Larger image
Specs: 1/8000s, 47.0mm, f/2.8, ISO: 800, cropped to panoramic format
Luke Thompson and Mark Trotter are practicing their pre-arranged sparring at the Impact Club gym in May 2007 prior to the World Champs.
The image was taken at the same training session as "light impact". It is a strange composition but there are a few aspects of it that I particularly like. Taken at a very high shutter speed (the maximum for the Canon 30D) it has frozen Luke's flight through the air. Mark's facial expression is intense and you can see this in his eye which is showing nicely. with Luke's head and shoulders in the shaded area, emphasys is focused on Mark. The contrast of the harsh light coming in through the windows and the shadow of them thrown on the wall behind is nice. I also really like the visitor sitting on the couch in the background, watching with real intensity. For me, she makes the image... adding some depth, balance and additional interest to it.
My camera settings were pretty badly set for this image and it is remarkable that so much detail is in focus given the wide open aperture setting of f/2.8 (the maximum for my 18-55 F2.8 IS lens). A better setup for this image would have been f/4.0 for a greater depth of field, a lower ISO setting of 400 to capture clearer detail and a shutter speed of 1/800s or higher. I think that would have all been possible but I often get caught up with setting the camera us at the start of the shoot and then forgetting to review it again for the rest of the day.
