# Snooker - Paul Hunter Classic 2015



## Maximilian (Aug 30, 2015)

This week the “Paul Hunter Classic 2015” snooker tournament, part of the Players Tour Championship, takes place in Fuerth, Germany, nearby my hometown. The final is on this Sunday (today). 
I could manage to go there last Friday for the first time. To make it short:
I had a great time, did see several really good matches, Shaun Murphy (former World Champion) in great shape, two century breaks, including the highest of the day (140 by Liang Wenbo) and I could take several good pictures to remember that day.

Prior to the tournament I couldn't find any information about the rules of photography for spectators so I was cautious not to oversize my equipment and get banned from the tables like some smart phone usesers with flashes were. I went there with the smallest reasonable camera setup:
- EOS 100D body (eq. SL1)
- 24mm and
- 40 mm F2.8 STM pancakes and the
- 85 mm F1.8 
all fitting into one small bag together with spare battery and sd card. 

I took some photos when I arrived there in the morning as well when the players for the first matches appeared the tables. After that I thought I was about to stop taking pictures to respect the silence for the concentration of the players. I was sitting about 5 to 7 meters away from the tables so much closer than I hoped for. After a few minutes a press photographer from a billiard journal appeared with a big Nikon (couldn't recognize the model), monopod and her 70-200mm F2.8 lens and shot several pictures right away. 
The Nikon was really loud compared to my 100D running in silent shutter mode. I watched her technique for a few minutes and then started to copy her, shooting my own pictures. I recognized that she only shot right after the players hit the ball or before they started to concentrate again. And she only did single shots and no series. So no real disturbance to them. So did I now, too.
I had some problems in finding the best setup for exposure and lost some good shots because the contrast between the bright illuminated green snooker tables and the dark brown background with the audience was too distracting for the metering and the different automatic exposure controls. I tried ISO values of 800 and 1600 because IMHO they deliver barely acceptable IQ with this body. I was too concentrated on the right shutter timing to go for locking the exposure. With evaluative, spot and average metering I could not manage to get proper results. The partial metering was delivering the favored results when pointing at the bright table but not when the metering area was pointing at the background (as I said, no time for locking the exposure).
But then I came up with the idea that what I had in front of me was just a perfectly controlled lighting condition like in a studio, only much darker. So I changed to fully manual mode. With the 100D I found the following setup to be the best compromise:
ISO 800, because it was delivering a more acceptable noise level than 1600. 
exposure time at 1/80 to 1/125 s because the players were always moving. That was still too slow sometimes.
Aperture F2.8 to F2.0 according to the exposure time depending on the lens. 
When I tried F1.8 with the 85 mm the shallow DOF was too critical for the mediocre AF. And I still got a lot front and back focus because of the AF missing the point I wanted although I used the center point most of the time.
With this setup I got a lot of acceptable to good pictures (shooting RAW). In post I only adjusted the WB, did some framing and sometimes slight sharpening. 

And now I know next time I can bring my 5D3, 40/2.8 STM, 85/1.8 and a 70-200/2.8 with me. Then I can go for ISO 2000 and have better AF, shorter exposure times and hopefully more keepers  

Here are some overall impressions, followed by some match shots:
about #04: John Higgins was just among the crowd waiting for his game to start. Cool 8)


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## Maximilian (Aug 30, 2015)

#05: Barry Hawkins (tough game)
#06: Mark King (cool tatoo)
#07: Noppon Saegkham (cool haircut)
#08: Liang Wenbo (140 century break)


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## Maximilian (Aug 30, 2015)

#09 to 11: Fraser Patrick vs. Craig Steadman, they were trying to beat each other in getting worse


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## Maximilian (Aug 30, 2015)

#12, 13: shaun Murphy started like a "magican", first frame straight to a century, but... then the easy yellow stayed out of the pocket at break 99 
#14: Zak Surety just didn't have enough time and chances at the table


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## Maximilian (Aug 30, 2015)

#15: high talented young Luca Brecel (look at the white ball jumping)
#16, 17: John Higgins really got a bad day and lost in 2nd round
_Edit:_
#18: must be from Surety v Murphy, wrong sorting


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## Maximilian (Aug 30, 2015)

#19, 20: Mark Davis made it against David Gilbert


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## Click (Aug 30, 2015)

Very nice series, Maximilian.


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## Maximilian (Aug 31, 2015)

By the way:
Allister Carter won the tournament. 
In the final he defeated Shaun Murphy by 4:3 frames.


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