Sports Photography

While there are many different types of sports, most will have something in common with the experience I have shooting rugby. This is an outdoor field sport, and the challenges here are capturing the action, distance from the subject and getting a picture that tells a story. From the technical perspective, there are a few key settings and techniques that will transfer well to other action sports. Much of what I write will be from my own perspective and experience, others may have other opinions or you might like to cary some of the techniques for other effects.

From a creative aspect, it is always good to feature a players face - it’s always nice for them to recognise themselves - the opposition if possible, this will put the action in some context and the ball - otherwise what was the action for? In rugby, often the ball is obscured, but it may be possible from the situation to visualise where it is.

You want to capture the action, and freeze it to some extent, but without totally freezing the frame which may lose the impression of action. For this, I normally choose a shutter speed of 1/125s or 1/160s, sometimes using shutter priority to let the camera control the aperture for available light. When shooting in winter, light may become a problem, so to keep shooting, you may have to bump the ISO up to be able to keep shooting in dim or cloudy conditions. Aperture itself is not too much of a problem as much of the action will be some distance away so your depth of focus will be a good few feet even at f2.8. I use JPG, as during a sports event I will use burst mode on the camera, taking maybe fifteen shots of an action sequence at 8.5fps, to choose the best one later on.

Another technique you may prefer if you have a fast lens is to go for the widest possible aperture and let the camera select the shutter speed. Newspapers tend to prefer the sharpest possible shots, so this may be the better technique if this is your market.

The result may be 400 or so pictures from one match, processing and managing these in RAW may be a problem, and also may slow the camera down, depending how quickly your camera can write to your memory card. JPG is a personal choice for me, you may be happy with using RAW of course! Watch out for change of aspect in the photo, your exposure will change as your picture change from images with no sky to half sky - i.e. close-up action or long range shots. For this reason, you may want to meter the scene and use manual mode, keeping the speed as above, but carefully evaluating the aperture. As the game moves on so the light/weather may change, so constant re-evaluation will be required, don’t get carried away and forget!

Focus - selecting AI Servo or a continuous focus mode will help a lot, or for motorsports, pre-focussing on a section of track will avoid the camera ‘hunting’ around, trying to find a focus point.

Edit by Paul : To totally freeze the action, you want to use a shutter speed that is 1/focal length. So, for a 200mm lens, use a shutter speed greater than 1/200s. Personally, for field sports such as rugby, football, etc, I would recommend a shutter speed of 1/400s or faster. Speeds will vary, depending on sport, conditions and the effect you want. In general, you will want to shoot with your lens as open as possible (f/2.8, f/4) which should give a nice background blur.

It is always useful to shoot in short bursts (2-4 images) to try to capture peak action. Always try to anticipate that special moment - tackle, pass, shot, etc

For me, the most important one is smooth panning. don’t wait for the action to enter your field of view, but follow it - before, during and AFTER the action. Concentrating on panning through will allow as much as possible to be sharp, if you stop panning when you take the shot, then shake will result. Anyone who has had a golf lesson will understand this, it’s much like swinging through the ball!

If you can, keep your non-viewfinder eye open and follow the action outside of the frame. This may help you to anticipate someone coming to tackle the player with the ball for example, or an overtaking car at a motorsport event. In any case, two eyes are better than one! It may take some practice, but when you get used to it, you’ll find yourself using both eyes without thinking.

Understanding what is going on will help you to anticipate what is going on next, to get in the right position or set yourself up for those big shots. For example, in rugby, if the teams are evenly matched and there is not a lot of running with the ball, it’s likely to be a low-scoring game, so standing behind the posts waiting for a try will be futile. If it’s one-sided, your team will love to see the shots of their star player flying over the line getting the scores! (as long as it’s your team that is winning!!)

Very much a personal choice, but even as you develop a style, you will probably find that the use of different lenses will change your style. My favourite is a 35-350mm zoom, which lets me handle close action and cope when everything is happening on the other side of the field. A 100-400mm changes things so I will go close into the action, and rather than taking general pictures with lots of field in the image, more pictures where the players fill the frame. You even might like to try a fixed lens as you get more comfortable with the game and techniques, it can be quite an inspiring challenge!

You may be lucky enough to be blessed with dry, sunny days, but for many of us, dim, damp days are the norm. My camera is weather proof, but I have a lens sleeve to waterproof the lens (being a telescopic lens, it is easy for it to ingest water). But, please use a lens hood - not so much for the glare, but to protect the front lens element from drizzle, or bumping into people or things as you move around!

If you want to see what I’ve been up to, then take a look at http://www.phooto.co.uk

Simon Taylor/Phooto February 2007

I’ve also put together some sports photography tips at http://www.photography.paul-walsh.net/sports.html

Paul Walsh/ Dec 2008