Behind the picture: technical breakdown (Feb. 14/14)

john king photo
The technical breakdown of this photo reveals the use of a 50 millimetre lens due to poor lighting 
conditions created a situation where it was difficult to properly frame a photograph.

Because I was using an older Canon model, I realized I had to pull every trick up my sleeve to get a shot worth publishing. It took about a good half an hour or so to finally reach a somewhat proper setting for the tough low-light environment of the Thompson Rivers University gym.  

To make matter worse, I hadn't shot sports in some time. Lately, most of my photography is done using an iPhone, which I use serendipitously, taking photos of whatever suits my fancy. So I was out of touch with the problems associated with this type of shooting environment. Of course, the female volleyball players didn't make matters any better. The game is played fast, with points won in decisive battles. 

After watching the game for a little while, I stopped paying attention to the score and watched the movements of the players. Volleyball is one of those sports where a photograph is able to capture the complete symmetry and motion of the human body -- it's kind of like tennis or basketball where players are not obscured by pads and bulky uniforms. 

To take this photograph, I used a 50 millimetre lens with a shutter speed fast enough to track the athletes and an aperture opened as wide as possible to let in as much light as possible. I kept the film speed as low as possible to avoid graininess, which has been the ruin of many a sport photo. 

Using the 50 millimetre lens made it tough to frame the kind of shot I was looking for -- a spike ending with a point for TRU. The constraints of the framing size when using this sort of lens forces the photographer to take their photos close up, which often eliminates a lot of options. In this case, sitting in the front row of the stands, I was essentially trying to frame the top half of the player's body. I missed the shot a number of times because of improper focus or simply because the interesting elements (the ball, player, etc.) were not in the frame.

The technical aspects of the photo are as follows:

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Date-Time: 2/7/2014 – 8:13:44 PM
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
Exposure: Manual
f-stop: 1.8
ISO: 400
Lens: EF50mm f/1.8
Metering Mode: Evaluative

What is photo gazetteer?

The story behind the photograph is just as important as the photograph itself. This is a blog that will look at the stories behind the photographs shaping our world, everything from the small and mundane, to the big and spectacular. Feel free to comment on photos and share your own.

This blog is managed by designer and journalism student John King