Photography at FRC Events

The FRC photography challenge

FRC events are a hard environment: gyms are often dimly and unevenly lit, robots move fast, and you are shooting through the field perimeter and barrier. The goal is fast, well-exposed, sharp images.

Gear

• A DSLR or mirrorless camera with manual control beats a phone for match action, but a modern phone is fine for the pit and candids.
• A fast lens (wide maximum aperture like f/2.8 or wider) gathers more light. Community photographers on Chief Delphi favor fast zooms (e.g., a 24-70mm f/2.8) for flexibility and fast primes (35mm, 50mm, 85mm) for low light. A telephoto (70-200mm) helps reach the far side of the field.
• A monopod can steady long lenses without getting in the way.

Manual settings for match action

Shoot in Manual or Shutter Priority so the camera doesn’t slow the shutter and blur the robots:

• Shutter speed: 1/500s or faster to freeze robot motion; 1/800-1/1000s for very fast game pieces.
• Aperture: as wide as your lens allows (low f-number) to let in light.
• ISO: raise it (1600, 3200, even 6400) as needed to keep the shutter fast. A little grain beats a blurry photo.
• White balance: set a custom white balance or shoot RAW so you can fix the orange/green gym color cast later.
• Focus: continuous autofocus (AF-C / AI Servo) with burst mode to track moving robots.

Composition tips

• Get low, near robot height, for dynamic angles.
• Shoot through gaps in the field perimeter; avoid shooting through scuffed polycarbonate when you can.
• Capture peak action: a shot scoring, a climb, an intake grabbing a game piece.
• Mix wide context shots with tight detail shots.

Pit and team photography

The pit is where the human story lives: drivers strategizing, students wiring, the alliance handshake. Bright but indirect light works; a small on-camera flash bounced off the ceiling can help. Always get a clean team photo in matching shirts in front of your pit banner - you will reuse it in sponsor packets, the website, and award submissions for the whole year.

After the shoot

• Cull ruthlessly; keep only your sharpest, best-exposed frames.
• Edit for exposure, white balance, and crop in Adobe Lightroom, free Darktable, or even phone apps.
• Always keep and archive your photos - FRCZero’s repeated advice is “ALWAYS KEEP PHOTOS OF YOUR WORK!” They are gold for Impact Award presentations and sponsor recaps.
• Submit standout match shots and team photos to The Blue Alliance so they appear on your team profile.

Key takeaways

• Use a fast shutter (1/500s+), wide aperture, and high ISO with continuous autofocus to freeze robots in dim gyms
• Shoot RAW to fix the gym’s color cast and recover detail later
• Always capture a clean team photo and archive every shoot; these images power sponsor packets and award submissions

This lesson was adapted from learnfrc.com.