How to shoot a dragon boat during the Dragon Boat Festival?

How to shoot the dragon boat during the Dragon Boat Festival? Shooting skills ▎ Equipment preparation

When shooting dragon boat races, many spectators choose consumer cameras that are easy to operate. However, consumer cameras are not good at capturing pictures, and the continuous shooting speed and focusing speed of most consumer cameras can't meet the shooting requirements.

The shooting effect of SLR cameras is naturally much higher than that of consumer cameras. Nowadays, both photographers and ordinary beginners like to buy a SLR camera as their own portable machine. However, from the perspective of shooting dragon boats, there is little difference in image quality between the entry camera and the high-end SLR camera during daytime shooting, but the focus of the high-end SLR camera is faster and more accurate, which is very important for capturing. In addition, if you want to take close-ups of distant dragon boat athletes, then a telephoto camera is essential. The use method is similar to that of a SLR camera, as long as the zoom ring is manually rotated.

The choice of SLR camera lens is also very important. If you just want to shoot faster, then, one? Walking around the world in the mirror? A large zoom lens is very suitable. If you like to record the lively atmosphere of the dragon boat race, then a zoom lens with a constant aperture from wide angle to medium focal length will be more suitable, such as a lens with a specification of 24-70mm F2.8 on the market. Finally, I want to talk about telephoto lenses. 400mm lens is needed for close-range shooting on shore. At this time, the zoom lens is more mobile, but an excellent long fixed-focus lens can achieve better results.

Watching the dragon boat race in the hot sun, if you use a telephoto lens, it won't take long. A tripod or a monopod is very useful at this time. It can not only stabilize the camera, but also reduce the fatigue of hands. If you want to shoot the dragon boat race at close range, it is also necessary to take waterproof measures for the equipment. There are many professional waterproof devices on the market. If you want to save money, you can also modify the tarpaulin for your own use.

▎ Select the shooting theme and location.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, besides the dragon boat race, there are many details worth recording, such as dragon boat rice, dragon boat making, dragon boat launching and so on. However, because the location of the pre-competition activities is not fixed, it is best to make a field trip first, and it is best to learn about the process from the participating teams, so that you can shoot calmly with a wide-angle to medium-focus lens.

In the dragon boat race, generally speaking, the audience is watching from the shore. You can record the whole game with a wide-angle lens, but try to be in the front row. This is because when there are many viewers, using a wide-angle lens in the back position will capture too much unnecessary content. In addition, if there is a bridge on the water, you may wish to occupy a good position in advance and overlook the panoramic view of the game from the commanding heights.

Shooting skill

Shooting a documentary can't be done by holding the camera and pressing the shutter. Be sure to set the camera in advance and be ready to take a snapshot at any time. Whether it's a consumer camera or a SLR camera, you should first set the camera to continuous shooting mode and turn on the anti-shake function. If the light is not too dim during daytime shooting, the ISO sensitivity can be fixed at a lower value.

If shooting with an external flash, it is recommended to use M-range manual exposure mode and fix the ISO sensitivity at 100 or 200. Because the external flash needs a certain flash synchronization time to shoot, the shutter must be controlled between 1/200- 1/250 seconds, depending on the camera performance, and the exposure can be controlled by adjusting the aperture.