Beginner Advice for Chess Club photos?

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Steve922

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Steve
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I'm thinking of taking some photographs at my local chess club during matches. They would be of two types :-
1. A single photo of the whole match in progress to add to a website match report. This would be 5 boards, 2 players each.
2. Some individual candid portraits of our team members playing the game.

The chess matches normally take place in the evenings in upstairs or back rooms of pubs. The rooms vary in size but typical would be around 3m to 5m wide, 5m to 15m long with pub furniture and more often than not a little cramped. A match is 5 boards (10 players) Lighting is normaly 'medium well lit.'

All the photos would be un-posed and not intrusive. I don't get to arrange or disturb the tables or players. I have no control over lighting, background objects (lots in pub rooms!) and normaly have never seen the room until we arrive to play. So we're talking very general here. On the plus side, these photos are not important; no-one needs them and if poor will ever see them. But it would be nice to have these on our website.

I'm guessing for the match photo my 18-55 kit lens to get a wide enough view and for the portraits my 55-200 lens and (at idealy around 100mm) with as large an aperture as possible to try to throw the background stuff out of focus some?) Bear in mind I have little experience on photography and none at all in this field! Any advice, thoughts, comments, etc. would be most welcome before I dive in.
 
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Your biggest problem is going to be light.

There won't be much and the colour temp will probably be pretty low so you'll need a highish ISO and a wide aperture to keep your shutter speed up. A custom white balance would probably help.
Here's a link to a Flickr page ( with the most pics) of chess to give you something to chew on:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/chess/pool/
 
I don't think my camera has a Custom White Balance. Under the WB tab, I have :-
AUTO,
Incandescent,
Cool-White Fl,
Direct Sunlight,
Flash,
Cloudy,
Shade and
PREset Manual. I can't find if PREset manual has any parameters anywhere.
 
Have you moved on from the Nikon Coolpix?
 
Yes, I updated my Profile to show my DSLR equipment earlier today. I now have a Nikon D3100 with 3 lenses ; the kit 18-55mm, an f1,8 35mm and a telephoto 55-200mm. None have VR.
 
Hmmm - I just looked at my profile and my DSLR equipment doesn't seem to be showing.
 
Use the 35mm
 
The 35mm lens is probably my best quality lens but I'm thinking not to get in people's faces too much. I want to be almost invisible! :)
 
Steve922 said:
Hmmm - I just looked at my profile and my DSLR equipment doesn't seem to be showing.
Click to expand...

You might not have saved the alterations :)

I'll check the manual.
 
Steve922 said:
The 35mm lens is probably my best quality lens but I'm thinking not to get in people's faces too much. I want to be almost invisible! :)
Click to expand...

Yes but unless it's well lit you won't really have much choice, in a dim room and f/1.8 you are looking at ISO 1600-3200 to get a half decent shutter speed. If you then go to f/5.6 (@200mm) you are looking at ISO 6400-12800 which is beyond the capabilities of the D3100.
 
Come down the M1 a couple of junctions and hire my 80-200 2.8 !!!! [emoji6]
 
Thanks for the advice re lighting chaps. I'll investigate at the next match. The rooms we play in are normally fairly well light (for a pub!) Also, I can use a tripod and my subjects are fairly (very!) static. Will I really need to 'keep the shutter speed up'?
I'm hoping to be able to throw the background out of focus as much as possible since its likely to be distracting.
Anything else?
 
Steve922 said:
Thanks for the advice re lighting chaps. I'll investigate at the next match. The rooms we play in are normally fairly well light (for a pub!) Also, I can use a tripod and my subjects are fairly (very!) static. Will I really need to 'keep the shutter speed up'?
I'm hoping to be able to throw the background out of focus as much as possible since its likely to be distracting.
Anything else?
Click to expand...
'Fairly well lit' to the human eye is the type of lighting we're talking about.

By the time you get to 'dim lighting' you're beyond the scope of even modern cameras.

Keeping out of the way is a state of mind and a behaviour, you can shoot with the 35mm if you're stealthy. Remember that the competitors are concentrating on something else, if you're a knob you can distract them, but it should be easy not to.
 
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