

Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200, F 2.8, 1/400th, ISO 6400

All photos from the event are half off for one week only with code 'super50' @ http://www.superclearyphoto.com/event/EVF-Battle-of-the-Fittest-2015

Behind the Scenes with @metconphotos on a Commercial Shoot (PhotoFit #5)

January 6, 2015

In December I had the chance to team up with @metconphotos (Chris Nolan) during a commercial shoot over at CrossFit Lindy with Ricky Long. For this PhotoFit, I wanted to put together a little behind the scenes video that goes over what Chris is up to during one of these kinds of shoots: the equipment, the thought process, and most importantly the communication with the model. So take a watch and if you have questions please post them in the comments below. You can also see some of the end result images below.

Check out Chris' website - www.metconphotos.com and follow him on instagram @metconphotos

Nikon D810, Nikon 24-70 2.8, ISO 64, 1/250th, F/8

Please feel free to post some content suggestions below so I know what you're looking for. And as always, follow @supercleary on instagram and SuperClearyPhoto on Facebook.

Outlaw Barbell at the American Open (Part 3)

January 5, 2015

The third and final part of my trilogy about the Outlaw Barbell at the 2014 American Open is now online for your ocular pleasure. I set out to try and do two things: tell the story of what these lifters did: good and bad; as well as try to explain the nuance of the sport of weightlifting. It's a lot more than just hitting a snatch and clean & jerk. Let me know what you think! You can watch the other two parts through this playlist here.

Outlaw Barbell at the American Open (Part II)

December 23, 2014

Part II of my video with team Outlaw Barbell is now online. Instead of chopping this section into two parts, I kept the whole day's events together in one part and clocked in around 35 minutes. These long video edits are tough, but when you start to get something like a narrative together it really pays off.

You can read about all the tech details of how I recored this over at this post from last week , and catch the first part over here. The last part of the story covers the third day of the meet on Sunday and I'm already cranking through that. Let me know what you think with what I've already put together.

Make sure to tune into superclearyphoto.com for our holiday sale - 20% off all images with code 'xmas20'. Please feel free to post some content suggestions below so I know what you're looking for. And as always, follow @supercleary on instagram and SuperClearyPhoto on Facebook.

Outlaw Barbell at the American Open (Part 1)

December 23, 2014

Part 1 of my video following Outlaw Barbell at the American Open is now live. There are a few rough edges and the text is just place holders before the final release when all three parts are done. Enjoy,

Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 2.8, 1/1600, f2.8, ISO 100

PhotoFit #4 (How I learned to Love Back Button Focus)

December 17, 2014

In most of my previous PhotoFit columns I've been hitting on techniques to get the best exposures for your images - basically making sure your image is sharp. I've been throwing around the term "sharp" a lot, but what that really means is "in focus." Getting your images in focus is the name of the game. I can't reiterate more how critical focus is for an image. No matter how special of a moment that you catch, if it is out of focus, it's worthless. This column will focus on focus, and the secret way to get it: The almighty back button.

All DSLRs share many of the same hi-end focus systems - the most basic being full auto focus. That basically means the camera does the thinking and when you half-press the shutter, it guesses what should be focus and then it takes the image. Turn that off immediately.

Next up is Single Point (apologies, I speak Nikon, but Canon has all the same systems named slightly different). Single point gives you great focus on your center point (or whatever point you select), but it will not adjust if your subject moves forward or back before you hit the shutter. Not useful for fitness.

Nikon D600, Nikon 70-200, 1/500th, F2.8, ISO 6400

Now, let's talk about Continuous Focus. This is where your camera should live. Depending on the body you have, there will be a range of options from D-9 all the way to D-51 which refers to how many active focus points will be used to acquire focus. Quick tip, using less focus points actually helps the camera grab focus faster in most cases, so usually just pick something in the middle of the focus points your camera has.

So now here's the real inception mind-twisting moment. All cameras you've ever used have focus and shutter release connected. What if I told you they didn't have to be? Here's the magic of the back button. Right around where your right thumb naturally goes on the camera is a button named either "AF-ON" or "AF/AE-L" or something along those lines. Activating this button will de-link the shutter from focus. What does this mean? If you hit the shutter button the focus will not change and the picture will be taken whether it is in focus or not. The "back-button" now controls focus. Anytime you hit that button, your active focus point will try to grab focus. Whenever you stop hitting that button, the focus will remain locked on the camera. When you hit the shutter button, this image is taken.

Nikon D4, Sigma 35 1.4, 1/500th, F1.8, ISO 3200

What does all this mean and why is this incredible? Because you can finally keep a focus in focus during a snatch. You can grab perfect focus on a subject's head while they are doing pull-ups. You can nail focus over and over with predictable results that aren't skewed by your cameras overthinking focus computer.

To activate AF-ON each camera is a bit different but the basic steps (on a Nikon camera) are as follows. Go the Custom Settings Menu, select Autofocus. Go to Assign AF-ON button (or assign AE/AF-L) and select AF-ON. Also, you'll have to take a second step on most cameras and go to the AF Activation Menu and select "AF-ON" only. What that does is fully sever the connection between the shutter and the back button.

Back Button focus in action

So first off, using this will lead to a ton of out of focus pictures.... at first. There is a serious learning curve to understanding that cameras now have more than one button. The shutter button just takes images now. And it will do it whether you're in focus or not. You'll need to learn when to hit the back button and when not. You also need to feel out your lenses and know when they are in focus and not. Here's a great example: a kipping pull-up. Let's say we're lined up to the side of the pull up rig. I'm trying to get the subject's head perfectly in focus over the top of the bar. I don't want their hands to be in focus. Using a traditionally autofocus system linked to the shutter button, the camera would grab focus on the hand in front of the head, but not the subject's head (usually). With the back button active, I'm going to stay still and wait for the subject's head to get to the apex of the movement and hit the back button. I'm not going to take the photo though. I'm going to wait for the subject to hit the second pull-up and then hit the button. I'll repeat this process a few times. Over the course of a few reps I'll continue to lock the focus tighter and grab a few more shots. The image wouldn't ever come out in focus before (or would be total luck to get it).

Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70, 1/400th, F2.8, ISO 6400

Another great example -- the snatch. With an autofocus system, it will generally grab whatever is closest to the camera at any point in time. That will generally lead to focus on the hands, the barbell or anything else that jumps out. With the back button, I'll grab focus on the head during the setup position. Once the lift begins, I'll not hit the back button again and this will usually get me an awesome series of in focus images. Note though, if the head comes closer to me or farther away, there's the possibility depending on your aperture, the subject could slide out of the focus plane. In that case you'll need to hit that back button again and recompose.

Here's another great use of the back button: focus and recompose. So composition is always critical in an image. But generally you're working with the center focus point. With the back button - and if the subject is not moving farther from the camera or closer to it - I can set my focus, let go, and then recompose however I'd like and then hit the shutter. This might sound trivial, but when you realize how quickly you can get shots in camera with the composition and focus you want, your mind will soon be blown.

Nikon D600, Sigma 15 2.8, 1/500th, F2.8, ISO 3200

Cautions

Realize that you're now in control of the focus. If you don't hit the back button, the image will definitely be out of focus. But also, if a subject moves closer to the camera or farther away from the camera during a sequence, your perfectly in focus setup will lead to an out of focus catch position. This is where the real art comes in of knowing when to hit that magic button and when not to.

This takes a lot of practice to get the hang of, but gives you full control of your camera in an incredible way. Give it a try, learn it, love it. Comment below if you already use the back button or if you're trying it out now.

SuperClearyPhoto at the American Open (Photo goes Video)

December 16, 2014

I figured I'd give you a quick behind the scenes of what I was up to this last weekend. I was commissioned by Outlaw Barbell to capture their team's trip to the American Open - the highest-level weightlifting meet in the country second only to Nationals. This year, because of the "embarrassment of riches" as USAW describes it - qualifying totals were raised and then rules were made even more stringent to allow only 400 lifters over all weight classes to compete. Outlaw Barbell - an extension of the Outlaw Way, an extension of Outlaw Crossfit and the brainchild of Rudy Nielsen (enjoy this 2011 HQ video), has been at work teaching CrossFit and weightlifting since 2006.

This year nearly a dozen Outlaw lifters qualified at local meets to compete at the American Open. Matched with a fresh Nike sponsorship (featuring blacked out singlets), team Outlaw headed to DC to compete.

My job was to capture - in video and photo - the highs and lows of a team competing at the highest levels of American Weightlifting. This isn't going to be an overview of the competition, but a nerd out on the equipment I used and video/photo settings and techniques I experimented with to get the job done. Note a full equipment list is at the end of this post.

This will be more of a nerd tech review and intro about how I ran photo and video for three days.

Here's the tech stuff. I knew Rudy was looking for a long form video to wrap up the whole weekend and photo would really be just a complimentary service. I knew I'd have to be tracking athletes and coaches around the site, as well as shooting stable video of the lifts themselves. I went with the combo of a shoulder rig and tripod that would allow me to stay fairly low profile and mobile, but still be able to capture stable video which I've learned is the name of the game.

For a shoulder rig I've been experimenting for months to figure out what would work well for me. I decided on the P&C rig and customized it to be as run and gun as possible. I attached a photo of my configuration of the rig below - shoulder stock, two rails, mounting bracket, Manfrotto quick release plate, and two handles. On that I attached a swivel arm (I'm not sure the technical name) that then attached a Smallhd DP4 monitor set so it would be directly in my eye sight. On the camera, I switched between a Sennheiser lav for interviews and a Rode pro mic for the run and gun sound.

My initial gameplan was to use the D4 at the middle of all this to capture video and dabble with my D600 (backup second body) for some photo. After day one though, I saw the abysmal light quality and pushing my D600 up to ISO 6400 wasn't particularly feasible for photo, and the D4 at the middle of the video rig was getting heavy. For day 2 and day 3 I switched the setup. I put the D600 at the middle of the video rig where it can easily handle ISO 1600-3200 and used the D4 with the 70-200 for my competition photos.

The quick release plate was huge for the rig. Whenever I needed to shoot the lifting itself, I had the rig mounted onto the tripod with a quick clip-in. When I needed to run into the training room or the warmup area, another quick clip and I was able to take the shoulder rig off and move around.

Being mainly used to shooting photo, I don't think about sound. With video, sound is as important if not more important than the video itself. I used a Rode mic for my general run and gun audio. It works great for capturing what's in front of you and is great at not capturing too much background noise. For interviews and some other behind the scenes stuff I used a wireless lav. Audio settings themselves are an adventure. With a DSLR, you have a manual audio sensitivity in the camera (always set that very very low), then with lavs you have settings on the receiver and the transmitter. For me, that's a near nightmare. I've worked with a few different combinations, but have settled on settings that allow for crystal clear lav audio without picking up all the audio around my subjects. The sound that comes out of the lavs is so far superior to the Rode mic I found myself trying to do everything I could to get lavs on the people I was talking to. This is one of the biggest areas I can see improvement on my setup in the future. I only had one hotshoe mount set on my rig so when I wanted to switch from the Rode to the lav, I had to take off the rode mic and put on the lav receiver. Seems minor, but was a royal pain in under pressure situations. In the future I'll put an additional cold shoe mount onto the rig so I can just leave the receiver on it at all times and plug it into the camera when I need it.

Sam Briggs -- 2013 Fittest Woman in the World at the CrossFit Games -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 2.8, 1/640th, f2.8 ISO 8000

The P&C rig itself worked well. Video was stable and it was comfortable to use. Only issues I had were the foam on the grips started sliding around. I also continue to have an issue with the mounting bracket at the core of the system being very finicky to lock onto the camera and then continue to stay tight over the course of the day. One other issue I ran into was how quick I was chewing through batteries. At all times I needed to have a battery on the monitor as well as the camera, with a third battery on the charger. In the future a few extra batteries (though pricey) would make life much easier. Using the monitor was also a lot of fun and unbelievably useful. There's a slight lag when you hit the record button, but once it gets going it's incredible helpful. Because the camera is offset on the rig, having a monitor directly in front of my face is huge for seeing the image and frame properly. The other huge benefit is focus peeking. If you've not used it before - it basically means you get a hard outline superimposed on the video output on anything in focus. So as subjects move or you're trying to keep eye contact with a subject, it's easy to know if you're still in focus without operating the camera excessively.

Each night I worked to ingest the footage and photo, backup, and put out some teasers. I've been getting more comfortable cutting with Adobe Premiere (after making the jump from Final Cut) so my turn around time is getting faster and the cuts are looking more like I want them to.

The "King" Marco Coppola hitting a PR clean at about 407lbs -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 2.8, 1/640th, f2.8 ISO 8000 — The "King" Marco Coppola hitting a PR clean at about 407lbs -- Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 2.8, 1/640th, f2.8 ISO 8000

One of the big highlights of the meet for me was finally catching up with the legend himself - and one of my big inspirations - Hookgrip. He and his crew were there, covering the event. It was great meeting a real professional who more than anything else truly loves the sport of weightlifting and wants his content to help promote the sport. Make sure to follow @hookgrip on Instagram and Facebook.

Jared Fleming - Clean and Jerk 196kg (4321.2 lbs) at the 2014 American Open Music: Kid Rock Bawitdaba

I'm always asked for settings so here they are:

I shot in vivid picture control - it adds some coloring and sharpening to the image, which I know video purists hate, but I don't have the time to do an in-depth color grade in post. The vivid setting (punched up a bit more in camera) helps me get a faster final product.

For video, I shot at 720p the whole time and switched between 60fps for any of the lifting and 30fps for everything else. Switching between framerates helps save me substantially in post because the files are smaller, and then switching up to 60FPS allows me to half speed any of the lifting I want to get that silky smooth slow motion. The basic camera settings I had were 1/60th, f2.8, ISO 1600-6400. Also at 30FPS I get a slower shutter speed, squeaking out a little more light in the back rooms. Anytime I was shooting at 60fps, I obviously switched my shutter speed to 1/125th. I generally always used the Tamron 24-70 2.8 VC.

Rode mic audio settings -- In camera manual sensitivity to 2, on mic hi pass filter on and +20 selected.

Lav settings - in camera sensitivity to 4 and I don't remember the lav settings but they were both in the negatives.

For photo I shot with the D4 and a Nikon 70-200 VRII. Settings on the event floor were about 1/640th, F2.8, ISO 8000.

Equipment list:

NikonD4

Nikon D600

Vanguard tripod legs

Lots of memory cards and batteries

Coffee and Smash Burger

First teaser for the full-length video feature

So now begins the long, long process of creating a narrative out of three days of footage. Let the games begin!

Taylar Stallings is Stronger Than You (Part II)

December 10, 2014

At the Move Fast Lift Heavy Invitational weights looked lighter than usual. In Part I you saw Taylar clean 265lbs and nearly hit 270lbs. Below, Taylar went for a huge PR and hit 225. To go for what would have been near the unofficial American record, Taylar went on to attempt 235lbs. I've included all the lifts -- the lifts and the missess -- so you desk coaches at home can weigh in.

Technical stuff: Video shot with the Nikon D600, Sigma 35 1.4, 60FPS, 720, at 1/125th, F4, ISO 2500. Stabilized with a photography & cinema shoulder rig. Edited in Premiere Pro.

PhotoFit #3 (Wide vs. Tight)

December 9, 2014

Today we're going to be talking all about composition - specifically wide vs. tight. My basic go-to lens for all things functional fitness - and pretty much everything else - is my trusty Tamron 24-70 2.8 VC. With this lens, I can get a great head-to-toe shot of a single athlete or back up a little and get the whole scene - the athlete lifting, the crowd cheering, etc. But, I can just as easily zoom all the way to 70mm and get that tight detail shot, or the facial expression when someone nails the perfect lift, or get the war face on the way up from the bottom of a squat.

What we're really talking about here is composition and thinking about what you're framing when you take a photo. In my experience, a basic head-to-toe semi-wide shot is just boring. You have two options really: either pull out farther and get the athlete, plus the crowd around, or go tight, zoom in and really capture the details, up-close and personal. You need to separate yourself from the dozens of iPhones and point-and-shoots that will inevitably be in the crowd.

First off - talking about the benefits of the wide shot and some ways to set yourself up for that in an event situation. You need to do more than just make sure you're settings are dialed in, you need to be aware of what's going on in the room. What athlete is about to lift? Is there a crowd around them? Is a friend, loved one, coach, or judge screaming at them? If so, where should you be to capture that in one frame? Are you on the same side as the crowd? You're going to need to position yourself in such a way that you'll be able to capture the movement, but most importantly also capture the crowd in frame. This is a balancing act, because you'll need to make sure your focus is set on your subject, but often must reframe the shot to then include the crowd or other people in the action.

Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70 2.8, 1/400th, F 2.8, ISO 6400 — Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70 2.8, 1/400th, F 2.8, ISO 6400

Here was a great opportunity for me to back up a bit and take in the whole scene: three athletes doing high level gymnastics (and a giant American flag). Capturing the full scene like this helps highlight how awesome an event was and what the scene was like.

Often times though, these ideal dramatic moments don't happen. Shooting wide (let's saying anything between 14-35mm) constantly gets dull. When you look at the images, your eye often doesn't know what to look at. The viewer isn't forced to a foreground or a specific subject in the image and that leads to a dull photo.

Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70 2.8, 1/320, f 2.8, ISO 12,800

So then, let's take this the other way.... start zooming in. With a 24-70 (or any other mid-range zoom) zooming into 70mm will do two things: isolate the subject you're shooting, and also compress your background. Isolating your subject can be extremely useful. Let's say you're shooting in a crowded room, one of the toughest scenarios can be finding a way to separate out your subject (which should generally be your goal) from other athletes or the athlete from the crowd. If I zoom in I can now begin to pull my subject out of the background. Next step, I can now recompose my shot - perhaps focusing on the head, upper body, and barbell, or even tighter to than that.

A few things to be careful of here: once you start zooming you need to understand that you will be cutting off limbs. There is a right way to do this and a wrong way. For example, if you cut off a hand in the middle, it will look bizarre and awkward, but if you get the whole hand in, or no hand, it will look less "weird." There are guides online with some suggested places to "amputate' your subjects, but it should always be something to pay attention to on the edges of your composition.

Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 VRII, 1/400th, f 2.8, iso 10,000

The other concern is cropping the photo so tight that you don't have any context as to what's going on. If you crop out a barbell or a weight, now you're just left with a sweaty dude/dudette and no explanation of what's happening: is the bar going up or down? How heavy is it? If you took a photo of me deadlifting but zoomed in so tight that it was just my hands on the barbell with the weights cropped out, you wouldn't be able to have any context as to whether I'm lifting 500lbs (unlikely) or 135lbs (more likely). It's not to say you can't do this, but these are things that always need to be in the back of your head as your setting your frame.

The other benefit of zooming in is compression. Once you zoom in, the background of your image will "compress," additionally putting it out of focus and having your subject separate out from the background. On a wide angle shot (14mm, 24mm, 35mm), there is very little, if any out of focus areas (even at f.28) so your subject may not stand out, especially in even lighting. Zoom in tight onto that same subject and ta-da, compressed background and out of focus areas all over, your subject sharp and in the forefront. This effect gets exponentially better the longer the lens you use (I still have dreams about the 200-400 at the 2014 CrossFit Games).

Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70, 1/400, f 2.8, iso 6400

To recap - that head-to-toe shot of a person, while nothing is necessarily "wrong" with it, is boring more times than not. It is a stock shot, something that should be used as a basic coverage image, i.e. 'this happened here." But, the far more dramatic shot that is the difference between ordinary and unique, is to zoom in.

My basic workflow on trying to compose a scene will have me take two images. The first will be a wide shot with the athlete head to toe, noticing if anyone in particular is standing out in the crowd or is on the floor and should be included in the composition. If that's not working, I'll zoom into the subjects head and wait for that moment of exertion and effort: I call it the war face, and that's the moment I'm really looking to capture.

Have at it! Post your experiences and questions to the comments below.

Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70 2.8, 1/400th, F 2.8, ISO 10,000

Move Fast Lift Heavy Invitational Highlights (Photo and Video)

December 8, 2014

On Saturday I did some photo/video coverage for the first ever Move Fast Lift Heavy Invitational at Freedom Athletic Academy in Holbrook, NY. Below are some highlights from the "freakshow." Christian Harris brought together a group of friends to showcase weightlifting, gymnastics, and overall athleticism. Event 1 was a 1RM Snatch and Clean. Event 2 featured a number of gymnastic and strength feats.

The crowd favorite may have been "Taylar Stallings is stronger than...." where she took on two men from the crowd in a max rep deadlift in 60 seconds. The weight? 315lbs. Taylar hit 24 reps.

Event 3 was a high skill metcon featuring triple unders, pistols, weighted pistols, HSPU, and "gymnasties."

Take a look at some of the highlights below. Music: iLoveMakonnen feat Drake "Tuesday"

Of course, a huge thanks to MFLH for having me and all the athletes for letting me capture this awesome showcase of skills and strength.

Nikon D4, Sigma 15mm 2.8, 1/400th, F 2.8, ISO 6,400

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Taylar Stallings is Stronger than You (Part I)

December 7, 2014

I'll be posting more from the Move Fast Lift Heavy invitational tomorrow (aka the Freakshow) but I wanted to start off with a nice "light" cleaning session. Taylar Stallings (aka the woman that can out lift nearly everyone) worked up to 265lbs successfully, and then proceeded to attempt 270lbs. Huge lifts all around for what was just an exhibition. The snatch comes out tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Technical details: Video shot with the Nikon D600, 720p, 60fps. I believe my exposure was 1/125, F/4, ISO 3200, Lens Sigma 35 1.4. I stabilized the shot using my work-in-progress shoulder rig from Photography and Cinema which I'm still getting used to. Edited in Adobe Premiere (I just made the jump from Final Cut)

As always, follow @supercleary on Instagram and Twitter and @superclearyphoto on Facebook.

Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 2.8 VRII, 1/400th, F 2.8, ISO 6400 - CrossFit Bayside's Epic Showdown

PhotoFit #2 (A guide to posting the best content)

December 4, 2014

Instead of focusing on something technical like ISO or aperture, today I want to talk a little more broadly about how to make yourself look like the best shooter possible; a sort of do's and don'ts of how to present your images. Presentation can be considered a number of different things but these ideals hold true no matter the format: Instagram, Facebook, twitter, website, portfolio, etc. The best photographers constantly miss focus, composition, and exposure, but if you look at what they release online, you would never know that, and it's because they are following some of these steps below. In before any backlash, I've done nearly every single one of these 'don'ts,' and it won't take long to pull up examples from my instagram feed.

Don't...

...post images that are out of focus. No matter how good of a moment you believe you've captured, make sure to zoom in 1:1 and the image remains tack sharp on the subject's eye. Unfortunately, if it doesn't it's not useable and only undermines your overall portfolio. A professional looking over your work will immediately spot "soft" images, while the general public will often just not gravitate to the image because it looks amateur.

...post images that show bad movement patterns or positions, or show people in a less than positive light. Yes, human beings, and competitive exercisers will often find themselves in horrendous positions during training and especially during competitions, but that doesn't mean you need to highlight that moment online. Catching a snatch or clean on a knee might have been a "heroic" movement at local event, but highlighting it further encourages bad technique that can result in injuries. Don't highlight images that could potentially embarrass an athlete. Whether a nip slip, an ugly fail, or a little gut sticking out: it might be perfectly exposed, but there's a real person in that photo that might not want you to be broadcasting that.

Nikon D4, Sigma 35 1.4, 1/320th, F1.8, ISO 6400 -- CrossFit GSP Devil's Games

...edit your images (whether in Lightroom, Photoshop, or an app) so heavily that the subjects are nearly unrecognizable or appear made of some type of stone or rubber. Yes, artistic expression is amazing, and everyone has their own particularly taste, but just because a slider goes to +100 does not mean it needs to be utilized every time. The two biggest sliders to use with caution with are Clarity and Noise Reduction. If an image is not impressive without hours of post processing, it may just not be that good of an image in the first place. You have to be honest with the content you produce and whether you think it's good, or it's just a photoshop monstrosity.

...post images with bizarre crops and amputations. Have a great shot but half of the head of the main subject is cut off? It's not that great of a shot. This is focusing on composition. This rule holds true with hands and feet especially: if an image is framed as a head to toe hero shot of someone hitting the big lift, but the right foot is cut in half, it damages the quality of the image. Hands are the same way: someone grasping a barbell but half of their fingers are cut by the edge of the frame is inherently "painful" to look at. Of course, this is hugely contested and sometimes a little chopped foot here or missing hand there won't damage an image, but for the most part, this is a rule to live by.

...watermark your images so heavily that the main subject just looks like a footnote to your brand name. I understand the idea behind watermarking. Most look at it as a way to ensure their images will not get "stolen," but anyone with an amateurish knowledge of photoshop can easily clone brush it out. If someone actively wants to "steal" your image, they will. You should accept that nearly all content you post to the internet will end up somewhere you probably don't want it, and you can drive yourself insane trying to regulate that. I obviously use a watermark on all my Facebook and Instagram posts, but am not doing that to prevent theft, but instead to help promote my work with some built in branding. If I'm lucky enough to have my images shared, reposted, or reused, it benefits me for others to know where that photo came from, without completely blanketing the image in a monstrous watermark. I will always customize to fit the image in both size, proportion, and opacity (easily controlled in Lightroom).

Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200 2.8, 1/320th, F2.8, ISO 10,000 - Beat the Bracket by Team Dangerous

Do...

...capture the critical moment, or the start/finish of a movement. Especially on fast movements, we all get a little trigger happy and may fire off 10 frames. The professional skims all these frames and only selects that critical moment - the transition on the muscle up, full extension on the snatch, or the bottom position of a squat. Likewise - imagery of the start of finish of the movement is just as clean: standing tall with a bar over head, locked out in a dip, or setup on a tireflip. What's to be avoided is that grey area in between: awkward moments from that start to finish or leading into that critical moment. The easiest test to see if something is in one of those "between moments" is, if you had no context for this image, would you understand what is going on? Can you understand if the bar is going up or down? Is the athlete jumping or landing? Standing still or moving? If an image doesn't convey that sort of context without a caption, you're missing that critical moment.

Nikon D600, Tamron 24-70 2.8, 1/400th, F2.8, ISO 2500 - CrossFit Dynamix training with Brazen Athletics

...highlight people's achievements and successes, capture emotions. The strongest images are always those that we can empathize with. Being able to feel what people felt (and that's not always a celebration) in a scene helps make the image resonate with the viewer. One of my consistently most popular images on social media is a shot from CrossFit Dynamix when Michelle Kercado hit a 235 squat clean PR. She's surrounded by her friends and team cheering and screaming. One glance at that image and you know how loud that room was, you know the excitement, and you know that lift was important. Now, you could have someone hitting a huge PR on a lift, but without a background of people cheering, or the athlete showing real energy, that might not really make for much of an image at all. If you find yourself shooting events often, great moments to keep an eye on for these sorts of "emotional explosions" are the finish of an event, or the last person to finish an event. Often times, the largest celebration always come when the circle forms around the last athlete on the floor as they work through their final reps. An important note here: a PR is a PR. The celebration of I've seen from someone hitting their first double under was far greater than Rich Froning hitting a 305 snatch at the 2014 CrossFit Invitational. Remember it's all relative here, a scaled athlete hitting a 135lb clean might be a years-long accomplishment - don't miss it because it's someone else's warmup weight.

...not care if your image violates every rule listed here and elsewhere on the internet. If you think what you have is good, you should ignore everyone and follow that vision.

Make sure to tune into superclearyphoto.com for our holiday sale - 20% off all images with code 'xmas20'. My goal is to finally keep up with this blog and try to make this a semi-weekly column. Please feel free to post some content suggestions below so I know what you're looking for. And as always, follow @supercleary on instagram and SuperClearyPhoto on Facebook.

PhotoFit #0 (A Primer for the Basics of low-light Action Sports)

July 10, 2013

Do you want to take incredible action shots of sports, fitness, action, and CrossFit? Well look no further. Over a long series of blog posts I'm going to try and explain what I do to get my shots and hope in the process demystify some of the magic around amazing sports imagery.

In this series of posts, I'm always going to top them with the PWOD - Photography Workout of the Day (whoa that's cheesy) - whether settings, gear, or the technique we're talking about. In this post I'm going to go over some of the basics of photography that are common among all cameras, but then explain some of the settings that I explicitly use when shooting this style. All of these points will have a post eventually, but here are the basics.

PWOD - 7/10/2013

Always shoot in manual (unless you're outside, then use Aperture Priority)
Always shoot in Raw
Fast shutter speeds - 1/200th minimum
Fast Glass - As wide open as possible - f2.8 is always a great go-to
ISO - 1600-3200
Single Shutter (no motor-driving unless in special circumstances)
Center-Weighted Metering
Continuous Focus Mode
Back-button focusing (takes time to get used to, but will blow your mind)
Auto White Balance

And now the rest of the Primer and back to the basics.

There is nothing more important than understanding the Exposure Triangle

Three things make up the perfect exposure

Aperture - how wide your lens opens when the shutter is released - from f/22 (the most narrow, letting in the least amount of light to f 2.8 or lower in some cases, letting in the most light)

Shutter speed - how long the shutter on the camera is open for

ISO (sometimes called ASA or film speed) - how sensitive the camera is to light (from ISO 100 least sensitive to 6400 and above the most sensitive

It's all about tradeoffs to get the right exposure.

When you're trying to get the perfect shot, you have to look at each of these settings and determine what it is you want. As you make these decisions, you're balancing tradeoffs as all three settings are interconnected.

ISO (higher iso, more light, more noise, lower iso, less light, less noise)

Aperture (wider aperture shallow depth of field, more light, less focus, narrow aperture deep depth of field, less light more focus)

Shutter Speed (faster shutter, less light, sharper image, less blur / slower shutter, more light, less sharp, more blur)

So when you're trying to get the perfect shot, you look at a scenario: so I could get my image bright enough, but the ISO would be so high the image would be too noisy to use. Or to get the shot exposed right, I have to slow the shutter so much that my subject is blurry. Generally with this style of photography, you're always battling to get more light into a shot, so these tradeoffs are always in the forefront of my mind - and that of any photographer.

Some of the other key points to always remember are to shoot in RAW. Whether you're on Canon or Nikon, shooting RAW is an uncompressed format that doesn't "bake" settings into the file and allows you the ability to fully process your images. I strongly recommend always post-processing in Lightroom. With the additions of Lightroom 5, you'll be blown away by your ability to expertly finish your images.

Single shutter is also critical. Most sport shooters are going to leave their cameras in "Continuous High" which allows the camera to shoot as rapidly as possible when you hold down the shutter button. This allows the shooter to "spray and pray," hoping that in a barrage of 20 images, on frame is perfect. I think this is the wrong way to go about shooting, especially if you call yourself a beginner. Every shot you want to key in on composition, focus, and exposure. You want to think before you press the shutter, not just hope you get the shot. You want to think about everything that goes into the shot, not just let the camera do all the work. Setting your camera in "single shutter" means that you have to press the shutter each time you want a frame. Even in intense and exciting moments, you can still fire away - easily getting multiple frames per second, but you avoid the temptation to just hold the shutter down and "motor drive" through megabytes.

Another key setting in your camera's setup that's critical is metering. I generally lean toward "center-weighted" metering, which means your cameras internal light meter cares more about the middle of the frame than the whole image, and will accordingly base its exposure off of that. The other option is "spot" metering. That will set the light meter to only expose for exactly what the cameras focus point is on. Only in certain situations will this work properly, because it will often lead to extremely blown out backgrounds.

White Balance - set it to "Auto." You're awesome and you're shooting RAW now. One key advantage is that white balance isn't baked into the file and you can fully change it in post processing.

And last but not least - focus mode. Always use continuous for Nikon or (Ai-Servo for Canon) . At least on the Nikon side there are a number of additional options - basically just outlining how many focus points your camera should use. These range from D9-D39, sometimes more. Pick any of them and see how they work differently. Continuous focus means that once you half-press the shutter, the camera will continue to adjust the focus of whatever you keep the focus point on (exactly what you want on moving targets). We'll get into back button focus later on, but I think that's hugely helpful for nailing these types of tight action shots.

Quick review: action photography is all about tradeoffs, especially when you're indoors. You are always trying to get the fastest shutter speed possible, but are limited by the ambient light. Therefore you're setting your aperture wide open and then are left with finding the right balance between ISO and shutter speed, where your shutter is fast enough to get a proper exposure, but your ISO is low enough that only an acceptable amount of noise is introduced to the image. So go out and shoot. Get your camera into full manual and play around with these settings. Each one of these concepts will be fully expanded down the line, but feel free to chime in and ask me specifics before. Post your results below or send me a Facebook link.

PhotoFit #1 - Why are all my images blurry? (Shutter Speed 101)

July 9, 2013

Let's kick off #photofit by getting right into it: blurry photos. I hear again and again, about people telling me that when they're at their gym or CrossFit affiliate and they try to shoot their friends doing something awesome, it always comes out blurry! Now, there are a number of things that could contribute to this, but the leading cause is very likely shutter speed. Whether you have an iPhone, a point-and-shoot, or a fancy DSLR, you have ways of controlling the camera, and the following tips should help.

I'm going to put together a primer on the basics of photography that will serve as a blueprint to a lot of these how-to's, but let's pretend I already wrote that, or you have a decent base of knowledge about the exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed, iso).

The constant battle all photographers deal with is about light. The unique challenge that photographers of CrossFit - or any kind of indoor actions - have to deal with is the extreme low light.

What happens when you take a shot inside in these lowlight conditions is your camera's computer takes over and figures out a way to get a good exposure. Depending on how your camera is set, it will generally bring your aperture to its widest setting (as close to f 2/8 or as wide open as possible), raise your ISO to a higher setting (perhaps 1600), and then slow your shutter speed down to a painfully slow setting (like 1/40th of second).

If you want to wow your buddies with your action shots, it's time to move away from "auto" mode and move towards either Aperture priority (A on Nikon, AV on Canon) or man-up and just set your camera on "Manual" where you control all three of the settings that go into the exposure triangle. Right here you can take a short cut and get to the punchline of the post:

PWOD - 7/9/2913

Set your camera to manual.
Set your ISO to 1600 or 3200.
Set your aperture to its widest setting (2.8 on expensive lenses, 3.5 on cheaper lenses).
Set your shutter speed to a minimum of 1/200th of a second. Go out and shoot. Post experiences to comments.

Now if you want to understand why those are the settings to go with most of the time, let's pick it up here. What's going on when your camera is in "Auto," is it doesn't understand action is about to go down, so it slows the shutter way down to the point where a person moving comes out blurry. Now you're a smart shooter and are anticipating action, so you need to set your camera appropriately.

Depending on how fast a movement is, a floor of 1/200th of a second is usually a good baseline. Occasionally you'll want to get creative and use shutter speeds slower than this if you want blur - i.e. shooting someone swinging a kettlebell. With a setting around 1/100th of a second, you'll get a blurry kettlebell, but a sharp face.

Now, all your other decisions are based off of getting enough light to get a proper exposure at 1/200th of second. If you're at some perfectly lit gym, this isn't that much of a challenge. 1/200th of a second could actually lead to an image that is too bright (that's a good problem to have and you'd just lower your ISO or raise your shutter speed). But most of the time the struggle is to get the image bright enough. So you have two settings to pull this off - your aperture and your ISO. Aperture is the easy one and you'll always do the same thing. Whatever lens you have, you want yours shooting as "wide open" as possible - meaning that it is the lowest number available. For instance - a Nikon 70-200 2.8 can go to f2.8 at its widest whereas the Nikon 55-200 4.5-5.6 can only open to f4.5 at its widest. F2.8 lets more light in than f4.5. Lens get more expensive the wider they go.

ISO is the other challenge. ISO impacts how sensitive your camera is to light. Outisde, you'd shoot at ISO 100 - meaning the camera is insensitive to light which allows you to get properly exposed bright days. As you raise the ISO the camera becomes more sensitive to light, but also introduces a villain to the picture - noise. Noise is digital static that will impact the color and quality of your image. You don't want it if you can stop it. The most expensive cameras, beyond a number of other advantages, handle low light much better and allow you to shoot at extremely high ISO settings (6400 and above) without much "noise."

So for your ISO, in most gyms I go into, you need to start around ISO 1600 - which may push lower-end cameras in that it will introduce noise, but are easily handled by most DSLRs now. If you take a test shot at the settings I outlined above (1/200th of a second, f 2.8 (if possible), ISO 1600) and it still is dark, the only place to go is up on your ISO - next stop 2000, 2500, or 3200. Each step up will introduce more noise, but will brighten the resulting image. If I had the choice between a blurry action shot that didn't have noise or a sharp action shot that had noise (because you pushed your ISO), I would always take the sharp shot. A blurry shot is garbage - no matter how special the moment might be. If you capture the perfect moment - the top of a clean or transition of a muscle-up and it's perfectly exposed, no one will care if the corners of the image of noisy.

Homework time: head to your gym or box, and get out of "Auto." Start off at the settings I've outlined above 1/200th of a second, your wides available aperture, and a starting point of ISO 1600. Work up from there and see how the images come out? I guarantee your images will be sharper than ever before! Post to comments below.

SCP-FIT Now a Domain

July 9, 2013

no more are the days of superclearyphoto-squarespace.com - I finally pulled the trigger and simplified things.

Let me know what you think? How's the navigation? Can you find what you're looking for?

Stay tuned for the first Photo Fit blog post. I'm going to be starting a series of "how-to" on photography at CrossFit Gyms and CrossFit Events - from the technical to the conceptual. Have any questions? Hit me!

SuperClearyPhoto CrossFit-Centric Portfolio Now Live

April 30, 2013

Always trying the newest and best, this is my stab at developing a CrossFit-only photography portfolio via SquareSpace. Please excuse any errors in the site as it is still under development.