Sport images is likely one of the most demanding genres – and taking pictures it with a manual-focus digicam is nothing wanting extraordinary. But photographer Jacek Salaga did it, now acknowledged with a prime images award.
The picture Half a Second Before captures a fleeting immediate: a wrestler suspended mid-air. The precision and timing required to seize this fraction of a second spotlight Salaga’s technical mastery.
Salaga’s expertise have been awarded with the Event class award on the LCE Photographer of the Year competitors – however when you’ve seen the stay announcement at The Photography & Video Show, this is no big news.
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The no-autofocus gear
To capture the moment, Salaga relied on a Leica M10-R – a stylish rangefinder that does not feature AF (autofocus). He paired it with the Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2, a wide-angle manual-focus lens, and a Godox strobe for lighting – also entirely manual.
Salaga explains, “The ‘Half a Second Before’ photo was taken during a wrestling event in Denmark. Fast growth of interest in this form of entertainment has turned it from almost unknown to very popular, with major events sold out in the ticket presale.”
Award-winning technical skills
Capturing sharp action in milliseconds without AF sounds impossible – but Salaga pulled it off. While some third-party adapters can add AF to certain lenses, this was probably not used here, as it’s not evident in the shot details (EXIF Metadata).
Most likely, the photographer relied on zone focusing, a technique widely used in street photography.
By pre-setting the lens to the expected action zone and using an aperture of f/10, Salaga maximised depth of field to keep the scene sharp. The 1/180 sec shutter speed, combined with a strobe flash, helped freeze motion perfectly.
And flash doesn’t automatically make an image sharp. While the strobe helped freeze the wrestler mid-air, focus still had to be precise.
With these settings – plus the right experience and anticipation for the sport – he was able to capture fast-moving action using a manual-focus-only setup.
For more insights and to see all winners, visit the LCE Photographer of the Year website.
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