Work, life, and culture in Japan and Asia

How to take photos: Sumo, at a tournament

Basic gear you need:

• A 70-300mm, or 70-200mm zoom lens; or if you're in the really cheap seats, probably a 600mm lens.
• A tripod with remote shutter release, or monopod
• Entry tickets, snacks and drinks.

The Aim:

• To show something unique, original, that others haven't done or seen before
• Get a great / dramatic picture

Early in the afternoon at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium

How:

• ISO: Usually, it's best to use iso800 or iso1600 as the lighting is quite dark, and you want to have as little noise impacting on your picture as possible
• Aperture: A wide open aperture, anywhere from F2.8 to about F6.3, as it's fairly dark, and there's an audience in the background that you want dof'ed out, which can otherwise be distracting in your photos.
• Shutter Speed: I've tried to use 1/125, but I wanted to avoid blur. It seems setting your camera to Shutter Speed priority, and having that on 1/160 might be best, though I wanted to use something like 1/320 but was restricted by my cameras ability to handle noise (hence, the use of iso400). I didn't use a tripod or monopod, as I thought that these couldn't be brought into the stadium, but as it turns out, you can. I saw people in box seats with tripods, and people up high in the cheapest seats with large tripods and very large and long (and expensive) lenses. Having a tripod with remote release will allow you to use sensible shutter speeds (like 1/125 or 1/160) whilst avoiding hand-held blur.
• >  Issues With Zooming: Also, if you zoom right in onto any object, then your camera will wobble a little from any hand-shake, including from just pushing the shutter. Being so zoomed in, and from a distance, any tiny movement is exacerbated and is shown clearly in the resulting photos, so the images you get, usually aren't going to be fit for high quality publishing. To avoid blur, use a tripod or higher shutter speeds. Also note, you cannot use a flash from any great distance.
• White Balance: I'm not sure what kind of lights they've got, but they appear quite warm. Some professional photographers at the ring side area use orange gels over their flashes to help balance colour temperature. What I did was, was tried 'fluorescent' and 'tungsten' settings, but these didn't seem to show faithfully colour reproduction. So, I settled on 'Daylight', and thought to tweak it a little in PhotoShop. Probably, setting your camera to about 'fluorescent' would be best.
• Filters: Not needed.
• Lens: I found I could only use my 70-300mm zoom as normally you cannot get close enough. A 28mm is good for general stadium photos. If you're in the cheapest seats, then you'll be further away, so consider taking a 500mm or 600mm lens, too.
• Etiquette: The tournament I attended in Osaka, seemed to show a side of Japan (or Osaka at least), that I'd never seen before. The Japanese people seem to forget their social inhibitions, and seem keen to talk to complete strangers, and in the warmest and most sincere of ways. Boisterousness is of course not warranted, but cheering for your favourite wrestlers is expected.
• About the tournaments: There are six tournaments a year, in January (Tokyo), March (Osaka), May (Tokyo), July (Nagoya), September (Tokyo), November (Fukuoka). Each tournament is 15 days long, starting on the second Sunday of the month, and finishing two weeks later on Sunday. Tickets can be obtained from private ticket vendors by phone or internet bookings, but in Japanese only, see the official Sumo website. Each day, the tournament starts from about 8.30am, and finishes at 6pm. The lower ranked wrestlers and divisions begin first, and ending with the highest ranked and highest divisions at the end. Most people turn up at the stadium from about 3pm to see the higher ranked wrestlers. There are two seating systems, the high class seats and regular stand seating. See the forums for more information about sumo tournaments.
• What to take: You should take a tripod (or monopod), your own snacks and drinks, as snacks and drinks are ultra expensive inside the stadium.

The statistics To get the raw data, I've used Wega2, as it has an interesting extra: "ExposurePlot Graphics". This feature gives a statistical view of what you do. This may help you decide on what lenses you most often use, so you can better justify your purchases.

Click on this picture to view Also see: Photo Statistics

Examples from the March Osaka Tournament, 16 March 2009:

	< F5.6, 1/160, iso 400, 70-300mm at 300mm, 'Daylight' white balance used, but needs adjusting (it looks overly warm). Top ranked Yokuzuna, Asashoru performs a ring-entering ceremony.
	< F5.6, 1/160, iso400, 70-300mm at 230mm. A wrestler takes a fist full of salt.
	< F5.6, 1/160, iso400, 70-300mm at 180mm. Baruto, from Estonia, is thrown out of the ring by Kotoshogiku, but still wins. Day 2 of the Osaka tournament.
	< F8, 1/125, iso800, 70-300mm at 300mm. Top-ranked wrestler Asashoru sitting watching the current bout beginning. A LightRoom preset was used to get this colourisation.
	< F5.6, 1/160, iso400, 70-300mm at 200mm. New Ozeki-ranked wrestler Harumafuji, in the silver Mawashi faces Kisenosato. Colour temperature has been adjusted to appear more natural.