Airsoft photography

[Cannonfodder80]

Hello all, I've recently got myself a new camera and I've decided to start getting some in game pictures for the site's facebook page. After my first outing I found it's a lot harder than it first looks trying to get a good shot while not giving people's position away, getting in the way of others or getting shot myself. So what I'm asking is if anyone has any tips I'll be very appreciative

[Turvs]

Don't really have any tips but I have just started airsoft again after about 8 years and want to try and do a bit of photography for it.

 

What gear do you have and are you using anything to protect the camera?

I don't really want to take my D750 and have it take a hit. However it will probably take a hit better than my D5100.

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Cannonfodder80]

Nothing protecting the lens but I'm only using a second hand Fujifilm finepix S1900 so if it takes a hit, while I'll probably be off, it won't break the bank. So far I'm thinking of getting a high visibility hat as I had one incident where a player could only see my head and fired thinking I was a legitimate target (I might use a blue UN helmet)

[NonEx]

Not from experience but just based on your first post my idea is this; 

 

Drone photography

 

Out of the way, good mobility and cool angles.

[curlyboy]

You don't say what camera you are using but If you are using a D-SLR I found using a longer lens like a 70-300mm better for Airsoft as you don't have to be close enough to give anyone away and you can get more action shots at distance which means less chance of your lens being hit, I also suggest using a UV filter if that gets hit it is £15 to replace.

 

Curlyboy

[jal3]

Take lots of identifying shots of random people (eg. headshots). Even if the photo doesn't stand out that much, it gathers personal interest from that person when you publicize it. Good way to spread your photo's on facebook.

 

Get some proper hi-vis gear. Bring yellow and green or orange. Being able to stand out from site ref's is important; you don't want to be confused for a ref during gameplay (and ref's don't like it either).

Get a hi-vis helmet or hat. Often, only your head is visible.

 

Prepare for low light shooting if you want to shoot any sort of indoor photo's.

Centered light reading is best IMO.

People in black uniforms will make everything around them overbright. Screw people who wears black.

 

I shoot a-dep mode (ISO and apeture is locked, shutterspeed self adjusts). I find that setting the light sensor just a tiny step below normal (so everything i slightly darker) yields a better result in general.

 

In airsoft, you move through various areas quickly. The terrain you're in will affect the colour balance on your photo's. Color of the walls, carpet, trees above you etc will change the colours on the photo (radiant lightning). You must constantly check that the white balance is right for you (shoot photo, check screen, change setting, repeat).

 

Check that your monitor looks alright. It ain't easy, but if you know it's off (colour balances, etc), make an effort to correct it within capability (pro's use hardware calibration tools etc, more money).

 

Your lense (integrated in your case) will have some "performance" sweetspots aperture wise. If i max out at 1.8 with my 50mm, i get horrible chromatic abberation (purple tint on white/black borders). I need to be at 5.0 ish to get the best picture quality.

 

The sun is your enemy. Never let the sun hit your lense (even if you can't see it in the lense). It will wash out your photo.

 

Check out https://www.facebook.com/SpeedGamesDK/

All shot with Canon 550D and 50mm prime.

[Cannonfodder80]

Thanks, I'll have a fiddle with the settings and practice

[Mike 8-{>]

Some things I have learned photographing woodland and in general ....

 

If your camera has a filter thread around the lens, and I'm not sure yours does (we can look next time we are both at TB), then get a UV / Skylight filter to give you some lens protection.

 

Use the telephoto to your advantage. 300m to 70mm as mentioned is a good length. (Or equivalent on bridge / compact cameras) Watch out for the maximum aperture getting smaller at the long end of the telephoto i.e. less light gets in when zoomed out to the longest zoom so you might need to adjust exposure.

 

Use higher ISO speed settings to try help shift the shutter speed up.

 

Depending on the photo you might want to use a larger aperture to knock distracting background detail out of focus or use a smaller aperture to capture a player in the foreground and their opponent in the background in focus (smaller aperture = more depth of field in focus) Look up Depth of Field!. I am always juggling ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture depending on what I am trying to photograph.

 

Try not to spend too long composing a shot, particularly if someone is well hidden and the opfor are closing in. You wont win friends by giving someones position away. As I mentioned when we spoke I try to make a point of lining up shots of bushes and in directions where there is no-one so that neither side can use where my attention is as a guide to where players might be. With practice you get used to the settings you need and taking the shots faster. Keeping the camera to your face a lot of the time can help.

 

Watch out for things in the foreground which your mind shuts out inexplicably. I find a lot of shots when I get home where there are branches/boundary tapes/ropes across peoples faces/key details which ruin the image but I didn't perceive them when taking the shot. Reviewing your photos and learning from them which work or don't helps a lot.

 

Rule of thirds! Look it up

 

Take photos of folks walking out at the start of a game and back to the safezone after. Folks like full body shots of themselves (and their team mates / buddys) fully kitted out and will often pose for the camera. Also try and get shots of folks in the safezone. You can capture some cracking candid shots this way.

 

Get used to the difference between your viewfinder view and the finished image. Depending on the camera their may be parallax (alignment) differences or scaling (some viewfinders show less than the finished image which can lead to you leaving more space around the subject than is strictly necessary or more cutting off heads / feet)

 

Try to keep your camera horizontal, at least to start with funny angles can work but walk first then run

 

Take *lots* of photos. These days memory is dirt cheap so you can take loads and filter out the poor ones later. In time you will be able to have a better good to poor ratio

 

If you are trying to capture action then use the fastest frame rate you can. Some cameras have a single shot mode (press shutter and hold only take a single shot) and a multishot mode (press and hold shutter and it keeps shooting until either the memory buffer is full or you take your finger off.)

 

If you trying to get a better handle on exposure see if your camera does "bracketing" Some cameras will allow you to take one photo and the camera will automatically take 2 or more with higher and lower exposures around the central one. I can set mine to take 5 exposures with anything from a 1/3rd of a stop to a full stop exposure difference between them  (see her for explanation of f-stop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number)

 

Focus lock is your friend. A half press of the shutter release will usually operate the autofocus. Sometimes you want to focus on something in the centre of your viewfinder but then not have it in the centre of the finished image. Keep the shutter release half pressed once you have the image / feature / person you want in focus then shift the camera to reframe the image before fully pressing the shutter release to take the shot.

 

Apologies if this is stuff you already know. Hope it is useful.

[tquilha]

To avoid the white balance problem, shoot in RAW format, if your camera has it. The files will be a lot larger, but you can tweak all the settings at home on your computer at leisure.

Definitely get a UV/skylight filter to protect the lens. It'll probably break the first time it gets shot, but it's a lot cheaper than a new lens.

Take lots of pictures. Practice makes perfect.

You can also try to go the full "combat photographer" way. No hi-vis vests, just play along and take your hits like everyone else...