19. How to Take Photos 15: Sports Photography
The content for this lesson come from Kimi Elias, Jean Fruth, David Bergman, and Billie Weiss.
The techniques for good sports photography all depend on what sport you're viewing and the varying lighting conditions. If you're lucky, you'll be shooting outside during the day. That's ideal. Most sports, unfortunately take place either indoors or at night, and, even though stadiums spend a lot of money on fancy lights, and your eyes adjust to them easily, your camera will struggle to get a good exposure. This is why sports photography is heavily dependent on high-end, expensive cameras and lenses. So, let's divide this lesson into two categories:
Daytime/Outdoor Sports Photography & Indoor/Nighttime/Lowlight Photography.
But first, here is some basic advice to get you started.
1. You have to know the game. It has to be something you understand so that you can anticipate what the players will do, when they will run, when they will pass, or jump, or dribble - whatever. When you understand the game, you can think ahead, position your camera and predict where the players will go, and when to shoot. This is invaluable, especially if you're using a cheaper camera, like a Canon Rebel T7 that has trouble focusing on fast action. Just focus on the net, or home plate, and wait for the player to enter the shot, and then shoot:
2. You should bring two (or three) cameras to the game, each with a different lens. It's silly to think you can change lenses fast enough to capture all the action around you. It helps to have two zoom lenses of different lengths, one wide angle (28-70mm) and the other telephoto (70-150, 300, or 600mm). The ideal focal length depends on the sport and size of the field.
3. As long as your cameras have around 20 Megapixels, you're good. Medium/large format cameras aren't standard for sports photography, which is mostly used in magazines and online.
4. Set your camera to take multiple rapid shots, when you hit the release button. The "burst rate" of your camera is an issue. The Canon Rebel T7s shoot 3 photos per second. It's okay. A more expensive camera can take up to 30 shots a second. Another issue is buffering. a Canon T7 can only save about 11 RAW files at a time before slowing down, as it sends the data to the SD card. A more expensive camera doesn't suffer buffering. This means, if you're using a T7, be slower and more selective with your shots, wait for the right moment. Don't just fire away the whole time, or you might miss the best shot (older digital cameras are even worse - my Canon Rebel from 2013 can only shoot 5 raw images before it starts buffering).
5. Get to the game early. Get out your cameras, and walk around the court or field to get some idea of where you can shoot. See if you can get special permission to get on the field - it's great to be at the athlete's eye level:
Also make sure you won't be blocking any of the spectators' views, or they will complain, loudly. Sports fans are not shy about how they feel.
6. Watch the warm ups and get to know the players. As Kimi Elias says, "Check out who's the fool, who's the showman, who does the dunks, who does the dribbles, who passes, who alley-oops. Check those out on both teams. At the warm up you're going to see who does them all."
7. Autofocus is your friend. Jean Fruth says you should pick the autofocus setting that works best for the sport. Each camera has its own settings, and you won't know which is best for what sport until you practice with it. She recommends using expanded tracking with "eye detection" to always focus on the eyes of the players. Note, not every camera can do this, only the more expensive, newer models. It's worth checking if a camera you want to buy has this feature. Also note, a cheaper camera, like a Canon Rebel T7 has only 9 different focus points, versus 191 on a Canon 1DX III (which costs $6,500).
8. Keep your eyes and your mind on the game, the whole time. Take photos constantly. It's not uncommon to take over 1000 photos in one game. Games are long, but their might be only a handful of great moments - those dramatic confrontations that determine which team or player gets a point, or advances, etc.
You may also find humor in these moments of time, where people strike funny poses:
What facial expressions do you see in those moments? Does the player look scared? Angry? Shocked? You will find athletes make incredible expressions, and contort their bodies in amazing ways as they endeavor to win the game:
These moments only last a fraction of a second, and if you're not watching, and ready to shoot, you'll miss it. This is not a job where you can stare at your phone the whole time, then take a couple hum-drum photos and call it a day. You're competing just as much as the players are, and you win a point any time you get a great shot out of them.
9. Keep your backgrounds "clean".
This means, compositionally, frame your shots to remove any background distractions. Billie Weiss lists, "things like ugly advertisements on the walls behind the game, ball boys & girls, line judges, busy buildings, or clusters of other people behind what's going on in your shot. The images that have the most impact are the ones that let the athlete be the focal point, and the background should work in your favor, not against . . ."
". . . So, whenever you're out there shooting, and you're getting ready to size up your shot, the very first thing you should look for is not the subject, it's not the foreground, but the background. Always look at your background first."
10. With any sport photo, you generally want your shutter speed as high as possible, and your aperture and ISO as low as possible. This allows for a crisp, clean view of your subject, blurring out the background. You may slow your shutter speed a bit for motion blur. It's fun to experiment with that, but generally, faster is better. Motion blur can be especially great with panning shots of runners and other races:
11. Billie Weiss says, don't just focus on "the peak action, the throwing, the catching, the running. . . But, there's so much more to sports than just what you see on the field of play . . . The fans, the atmosphere, the stadium, the environment, the emotion, the highs, the lows. . ."
". . . That's what we love about sports. So, when you're out there shooting, make sure you treat every game . . . like a story. . ."
". . . Your job is to tell us a story, show us your take, a complete take, in a way that you and only you can see it." Jean Fruth agrees saying, a lot of her photos could be thought of more as portraits or landscapes - all of it is necessary to tell the story of a game.
12. So many sports photographs show the same kinds of photos over and over - it feels like most everything has been done. Finding different vantage points can really help you stand out.
13. As a sport photographer you'll rarely be able to direct your subjects. You can't tell a player, "Hey, can you shoot that dunk again? Or hit that home run?" But, with some sports and athletes, you'll have more control, especially when not competing. You can tell them, when practicing, "Hey, start, standing over here and come this way. Run over here and make the shot, or do a flip, etc. Don't look at the camera while you're doing it." Don't be afraid to direct your athlete/model during private photo shoots.
Outdoor/Daytime Sports Photography
1. Depending on the time of day, take advantage of what the light has to offer. The fact that you're outside in the sunlight means you can get away with faster shutter speeds (1/1000th or faster) and keep your ISO down, for crisp, clean photos.
Plan to take your best shots while the light is also at its best. Will the sport take place during the golden hour (sunset)? Consider how to get a good angle to best make use of that golden sunlight.
2. Also note, with larger telephoto lenses even when you use a tripod or monopod, you can get camera shake if it's windy out.
Indoor/Nighttime/Lowlight Sports Photography.
In low light situations, you can't use a flash or you'll blind the athletes, so you have to go for a higher ISO, which means noisier photos. Kimi Elias embraces this, saying he'll add even more noise and grain in Photoshop, giving the picture a film-like style. That's one option. Buying a newer camera also helps, as they tend to have less noise at high ISO. Another way is to get a larger aperture (lower f number) and buy a more expensive lens. But the prices... An f4 600mm lens can cost as much as $12,000! Professionals who carry multiple cameras to games may have over $50,000 worth of equipment! This year my school bought my department a Sigma 150-600mm lens for $900. It's a great lens, during the day. But the widest aperture is a high f/6.3. In low light conditions it gets very little light, and the pictures are extremely grainy, even at lower shutter speeds. This lens is also not ideal for courtside photography, where you need smaller focal lengths. Somewhere from 70-300mm is more practical.
A Career as a Sports Photographer
This is a very competitive career. You need to create a great website, and show a range of different kinds of photos. Only show your best work. Meanwhile, get out there, and take tons of photos - you can shoot anywhere. It doesn't have to be a professional team, it could be little-league, it doesn't matter. Just practice, practice, practice. It's also helpful to find a mentor to help you with career advice, and especially with editing.
More Inspiration:
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