Tag: action

Football Photography Series: Capturing the Action

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Jennifer Berube

Watching football is always exciting – tons of smashing bodies, plenty of fast-paced action, and the thrill of cheering for your home team. Capturing a football game with your camera can be equally exciting, but certainly presents a number of challenges to photographers, especially if you’re new to shooting sports.

Before heading to an important game, check out these tips. Consider seeing if there are school teams playing nearby so you can get some practice in before you try shooting in a more intense setting. There are lots of distractions to deal with at football games, and if you want to get good photos, you’ll need to learn to tune it out and focus on your goal.

Keep these suggestions in mind as you pack your camera bag and start shooting. The best way to master the art of capturing the action of a football game is to get out there and do it.

Football Photography Tips on Taking Football Action Shots

1. Use the Right Gear

Football is a difficult sport to photograph because it takes place on such a huge field. And because most of the action will take place at the center of that field, you’ll need to use a telephoto lens to get close enough to the players. While some shots will work better with the expansive field and even hundreds of spectators in view, for truly captivating football photos, you’ll need to get in on the action.

Sometimes, though, the action will come to you. During certain plays, you could end up with players tackling just a few feet away. Using a telephoto lens will make capturing this action impossible. While some photographers will use a second camera body with a wider lens attached for this kind of shooting, hobbyists or people who are just starting out might not have access to another camera.

You can try shooting half the game with one lens and half the game with the other, or switch it up at the end of each quarter. You’ll get a feel for how each style of shooting works before you invest in another camera body.

2. Check Your Settings

The most important camera setting for capturing the action at a football game is your shutter speed. You’ll need your camera to act fast if you want to freeze-frame a group of football players flying past you. Use a setting of at least 1/1,250 of a second, or even up to 1/2,500 if you can.

Note that while a smaller aperture will let in more light and allow you to use a higher shutter speed, this will result in a shallower depth of field. Try not to go lower than f/4, and consider increasing your ISO if necessary, to compensate.

3. Find a Unique Perspective

The view you’ll get while sitting in the stands is a familiar one – anyone who has gone to a football game knows what to expect. When you’re trying to capture eye-catching football photos, you want to give viewers something they haven’t seen before.

Get down lower and shoot from the ground up, or find a vantage point that gives you the opportunity to look down on the field from above. Sitting on the sidelines and capturing the players as they sprint by can give you some interesting snaps that you would miss out on if you were in your regular spot in the bleachers.

4. Know Where to Shoot

Most of the best shots you’ll get will be of the offense trying to score a touchdown, so watch for the quarterback and follow the ball. You’ll get some interesting shots when your team is on defense as well, though, and if you keep your focus on the football as it moves across the field, you’ll be prepared to snap a shot no matter what’s going on.

Having a basic knowledge of the game can be helpful when it comes to shooting football or any other sport. Even if you don’t, keep an eye on the key players and you should be able to capture the action.

5. Stay Focused

There are tons of other things going on at a football game – mascots running through the crowd, cheerleaders trying to generate excitement, and crowds of people everywhere you look. But if you want to get the best football shots, you need to keep your focus on the field.

If you miss a shot, you won’t get another opportunity. There’s no rewind option. Learn to tune out those distractions and stick to watching the game through your viewfinder to ensure that when an exciting play happens, you’ve got it covered.

The most important thing to remember as you’re starting out shooting football is not to get discouraged. Sports photography is a unique skill, something many professional photographers spend years developing. You won’t be capturing iconic sports images overnight.

However, these tips will help give you a head start to ensure that even your first forays into this kind of photography will pay off. And, as you continue practicing, you’ll start to develop your own style and techniques, making your football photos more original, creative, and dynamic.

3 Sports Photography Tips to Capture Iconic Moments

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Jennifer Berube

If you’ve got a kid on the school sports team or want to make some extra cash with your photos, learning how to take a great photo at a sporting event is key. Capturing the moments on the field can help you re-live your child’s memories and news and sports magazines will pay for great shots of big games.

The influx of digital photography and advanced lenses have opened the world of sports photography from just the professionals to anyone who wants to capture amazing moments in sports history. No matter if you’re at your kid’s t-ball game or are in the stands at the Super Bowl, these tips will help you snap the best image of the game.

1. Research First

Before photographing any sport, it’s important to know what the sport is about. You can’t expect to get great shots if you don’t know what to look for. You need to know when to expect a score (is it at one end of the field like soccer or football, or when somebody crosses a line like in track and field events?). Knowing the sport ahead of time will allow you to anticipate when an exciting moment in the game is going to happen, and can help you plan out the perfect sports photography shot.

If you’re going to a game for a major sporting event, it’s important also to research the players. You don’t need to know who every person on the team is and what they play, but it can help to know the most important figures. The more popular a player is, the more a magazine or website will pay you for their picture.

2. Set Up the Shot Beforehand

When you get to the game you need to have your camera set up perfectly to get the best shots. Something you should keep in mind is the point of view your picture is from. Everyone has seen side pictures of quarterbacks throwing a ball, but how many pictures are out there of a forward or back facing view. Having a picture that’s taken from a unique angle will help you catch the eye of the photo manager at many sports sites.

One of the best pieces of equipment you can have for sports photography is a decent zoom or telephoto lens. Not only will a longer lens help you get closer to the action, but it will also help you frame and focus your shot on where you want to shoot. It’s also important to set your aperture to a wide opening. This will cause a blurred effect on the background of your shot and will allow the action to be in full, sharp focus. Basically, a long lens and wide aperture help focus the shot on the action.

3. Know What to Look for in the Perfect Shot

We’ve already talked about angle and camera settings, but there’s more to taking the perfect shot than simply have the technical settings. When at a sporting event, you want to take pictures of the exciting and unique – touchdowns at a football game, sliding catches at a baseball game, nearly tied horse races. This is another reason it’s important to do your research. You can’t know what to shoot if you don’t know what you’re looking for. If you don’t know the game, try and pick up on the feeling of the audience around you. What are they getting excited about? When do the cheer, boo, or stand up? Use the people around you to figure out what moments you should be taking photos of.

Another thing that will help you catch the moment is cropping. When you’re focusing on the winning field goal, you don’t necessarily need the entire line of men waiting for the goal. Your shot should be tight to focus on the kick of the ball, meaning that the kicker and ball should fill out your whole picture. If you’re taking a picture of a race with someone like Usain Bolt, it would be much more impressive to get an angle that shows not only Bolt winning, but the distance between him and the other runners.

Each scenario is different and will take a lot of on-the-spot decision making, especially for split second moments in sports. In these cases, just use your best judgement. Think about what you want to show the world – the single player making an excellent move, or the excellent teamwork of a double play.

These tips work great for both professional and junior games. With sports photography, it’s important to always be original. You don’t want 17 pictures of your kid on the field that all look the same hanging up on your wall.

Photo editors sift through hundreds of photos daily and don’t want to see the same shot they just saw. Getting a different point of view and framing your work well will help your images stand out. Using your background knowledge of the game and players can help you snag the most iconic moments in sports and have a fascinating image to show for it.

Top Tips For Incredible Sports Photography

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Jennifer Berube

Fast-paced sports are some of the best and most dynamic things to get pictures of. You get the passion and the pain of sports, and you get to capture individuals at their moment of victory, or loss. It is truly amazing to get great sports photos and there are several great things you can do to get the best sports photography.

With great sports photographs, you can get a job with magazines, newspapers and more. For some, there is no better way to make a living than with sports photography. Follow these tips to get the best pictures in your sports portfolio.

Know What You Are Doing

This doesn’t mean that you should know what you are doing with photography, that is self-explanatory. It means you should know what you are doing with the sport. You should get pictures of a sport that you have followed so that you can anticipate the action and anticipate when the next great photo will be.

You should look for an original point of view first. Knowing more about the sport will help you know exactly where you should stand to get that original shot, and a shot that no one else is going to get. In addition, know your sport and look for the iconic moments that can come up. If you understand the sport, you will know that the iconic moments are not always when someone scores, but can come away from the action and randomly.

Know How to Shoot Sports

When you are getting the photos at sports events, your camera should not be set to what you would use to get portraits. The action shots are important and you will need to set your aperture wide open. Doing this will help to blur out the background, but focus on the action in front. This can create stunning sports photos that create clear action for the viewer to focus on. You should also make sure that you shoot tight, so that the subject fills the frame. Doing this will make the image and the subject more impactful.

Each sporting event is going to need different types of lenses. Small lenses will work for action on a field, but for action outside especially with winter sports, a fisheye lens is a great way to capture skiers and snowboarders on the half-pipe.

Be Ready to Go

Whether you are getting pictures of golf, or snapping shots of fast-paced hockey, you need to always be ready to go. Have a high action camera hanging around your neck at all times, and have the lens that is going to work best for the photos that you want. Keep an eye on what is going on not only in the focus of the action on the field, but also elsewhere. Essentially, you have to be watching everything and be ready to get that picture in a split second.

Take Lots of Photos

The key to sports photography is that you need to be ready to take a lot of pictures. Things can happen quickly on the field or on the court, and getting the photo that really stands out comes down to knowing where to be, being ready for the action and taking a lot of photos. The great thing is that we live in an age where you can take thousands of photos on one memory card. Granted, that is a lot to go through, but if you take 100 shots of one scene of action on the court or in the arena, you are going to get some amazing photos. That being said, you should not rely on just taking a lot of photos. That won’t make you a better photographer, but it will help you get a photo you might not have had originally.

Sports photography is a really great field to be in. If you love sports, there is literally no better way to make a living than to take photos while you watch sports. You can also really make a name for yourself with sports photography, especially if you take these tips and apply them to your photography. By being a better sports photographer, you will get those big contracts at the big sporting events, to help make your career.

Action Sports Photography: Tips to Improve Your Action Photos

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Paul Rutherford

Shooting sports can be a costly proposition. Those big lenses you see on the sidelines of professional games can cost upwards of $10,000. Yikes. But you don’t necessarily need them to improve your action photos, although a 400mm f/2.8 lens can’t hurt. When starting out shooting action, there are a few small things you can do to make a big impact on your photos. The best part about these tips is that you don’t need to buy more gear for them! The first tip is to shoot in RAW. Check out this previous post about the benefits of shooting in RAW.

Shutter Speed

The first tip is to use a fast shutter speed. To capture the action you must freeze the action. To freeze action I try to use a shutter speed of at least 1/500 of a second for youth sports, but 1/1000 or above whenever I can. If you are shooting a night game or indoors this means you’ll need to use a high ISO. You can’t use the photo if it’s blurry so you may as well crank up the ISO and deal with the noise it creates.

Of course, rules are made to be broken and it can be fun to use a slower shutter speed, but if you are going to do this then you should use something like 1/15 or slower. You won’t get many useful photos, but if you do it’ll be interesting and different from a standard peak action shot.

Perspective

Next up is changing perspectives. Get low, get high, find a place no one else has shot from. Everybody watches games through their own eyeballs and are used to seeing sports from a standing height. If you take photos while standing it won’t look different than watching the game yourself without a camera. Getting low will make your subjects look bigger in the frame and you get a different perspective than people are used to seeing. A different perspective is a key to making a nice action shot. Give the people something they can’t get from their seats. I also try to get up high and shoot down on my subject. This helps clean up the background and can give you a perspective some people don’t have.

Background

When photographing you want to have as clean of a background as possible, so the viewer can focus on your subject. As you start out you most likely will not be shooting in big arenas, but places with cars, fences, and other distractions. You’ll never see a great sports photo with a porta-potty in the background. You can do this by positioning yourself at a good location around a field or in a stadium, based on what the background will be. It also helps to have your background far away from your subject because they will become blurred and you won’t be able to make out the distraction. As I said earlier it can also help to get up above your subject and shoot down. This way of shooting uses the playing surface as the background with tends to have very few distractions. I sometimes use a small step ladder to get on the field and shoot down. A hill or grandstand can provide the same effect.

Risk vs. Reward

I often lay down on the ground or floor to take photos during a game. You definitely get a lower percentage of keepers, but a more impressive image overall. The best time to be risky is when you don’t need to safe shots. I try to get a lot of safe shots in the first half of a game and then start experimenting with the riskier shots. Try using slow shutter speeds, lay on the ground, hold the camera up above your head, focus on an individual and wait for the play to happen. When being risky don’t follow the action, try to anticipate what’s going to happen next. Find a great background or frame and wait for the action to come to you. Once you become ok with missing a few photos, you can be liberated to try new things and improve the shots that you do get.

Telling the Story

Don’t get stuck only capturing the action. If you look at some of the greatest sports photos you’ll see it’s because of the moment it captured, not the athletic play but reaction to it. Celebrations, tears, and other reactions show the emotion of the game and help tell the story. Follow the player after a goal, look to the bench, find the coach and you’ll be sure to make some emotional photos. Even better is when you get the winning and losing emotion in one photo. Don’t forget the smaller moments in games. You can find some great shots in the details of the game as well as the peak action.