Synchronized skating, this is sports photography too!

Saturday 20 October 2018, 14:41 by Richard Seijger | 8,157 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Last weekend, our skating season got under way again. In Helsinki, Finland, we witnessed the first results of a summer spent training and working on new skating routines.

So we are not talking about speed skating or short track, but about figure skating, and a specific discipline within it, namely synchronized skating.

A sport that is barely known in the Netherlands, even though we do have a few synchronized teams competing on the world stage, albeit in the lower regions.

Synchronized skating

In some parts of the world, synchronized skating is a particularly popular branch of figure skating. Think of Finland, Sweden, Russia, Canada, Japan and America, but countries such as Germany, France, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic also have passionate participants. In China, it is supposedly 'upcoming'.

Since 2011, I have tried to improve my photography of it every season, and I can tell you that is no easy task.

Thanks to many years of experience and the perfect Canon equipment we have available, we can now say that we enjoy worldwide recognition within this sport under the name Synchrophoto.eu, and that our photography is highly valued.

We even publish our own magazine, called SynchroNice, which is distributed worldwide. A nice way to showcase our own photography, of course!

Photographing synchronized skating is difficult because it always takes place under artificial light, involves a lot of speed and is performed by not one but 16 skaters at the same time.

Precision skating

A few decades ago, this sport was called precision skating and the programme was fairly predictable, because at the time even 20 to 24 skaters performed the same movements at the same time, completely in sync.

Today, the sport has evolved to such an extent that much more is expected of the skaters. Much more stamina, strength, grace and a sense of rhythm and music are required.

The movements are still performed in sync, but are often split into smaller groups, sometimes eight, sometimes four and sometimes only two, and now also include jumps, spins and lifts. Because the light is often moderate to poor, the speed increases every year and the movements go in every direction, it is the ultimate challenge for us and every other photographer.

Camera settings

For solo figure skating, I prefer to use the following settings: 1/1250 - f/2.8 - ISO 2000 to 3200. With a slightly less capable athlete, the shutter speed can perhaps be reduced to 1/1000 to freeze the image reasonably well.

For synchronized skating, I reduce the shutter speed to 1/800 or even 1/640. This mainly has to do with knowing the routines. You can then choose the exact moments when a pose or movement is made that is a little easier to photograph.

That is why photos at the end of a season are often better, as by then I also know what is coming. Flash photography is forbidden, of course, so that is not the solution.

Artificial light is difficult

This weekend once again showed how difficult artificial light is and how important fast lenses are in sports photography. Because you are photographing commercially, it is also important to take your clients into account, mostly young girls and some boys between the ages of 12 and 24.

They mainly like to see themselves recognisably, with their full make-up, styled hair and often colourful competition outfits.

I can sometimes really appreciate artistic photography with lots of blur and motion blur, but this target group barely looks at it, much to the dismay of some highly skilled colleagues.

Panning does not work

“Panning” is unfortunately not an option in this sport, but if anyone has any other useful tips for capturing more light without pushing the ISO any higher, I would be very grateful to hear them.

The season has started anyway, with around 12 international competitions per season all over the world. I am sure that by the end of this season I will know a little more about skating photography and understand my camera a little better.

Want to try it?

Would you like to try it yourself too, because it really is great fun to watch as well as to photograph? You can find synchronized teams on the ice in Den Bosch and Eindhoven.

Sports photography course

Sports photography is a challenging activity. You have to take the photo at exactly the right moment, and it also needs to be technically good. You can discover how to tackle these challenges in our sports photography course.

If you would like to learn more about action photography, our sports photography course at Photofacts Academy might be just the thing for you.

» Go straight to the Sports Photography course

The course is taught by professional photographer Nico Delmeire. Nico has more than 12 years of experience as a sports photographer and during that time has photographed several important competitions and finals, both nationally and internationally.

Discover our latest sports photography course with professional sports photographer Nico Delmeire.

» View the Sports Photography course at Photofacts Academy

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