Sports Photography - How Most Pros Work

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By Peter Phun Platinum Quality Author

In Sports photography, access is key. Without access, you won't succeed even if you have the most comprehensive array of lenses out there. So if you have access, you've already improved your chances of success by at least 40%. The other keys to success?

You have to be able to anticipate and concentrate for long periods. Being knowledgeable and following a variety of sports, not just the popular ones, is crucial. And finally a good ounce of luck doesn't hurt either. What exactly should you be looking for besides shooting great action?

Faces

Back of heads are not terribly engaging. I think we are so in tuned to seeing faces, we don't realize it. We do want to see faces of athletes whenever possible. Grimacing faces add to the drama and excitement. Unfortunately some athletes hardly show any emotions even when they win. Faces in sports can be the difference between a good picture and a great picture.

Timing

Peak action is probably what you're after. There may be some luck involved but a softball picture without a visible ball is not as exciting. The ball, be it a hockey puck or shuttlecock tells your viewer what sport it is. Without the ball, you don't get a sense of how close the play was, how bad the throw was et cetera. With baseball and softball, the play at a base has to be close. If the throw is early or too late, the ball is either in the glove or out of your picture. But that's not your fault. It's just how the game goes. So the element of luck is there for sure.

A Different Viewpoint

Strive for a different viewpoint to surprise your viewers and to give them a fresh look of a "tired-looking" sport. This may be something as simple as shooting when weather is not so good sometimes. Or even simply being creative with your photographic technique. It may mean working harder by bringing in more equipment but your efforts will be rewarded. If it it doesn't work, you'll at least learn something new.

Backgrounds

Related to viewpoint but just as important is backgrounds. Shooting with wide open apertures on long lenses can only do that much sometimes, so be on the lookout for what's behind the subject at all times. If you're serious about sports photography, you should try photographing different sports.



Photo by AllSportsBlog

Golf

Just the same way most Americans don't get soccer, I don't get golf. I do know I would enjoy the sport if I play it. It's more interesting to play than to watch. That said, I don't particularly like covering golf. Here's why:

* expect to be hauling at least a 300 mm lens with a monopod and 2 bodies, maybe a flash, and a 70-200 mm zoom.
* you will be walking all 18 holes, more if it goes into playoffs.
* you don't get to hang out with just the same foursome
* if the leader boards are not kept current, you will be in a world of hurt trying to find a certain golfer when the lead changes suddenly.
* besides that, the light is usually extremely harsh. Faces are inevitably shielded by visors or baseball caps. You're never close enough to be able to fill flash or anything of that sort.
* Restrictions. You can't stand directly in the line-0f-sight of the golfers. You can't trip your shutter until they actually hit the ball if they're on the green during the short game. Don't forget you have to be absolutely quiet.
* if the game goes into playoffs, all those "great pictures" you took in the early rounds don't mean much anymore. It's like starting all over.

Soccer

My favorite sport soccer happens to be pretty tough to shoot because of the lens requirement. A 300 mm lens is probably the minimum and a 400 mm is more ideal. But that also depends on the sensor size of your camera body.

If you're shooting with a camera with full frame sensors, you might even need something longer.

Most of the time, depending on the lens you have, you park yourself on the field and just hope you're in the right place at the right time. So covering soccer is not as physically demanding as covering golf or football. You might move around when there's a chance for a set piece like a free-kick or corner kick. It helps if you understand terms like "in-swinger" on corner kicks. The rest of the time, because the action is non-stop and the ball moves around the pitch so quickly, it's difficult to physically move around.

Badminton

Anytime you step indoors to cover a sport, you are heading into low light and very limited options. The world's fastest racquet sport is also hardest to photograph because of the lighting conditions and how the indoor stadiums are lit. Understanding how a game like badminton or tennis is scored is crucial. How else would you know when it's the "critical match point' or the significance of a tie-break?

ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed & White Balance

Up till this point, I haven't mentioned these camera settings because these are variable depending on the lighting conditions and how well your camera handle digital noise. Generally speaking, the newer your camera, the better it handles low ISO and digital noise. Most sports photographers have at least a 300mm f2.8 lens at a minimum.

They will also carry a 70-200 f2.8 lens and most likely that has built-in image stabilization. And the majority of sports photographers take their pictures at f2.8 to blur out the background but also to get the highest possible shutter speed to freeze action.

Every now and then, they may need more depth-of-field but very rarely. That by the way, is why under the one of the Auto modes, you see the icon for Sports or someone running. It's also exposure mode that favors high shutter speed, Shutter Priority or Tv (Time value according to Canon)

So 2 camera bodies are pretty standard. One body is attached to the long telephoto which is mounted on a monopod for support. Depending on the camera body, the image sensor may be full frame or may have a 1.6x, so a 300mm will be 480 mm lens.

To successfully hand hold a lens like that with little camera shake would require you to make sure you have a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 sec.

But even professionals don't handhold long lenses, they use monopods. The one good thing about shooting in artificial lighting like a soccer stadium at night is this: once you have the exposure down, it doesn't change very much, unlike a daytime game.

In day games, you have to keep an eye on light levels especially if the game is in the evening. The other advantage is the crowd in the stands are not lit, so they aren't as distracting.

Since "Sports Photography" is a highly specialized field, there is just too much to cover in one article. These tips will hopefully get you on your way to getting better pictures.

Peter Phun teaches photography at Riverside City College. He does portraits, weddings and editorial work. Read an illustrated and more detailed article about sports photography on his blog. He writes about photography, Macs and the internet. He also designs websites and is a stay-at-home dad.

Previously, Peter worked as a staff photographer for 18 years at The Press-Enterprise, Southern California's 4th largest daily newspaper. He is the webmaster for the Mac user group in the Inland Empire. For more information about this Riverside based photographer, visit http://www.peterphun.com

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Capturing Motion - And the Photographic Blur

Photo by AllSportsBlog

If you are a sports photographer, and you will know how to take motor racing photography with action by setting a slow shuttle speed and panning when the cars passing by,so you might freeze the image with motion blur background to show the moving speed effect of the motor racing. With the modern cameras fixed with motor drive nowaday,it is so much easier if you want to venture into this motion photography.

Here is Tedric Garrison's view.

The fans are screaming; the Bulls have the ball, and you are following number 23 as he approaches the basket. He jumps, he shoots … you score! You did get that picture just as the ball left his fingertips, didn’t you? If you got that sports illustrated cover shot, the ball would be frozen just past the tip of his fingers.

This is the type of fast pace action shot that most photographers think about when they are trying to show motion in their photos; but it is not the only way to show motion. Think about it for a moment. If you were watching a wind mill; on a windy day, how would those blades look? If they were frozen in mid air like the basketball, you wouldn’t be able to tell if there was actually any wind that day or not.

If you were shooting a NASCAR race and got a single car high up on the edge of a curve, do you really want it 100% stop motion, razor sharp? I would say no. Why? Because if you took the picture the way it was just described, it could just be parked on the track for all anyone knows.

Obviously stopping motion is not the only way to show motion. If you want to freeze things in mid air, think fast shutter speed or electronic flash. If you want some blur in the image think slower shutter speed and a tripod.

When we say slow; we mean slow compared to the speed of the subject. For example; if we are talking about a NASCAR car that goes 200 miles per hour, even 1/250th of a second might be slow enough to catch some blur. To be on the safe side, I would bracket your exposures to include: 1/500th, 1/250th, 1/125th, 1/60th, and 1/30th of a second. The first two or three shots you should be able to hand hold without much problem; but once speeds start getting at 1/60th of a second or slower, it is always safer to use a tripod.

The wind mill may only be blowing at 25mph or slower; so you might still freeze the image at only 1/125th of a second. In this case you definitely want to use a tripod and shoot at even slower speeds. The reason you use a tripod is so that the rest of the image (other than moving parts) will photograph sharp and crisp.

So far we have only mentioned two basic choices: A) the subject is frozen in mid air (commonly referred to as Stop Action) or B) the subject deliberately shows some blur to indicate movement. There is a third choice which is not so basic; this choice is called panning. Panning involves using a slower shutter speed, but moving with (or panning with) the subject as it goes by. This makes the subject clear but the background blurry. It is very effective in showing motion, but it does take a lot of practice. Panning can be done with or without a tripod. But the cleanest pan shots I have ever seen all did it with the tripod.

You can also combine effects. For example: I once shot a dance where there were several photographers using flash. I was trying a timed exposure of a young lady coming down a circular stair case. Right at the end of my exposure a flash went off. The end result was really quite amazing. The ghost image of the girl walking slowly down the stairs became crystal clear when she paused at the bottom step and the flash went off.

There is no one way that is right or wrong to capture motion. Sometimes we see motion using stop action; sometimes we do it with a deliberate blur. Blur can be fractions of a second, or they can be several minutes long. If you have ever seen waterfall shots with the white dreamy flowing water, that was exposed for several minutes with a tripod. The choice of how you shoot movement determines how you view movement. Next time you automatically think “stop action” try a few blur shots as well; you might be surprised at the results.

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Award winning writer / photographer Tedric Garrison has 30 years experience in photography. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how those elements relate to all aspects of photography. His photo eBook (Your Creative Edge) proves that creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares his wealth of knowledge with the world, at: Better Photo Tips.com

Capture Perfect Digital Sports and Action Shots

Sports photography is one of my favourite. If you are an experienced photographer who are always on Sports, and If you were assigned to cover any sports event, you will automatically know what, how and where to get your job done.

You have to know what are the lenses to be used and always to catch the right moment in the right time.

Yvonne Grubb will share with you the experience.

What gets you all excited about your favourite sport? ... the thrill of the chase in horse racing or maybe the atmosphere and tension of a ball game, maybe your favourite player? ... Well if you were to capture some of these scenes how would you do it best? For some digital photography tips, let’s take a look at a few ideas right now to capture that realism ...

Get Familiar

It’s worth getting familiar with the sport before you start shooting, for example, how points are scored, what causes penalties etc, as this will give you an advantage over others … you will learn to expect where the best action is likely to be, and you can then capture those glorious moments.

Another great tip, as well as aiming to catch the action, capture the ‘emotion’ too. Be ready to shoot players’ faces on triumph of a goal, or any other emotive action in the game and you will bring your photos alive!

Be Prepared

Cold and bad weather conditions can quickly rob the life of your digital camera’s battery, so it’s important to always carry an extra charged battery especially for outdoor sports.

Action Techniques

Stop Action … you’ll very quickly be able to shoot an action shot and ‘freeze’ your subject practically in mid air. Imagine the wheels of a drag car on a dirt road, bouncing off the many bumps … for those few seconds while the car is in mid air, snap away to capture the action.

Lighting is not too much of an issue if you’re outside on a sunny or partially sunny day say at a car race, dog track, or horse race etc, but you’ll maybe need to make adjustments if you’re inside a gymnasium shooting a basketball game, for example. If the lighting is bright, then you’ll probably be okay, but depending on the type of lighting, you may need to activate your fill flash if you shoot players in action and you find your photo colorisation shifting to ‘yellow’.

Also bear in mind the distance, as your flash will not carry too far … it might be worth sitting near the basket hoop to catch the action!

Blurred Action … a couple of ideas behind blurred action is, firstly … if you look back at your photos you have taken using Stop Action, you may find one or two shots that did not freeze the action, which means your camera did not catch the action at the right moment … so you end up with an interestingly blurry effect to your subject.

Secondly, if you’re shooting a ball game, for example, you may get blurring if your player moves just as you click your shutter. If you did not intend for this to happen, you might be pleasantly surprised with the effect!

Panned Action … the most difficult to accomplish, but probably the most effective shooting technique, once mastered. The advantage using your digital camera is that you can delete unwanted frames and start again, so here’s how panning basically works...

Using your digital camera in automatic mode press the shutter half way down to focus on your subject, moving your camera sideways following the action, then pressing the shutter fully while still moving your camera. The effect created is the front of your subject should remain in fairly strong focus, while the back of your subject should start to blur, and as it blurs a long trail should appear, giving a feeling of movement like no other effect could possibly achieve.

Experiment

By knowing what your digital camera can do, experiment with different methods to get the best shots. You could try shooting in continuous mode, then try panning the camera along with your subject, whilst he/she or it is in motion.

I hope these digital photography tips are helpful. If you can get to grips with panning, as I have described above, you’re on a winner!

About The Author

Yvonne Grubb owns http://www.www.digital-photo-tutorial.com which offers people information on digital photography tips