During my time in the business I?ve learned many things that might help new photographers who want to sit ringside?
Never wear anything white when photographing a boxing event. Bloodstains are permanent. I learned that when I shot my first show over forty years ago. During my time in the business I?ve learned many things that might help new photographers who want to sit ringside.
Boxing presents unique challenges for a photographer. With a few suggestions the trials can be overcome and the photographs rewarding. When I say suggestions I do not mean rules. Listening to self-proclaimed experts, including me, can give you a foundation for decent pictures but following anyone?s suggestions without deviation will stifle creativity. Never believe someone who says you cannot take a photograph for various reasons, just use your imagination and take the shot differently.
Suggestion No 1 = Research the Sport. Learning about any sport is essential to good photography. This is especially true in boxing. Ignorance leads to many wasted opportunities. Boxers do more than stand there and try to hit one another. They use certain footwork, throw a variety of punches, and use various strategies for offense and for defense. Some boxers are aggressive and initiate blows while others are passive and prefer to counterpunch. Some are boxers and some are punchers. Knowing what each person is doing will help in your photographic decisions.
Suggestion No 2 = Lighting. Do not worry about it. Except for a television fight lighting is often disastrous. When using film, with limited ISOs from 400 to 800, the trouble is much greater than with a decent digital camera using ISOs of 3200 or faster. Of course with slower speeds you might want a lens of at least f2.8 or faster. There is nothing you can do about the light. Light is what it is so you must use your technical and creative ability. I constantly run across decent boxing photographers who claim you must use shutter speeds of 1/500 or faster and many like to shoot at 1/1,000 or faster because they want all the action stopped. This is where listening to experts can get you into trouble. You might not have a lens or camera with such capability and get discouraged. These experts think a totally still action picture is the best kind. I seldom shoot faster than 1/250 and sometimes even 1/30 or slower. To me, taking an action shot that shows no action is ridiculous. How does that kind of shot differ from one staged by two people standing still with their arms out? I want to see motion?faces, gloves, some body part slightly blurred. This is where knowing the sport comes in handy. If you want a fairly sharp picture and can only use a slow shutter speed, snap the shutter at the peak of action such at the end of a punch where the glove comes to a complete stop before being withdrawn the same way you might shoot a jumper in the air when he stops before coming down.
Suggestion No 3 = Access. People not into the sport of boxing do not realize that bouts take place fairly often, usually small events with fighters on the way up or even amateur and Golden Gloves fights. Being allowed to photograph from ringside is often easy. Fighters and promoters want pictures of their fights. A promoter will usually exchange your entrance for a few prints. Do a decent job and he will allow you in every time, even when he has a big fight. Local promoter Brian Halquist let me into his events when we both got started and there I perfected many of my skills. He is now the top promoter in the area. Also, boxers all want pictures of their fights; but a word of caution. ALWAYS collect your money before you send them any pictures. If you send them a picture first, at their request, you will never get paid, guaranteed.
Suggestion No 4 = Photographer Positioning. Always get as close to the ring apron as possible. Often there will be rows of tables around the ring, especially in small shows. Judges, boxing officials, special guests, reporters, and high rollers use these tables. Usually photographers will have to sit behind the tables. For an older photographer that makes for a miserable night of work because you will have to lean across the table to shoot under the bottom ring rope for several hours. Young photographers will learn to cope. Often you can squeeze between the tables where they abut. You never have to worry about this at a big television fight. One side of the apron is left blank and will be filled with standing photographers, often from around the world. Fifty or more photographers vie for the 10 or 12 spots. The rest must sit in the stands using telephotos and make out the best they can.
Suggestion 5 = One at a Time. Concentrate on one fighter at a time. Action happens quickly in a fight and trying to watch both fighters at the same time only leads to complications. I generally alternate rounds concentrating on one fighter and then the other, or I concentrate on the fighter throwing the most punches.
Suggestion 6 = Fighter Side-by-Side Positioning. Now for the fun part. There are several tricks to get the best boxing shots. Shoot fighters side-by-side on a horizontal line. Because you will be shooting with a large aperture you will have limited depth-of-field. If the fighters are side-by-side in front of you they will both be in decent focus. You also have a chance of seeing both faces. If one fighter is behind the other on a lateral line only one will be in focus and only one face can be seen. (I take many pictures like this, anyway, especially if I am trying to capture a single expression.)
Suggestion 6 = Shoot the Far Arm. Generally shoot the arm farthest from you. If you shoot the nearest arm a fighter often blocks his face as well as his opponents. Also, avoid jabs. Jabs are straight punches from the leading arm. Because they are straight, they lack interest. From a compositional standpoint curves on people are generally more appealing than straight lines and these punches also block faces. Stick to the far arms and your shots will improve greatly. Shoot when bodies and legs are bent for the same compositional reasons.
Suggestion 7 = Body Shots. Body shots and uppercuts are especially nice because they are thrown when a fighter?s legs and body is bent. Again this gives a nice curve to the shot and the faces are visible.
Suggestion 8 = Patterns. Hitting the shutter at the right time is almost impossible without practice. You must depress the shutter before the punch is thrown, not because the camera is too slow but because our reactions are too slow. To help with this problem start looking for patterns in the boxers. Most boxers fall into various patterns throughout a fight. The longer a fight goes the more they fall into these patterns. They might throw two left jabs followed by a right. Wait until the two lefts are thrown then, as soon as you see his right shoulder start to move hit the shutter. After any lefts are thrown look for rights because he can throw nothing else. Likewise, after he throws a right or two he must throw a left. You will get the hang of it fairly quickly.
Suggestion 9 = Lens Variation. Boxing is one of the few sports that can be shot with just a 50mm lens. Even if you use some type of zoom lens you will find that you are shooting somewhere around the 50mm range anyway. Do not be afraid to try something different. Some photographers consistently shoot full body shots while others shoot mostly from the waste up. Because I am interested in expressions I crop pretty tightly. My shots are really portraits. I only shoot full body if I know someone is going to be knocked out and then I often do something I never see other photographers do?I shoot with a 10mm lens. If I know a boxer is coming close to being knocked out, I switch to this lens and take a chance that it will happen near me. If it does I get a great shot.
Suggestion 10 = Later Rounds. Because I am an old analog photographer I try not to waste shots. I still remember the cost of film. I always shoot a few shots in the first round in case the fight ends early. I then wait. I might shoot several frames in each round to keep busy but I don?t get serous until the later rounds. As a fight progresses a fighter wears down. He gets bloodied, swells up, and covered with sweat. These are the shots you want. You want the muscles to ripple and glisten with moisture, the expression of defeat, survival or conquest on the face; and you especially want flying sweat. Nothing frames a punch like the darkness lit with sweat and water. The best time to get these shots is at the beginning of the final rounds because the corner will have doused the fighter with water to cool him down and he is sweating like a cold beer bottle in a warm room.
Suggestion 11 = Early Fights. The first fights on a card, the four-rounders between fighters making pro debuts or with only a few fights on their records, are the easiest to photograph. New fighters are learning their trade. They come in exposed, swing too wide, forget to duck and cover up, have their hands and faces out of position. All of this makes for better pictures because they are not protected and their faces are wide open. Excellent boxers, those at the tops of their trade, are usually covered up. You get far fewer decent shots with champions unless they have become champions through their willingness to get hit without effect.
Suggestion 12 = Don?t Embarrass Yourself. Look and act like a professional photographer, not a videographer. I hate those people who own a digital camera and simply hold down the shutter release and take a thousand or more photos. This shows a lack of photographic skill for the art and respect of the medium and such people are no different than a monkey with a typewriter. Eventually he will type something. Eventually such people get a decent shot but they do it through luck, not skill. I seldom shoot more than 20 shots per bout, most of which I delete. There is only one best shot in any fight. Between rounds I look at the shots I have. I pick the best one and delete the rest. Then each round I look for a better image. If I have one I replace the first shot. I continue doing this until I have the best shot of each fighter. At the end of each bout I have only a few pictures unless I want to show something specific like an uppercut, or hook, or a certain expression.
Suggestion 13 = Have Fun. This is your chance to cut loose and enjoy the night. Celebrities, great and small, often attend fights. Here is your chance to get some shots, and fighters, unlike many sports figures, are readily accessible and, contrary to their vicious trade, extremely friendly.
