Ringside MMA fight footage
 

I recently shot some video at a local MMA fight event. You guys post great work, and I would love some opinions or advice on what I could do differently for the next event. Here's a highlights clip of one of the fights I was there for:


I used a Canon 600D, 24-105mm f/4L, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, and applied the cineLook effect with Gorilla Grain.

Re: Ringside MMA fight footage
 

nice video John, the only thing i noticed was that you were slightly out of focus when recording the pep talk during their break

as for the fight i was surprised the big buff dude lost

Re: Ringside MMA fight footage
 

Thanks Tom :) I was pretty caught up in the moment and not paying attention. I recorded one other fight before this particular one and my camera was all over the place because I was paying more attention to the action with my eyes rather than my viewfinder. I anticipate that I will spend more time glued to the viewfinder, of which I will bring a 3x magnifier next time, to properly focus and compose the action. Also, the buff dude, was the one with a prosthetic leg. He got caught in a position where he couldn't "shrimp out" with his hips and ultimately led to his getting caught in the arm bar.

Re: Ringside MMA fight footage
 

That's brutal! It's professionally shot and the sequence was edited well. I wouldn't have guessed it was shot on a DSLR if you hadn't mentioned it.

I'm not an expert in this field and I'm sure you know this already but if possible you could try tighter closeups as an additional variation to the present style. It might mean using a longer lens to complement the one you have right now. Same applies to wider angles, like e.g. using a lens like the Tokina 11-16.

Also, half the time the faces in the video looked slightly under-exposed, maybe by around half a stop, mostly when we're not in the ring. It could be the encoding, my monitor, or maybe that is the intended look.

Thanks for sharing.

Re: Ringside MMA fight footage
 

Sareesh, you're spot on with the under-exposed faces. For the last fight I left my 24-105mm f/4 lens on and it was pretty dark backstage. The 24-105mm was perfect for ringside, where there's an abundance of lighting.

I was unsure of when the match would start and was fearful of changing lenses in that environment. While shooting at f/4 I kept convincing myself, while looking at the LCD screen, that this is representative of what I was seeing at the time. Earlier in the evening I had my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and was able to achieve proper exposure easily, as well as amazing shallow depth of field.

Next time, I'll have to remember to be more gung ho and change lenses without worry ;)

I definitely appreciate the suggestion of getting tighter close-ups. Skimming through all of my footage, I noticed that they were actually my favorite shots and I just didn't spend enough time capturing as many close-ups as I should have. I was to focused on getting the "whole" shot or wide shot. I understand now, that the real emotion comes with those close ups.