Sports Photography

Sports photographers are hired to shoot quality photos of sporting events, athletes, and crowds cheering on their home teams. Their work is published in newspapers, magazines (such as Sports Illustrated), Web pages, books, and other sources.

To be able to capture quick movements and subtle details on the athletes’ faces, sports photographers must have good equipment. They need cameras with fast shutter- speed abilities, tripods to hold cameras steady, and lenses of varying lengths to achieve appropriate depth of field for the intended image.

Sports photographers also need to be at the right place at the right time to get the best shots. Location is key when shooting sporting events. If photographers are too close to the action, they might get injured or, at the very least, interrupt play. If they are too far from the action, they will inevitably miss shots. They need to know where to position themselves to be able to capture the best moments of the game, such as a winning goal or a perfect header in soccer.

1. Have a lens or zoom range that is AT LEAST 200mm.

A focal length greater than 200mm is obviously a lot better as it will allow you to get close to the action and without being able to zoom in, you won’t be able to isolate any of your subjects. Two common beginners lenses are the Nikkor AF-S DX 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR or the Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM.

2. Do NOT use full automatic mode.

This is a common mistake made by amateur photographers. They will usually set their camera in full automatic mode or a pre-mode labelled “sports” or “action”. While these may work OK on occasions, to really take to the next level you need to use a semi-manual mode.

3. Use a fast shutter speed.

In sports photography, you want to ensure that the shutter speed on your camera is fast enough to capture the quick moving bodies of the athletes. A shutter speed of at least 1/500th of a second is required to freeze movement. Try not to go below 1/500th of a second.

4. Use Aperture Priority mode.

The modes on a typical DSLR are Automatic, Program Automatic, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual. Displayed by the letter A on a Nikon camera and AV on a Canon, the aperture is our f/stop number, which determines how much light is taken into the camera’s sensor. If you aren’t using a digital SLR camera, you don’t need to worry about setting an aperture, but rather a shutter speed, which we will get to shortly. When we set the camera’s aperture in aperture priority mode we are allowing the camera to determine the shutter speed. On a bright sunny day, this is usually the best setting to use. Many professionals for sports photography use aperture priority mode. What we are looking at doing in this mode is setting a very large aperture, which is a small f-stop number, such as f/2.8 or f/4. This will ensure that the most possible light is allowed in, which in turn tells the camera that a fast shutter speed is needed for the correct exposure. When there is more light in the camera it will allow for a faster shutter speed, thus helping to freeze the action.

5. Watch your ISO.

Shutter speed, as you can tell, is very important. To determine the correct exposure we use 3 components, which are aperture, shutter speed and ISO. When shooting in a semi-manual modes such as aperture priority or shutter priority we need to set the ISO ourselves considering the location, time and conditions of the event you are photographing. For a bright sunny daytime soccer match for example, a low ISO of 400 will be perfect as there is plenty of light available for the camera to use. However if it is a dull overcast day, there is not as much light and we need to be able to tell the camera this by setting our ISO. On a darker day you will need to increase your ISO, usually to around the 800-1200 mark.

6. Use Shutter Priority Mode if Aperture Priority isn’t available.

This setting is best used for non-SLR photographers who only have a camera that enables shutter speed settings. As many people reading this won’t own an SLR, it is important to remember that you can still capture some great shots. Most cameras including point-and-shoots will enable the users to set a shutter speed. Instead of telling the camera how much light to let in, as we did with aperture priority, using shutter priority mode enables us to tell the camera directly what speed we would like the shutter to be. The camera will then decide on what aperture – or f/stop number – to use. As mentioned earlier, at least 1/500th of a second is needed. You will need to take test shots when setting your shutter speed manually, in case you set it too high and are not letting enough light into the camera.

7. Use a fast auto-focus and burst mode.

In order for the camera to keep up with the fast movements we want to set it to continually focus on our subject or subjects rather than lock on to one spot. On top of this, we must also set our camera to take multiple images, usually referred to as “frames per second” or “burst”. Locate both of these on your camera and ensure that they are switched ON when shooting sports. If you have the option to set how many frames per second you would like your camera to take, always set it to the maximum whether it be 3, 4, 5 or more photos a second. This increases our chances of capturing that money shot.

8. Position yourself correctly and know your sport.