The Tammy is a jack of all trades, master of none. If you crank in any zoom, your f/stop slows to 5.6 or 6.3 before you know it. This makes it quite tough to stop the motion and still get a properly exposed image. The higher you crank the ISO - the noisier your image will become - so you'll have to try the various ISO settings as high as you can stand before the noise becomes objectionable. Flash can be distracting to the athletes inside a Gym - so you'll need to check if flash is acceptable at the venues you'll be shooting. If it's OK --- a focused flash with an ISO of 1600 or so may work. Otherwise you may need a narrower range of Zoom - depending on how close you'll actually be to the action. If you're renting - many heap high praise on the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS (you don't want to have to BUY that puppy !!) It IS a BIG, heavy, thing of beauty. If that is too pricey - try the non-IS version. Next would be the 70-200 f/4L IS, followed by the non-IS version. You might also try one of the 70-300 L grade lenses OR the Canon 100-400 f/4L.
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Good luck :)

Well...because they aren't flattering for the most part.

Certain poses look better than others and that's why they're popular with portrait photogs...the classic poses.

They accentuate certain features and sometimes more importantly they hide certain features like double chins or other things.


I think it's better to learn the classic poses and get them down so you can repeat and know what you're getting before you even hit the shutter than to just wing it.

For example; the other poster brought up sleeveless tops; her shoulders compete with her face for your attention.

Darker tops with sleeves would be better; our eyes gravitate to the lightest and/or sharpest part of a shot.

does that make more sense?

#1 looks pretty good but it's a weird pose. You might want to google "posing for portraiture" to get some good ideas.

#2: Looks ok but she and the field is underexposed while the sky is blowing out. You need some way to even them up..a filter or just put her in front of the sun and use fill flash or wait until the sun is below the horizon or something.


#3: same...underexposed and weird pose.



A really good book on this stuff is an ebook by Wayne Radford called "Portraiture tips and techniques."

It's only 25.00, it's downloadable and will help A LOT....

http://www.portraittipsandtechniques.com/e-book/

Adding to rpavich's excellent advice, it's helpful to have another person, perhaps a younger sibling, hold the reflector. Also might want to consider a white reflector in case the silver reflector seems too harsh but the white needs to be closer to be effective, sometimes not far out of the frame.

Besides side lighting, you can try using the sun as a hair light or back light if you have the time.

Well...there are a few ways to go about it on the cheap.

Think "side lighting"...use the golden sun to side light here as if the sun were a "key light" in a studio.

Then the only other piece of gear you need is a piece of cardboard with tin foil on it as a reflector OR a reflective car sun shade.


Here is a diagram.