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We have all at one time or another been captivated by sports images.
It may be Kirk Gibson's World Series Homerun, and the image of him running
the bases, overcoming the pain he was in or an image of high flying Michael
Jordan slam dunking a basketball with his tongue out. We have all been
captured in the moment of human drama. We all like a good action
photo and, in particular, if your kids play sports, you want to remember
them in their toils.
Quality sports shots are somewhat difficult to come by. Most people
have limited access to events to photograph them. The further away
you are from the event, the harder it becomes to capture the event in a
pleasing manner. Sports are an event where crowd control is
important, not only for the crowd's safety, but for the players also.
There is nothing more frightening than to be on the sidelines of a football
game, focused on a play in the field, when out of the blue a 250 pound
line backer drives a player into your legs or a foul ball comes crashing
at your $8,000 lens!
Location, Location, Location!
You can only photograph things you can see. The closer you are to
someone, the better you can see them. Sports are no different.
You have to get as close to what you are shooting as you can. Typically,
for a photographer with a press pass, you can get to the sidelines or other
similar locations. You generally will not be permitted on the playing
field. Depending on the sport, you most likely will be limited
to designated locations. For instance, at most Division I football
games, the media cannot shoot between the two 35 yard markers. For
most people, the situation is even worse. You probably don't have
press access and are stuck in the stands for your shots.
Get as close a possible. Even if you make it to the sidelines, you
will be jostling for space with many other photographers, both still and
video who have worked hard to get there and have the same job to do that
you have.
You also have to be familiar with the sport to be able to capture the
moment. This means knowing where to position yourself for the best
action. This is critical because of angular momentum that will be
discussed in the section on freezing action. Not only does
it matter with the subject, but the background. Look at what is going
to be behind your subject. While we will try to minimize the impact
that a background has, it will still be unavoidable. So you need
to position your self where the background is the most pleasing.
The Decisive Moment
Sports and Action photography is all about timing. Its about reacting.
Its about being in the right place at the right time and its about execute.
These are all qualities of the athlete and those of the photographer as
well. Each sport has predictable and unpredictable moments.
Under "Knowing your Sport", you will learn about these moments for individual
sports. For instance, in basketball, you will have opportunities
to photograph layups, jump shots, free throws, etc.
Understanding the timing of these predictable actions allows you to capture
the peak moment, when the action is most dramatic.
By knowing these moments you can anticipate the action. This helps
in two ways, one it helps you with focus which will be discussed in a later
segment, and secondly it helps you snap the shutter at the right time.
The saying goes "If you see the action you missed it." This basically
means if you wait for the soccer player to head the ball then press the
shutter release, the ball most likely will be sailing out of the frame.
You have to push the button before the action so that the mirror has time
to flip out of the way and the shutter open and close. There is a
delay between the image hitting your optical nerve and the shutter closing.
You have to, through experience, learn what that time is and adjust for
it.
Required Equipment
Most sports are shot on 35mm cameras because of their portability.
While some photographers have captured great sports moments with other
format cameras, we will concentrate our efforts on the 35mm arena which
is the most commonly used gear.
"Its not the equipment but the photographer who makes the picture" is
generally a true statement. However with sports and action photography,
having the wrong equipment means not getting the shots you want or need.
This relates back to the section on location. The further away,
the longer the lens is needed to capture the same image in the frame.
Different sports require different lens lengths. For instance, basketball
is generally shot from the baseline or sideline near the baseline.
You generally can get good results with an 85mm lens in this situation.
However, by the time the players are at mid court, you need a 135mm to
capture them. If they are playing under the far goal, a 200-300mm
lens is needed to fill the frame well, yet for shooting a soccer game,
a 300-400mm lens is needed for just about anything useful.
Generally, for a 35mm camera, each 100mm in lens focal length gets you
about 10 yards (9 meters) in coverage. This coverage means that on
a vertical format photo, a normal human will fill the frame fairly well.
Thus, if you are shooting American Football from the 30 yard line with
a 300mm lens, you will be able to get tight shots in an arc from the goal
line to mid-field to the other 40 yard marker. As players get closer,
your lens may be too long. Many photographers will carry two bodies
with two different length lenses for this reason.
Lens speed is also a critical factor. The faster the lens, the
faster the shutter speed you can use, which as the lens grows longer, this
becomes even more important. This will be covered in the freezing
action section in more depth. If you look at the sidelines of any
Division 1 college football game or an NFL football game, you will
see people with really big lenses. These range from 300mm to 600mm
or longer and even then, they may have a 1.4X converter or 2X converter
on. You need fast shutter speeds to freeze action with long
lenses. Every F Stop you give up requires a faster film or less freezing
potential.
Most consumer grade long lenses and zooms have variable apertures, but
most are F5.6 at the long end of the lens. F5.6 is good for outdoor
day time shots, but becomes very inhibiting for night games and indoor
action. Most people use lenses that are F2.8 or faster. These
lenses are very expensive. A 400mm F2.8 sells for over $8000 US.
They are also very heavy and bulky. Using a monopod is a life saver
with these big lenses.
I found this article very helpful. I have 2 sons that play sports i.e. basketball, baseball, and football, and have found that I have some problems with the freezing of motion. I just got through reading the article, and plan to use some of the information for my 10 year olds game today. Thanks for a very useful, and well written article.
I found this article very helpful. I have 2 sons that play sports i.e. basketball, baseball, and football, and have found that I have some problems with the freezing of motion. I just got through reading the article, and plan to use some of the information for my 10 year olds game today. Thanks for a very useful, and well written article. Here is a photo that I took of Mr. Wood of the Chicago Cubs while in at a rehab assignment. I think that it is the only action photo that I have ever taken that I thought turned out ok.
I live in AIken SC, and we have a yearly "Triple Crown" ...horserace, steeple chase, & polo on consecutive weeks. I had tried a year ago to get some shots with a MF camera (but was limited to 1/500)..too blurred. This year I "borrowed" a N80 35mm w/ faster shutter and AF, and the results were far better. So much so that just this past weekend picked up a F5 from Ebay. The info presented was dead on w/ regards to shutter and film for these fast moving events.. You don't normally thing of needing ASA 800 of higher OUTDOORS, but it makes a difference. I particularly appreciate the lens suggestions in his article, and will be looking for some F2.8's in the near future.
Shortstop Andrew Smith makes a long run to snag a routine catch that turns tough.
Nice article. A bit dated perhaps but for the most part all the principals of the original article still apply. WB is the biggest issue as those stadium/arena lights often cycle and creat rapidly changing white balance. The upside is no film cost so you can afford to shoot more and learn faster. The other upside of digital is while the 1.5ish X crop factor hurts in other areas, it allows amateurs to gain a big lens advantage for the price of a 200mm f2.8 with no loss of quality or f-stops. Sports is the one area where you will burn LOTS of frames just to get you timing down and learn how to photograph the sport through a lens digital allows you to figure it out without going broke.
http://www.photo.net/photos/Pico23 (some more baseball)
I read Bob's article soon after I joined Photo.net in January and found it very informative. I have come back to it for a refresher several times since. Here are some of my sports photos which I hope have benefited from the information in the article: sports action
Quote on motorsport: "These sports are generally fairly easy to photograph."
I'd say the comment shows some lack of knowledge of the art. Any form of photography becomes just as difficult as the photographer's ambition is. There are a lot of things to do to get a good motorsport shot: Getting to know the location and sun direction in advance, trying to avoid the classic too much contrast situ, pan with slow times, zone with a car approaching 300 km/h, to find the right background, to find the right spot, to show the corner characteristics, to show weight transfer, to get a shot that will differ from the mass.
I've shot motorsport, horse sport, figure skating, dancing, inline skating, canoeing,... - and I can not honestly say that one would be more difficult or easier than another. The level of difficulty has always been set by me myself, by the ambition level of the photographer. The final and true difficulty, after the "easy" technicalities, arises form details and intricasies of the sport. To say that one sport is easier to photograph compared to others is like a fashion photographer not understanding a car photgraphy - it's lack of understanding the art in question. One way of checking the standard is to study the best photogs of the art. In motorsport one benchmark is Regis Lefebure. When one has reached his level, I guess, one has the authority to say, it is easy.
I agree with what you say Juha. If any genre in photography was easy, why would we bother? I think sports photography presents many challenges despite the sophisticated photographic equipment we now have at our disposal. It's as hard as hell to get a shot that really satisfies. I've been trying for a long while, and still can't say I've nailed one.
And when I saw the photos by Regis Lefebure - well what can I say - they just blew me away. They represent a pretty high step on the stairway to photographic heaven.
this article is great in all area's and gives a good basis for someone to sart his or her photographic journy into sport photography. wish i had read before sarting mine, it would have saved me a lot of money, time and anguish. i now like to shoot horse racing , eary on i found that freezing the horse and rider was fairly simple by panning , but it did not do anything for the lower parts of the leg's and hoof's as they were blurred beyound recognition, through good advise and the right eqipment i am moving right on along, thank's lightfoot !
As with all photography the main thing is to be there & push the button to catch the peak of action.
Long lenses are great but often something like a Nikon 180/2.8 is fine for most sports if you are close enough. Even motor-sports if you're on the infield. I've used it for football, rugby, swimming, motor racing bikes & cars, golf etc.
I've read almost everything on this site. As far as sport shooting is concerned, I've never been able to find enough information on shooting the sport i enjoy photographing...skydiving. If anyone has a lot of brilliant information on how to get the best shots while falling 120mph thru light conditions that change all the time, I'm all ears. A lot of things said here apply, but it's a whole separate category of shooting sport objects.
I've read almost everything on this site. As far as sport shooting is concerned, I've never been able to find enough information on shooting the sport i enjoy photographing...skydiving. If anyone has a lot of brilliant information on how to get the best shots while falling 120mph thru light conditions that change all the time, I'm all ears. A lot of things said here apply, but it's a whole separate category of shooting sport objects.
A very informative tutorial for sure. I enjoy shooting full scale and remote controlled aircraft at airshows and fly-ins. Propeller blur is almost necessary to get the sense of the aircraft moving through the air. Full scale aircraft need much slower shutter speeds than R/C models to get the same amount of blur. Aerobatics with smoke help convey motion in the image. The most difficult thing about shooting aircraft is composition and an un-interesting blue sky!
Nice article but I would caution against a recommendation of the Canon 5d for sports action as it is much too slow to capture any serious action. I don't know of any working sports action photographer that would use a camera this slow for action as their main camera. It would be the perfect camera for teams and individuals in a portrait setting but I would suggest nothing less than 5 fps for action (20d/30d) and preferably 8+ fps (1D MKII/MKIII). The 5d is a great tool and was not intended to be used for action. You could use it in a pinch but a serious photographer would not be happy with it for ACTION. It is a portraiture camera.
I enjoyed this article. It was quite helpful. Yet, I have a question. My brother has asked me to take some photographs of his martial arts class. I went to the dojo but I had some diffculties. The lighting was very low. Even with the ISO high, a tripod, and the aperture as wide open as possible I still had to use a flash (which I was not happy about) to get proper shots for action shots. What would you suggest to do to get around using the flash? Thanks.
High ISO (1000 +) can ruin great captures w/ pixelation. And to STOP your bro's lightning fast Kung Fu chops your shutter would have to be around 250 / 320/ 500 sec.
Options: 1.8 / 2.8 prime lens, wifi strobe, second curtain flash, another dojo (-:
I've enjoyed and learned much from the tips on this site. I recently had the opportunity to try, for the first time, panning some action shots. I learned that it is NOT as easy as it seems! Here is one photo I took trying to blur the background while maintaining focus on the subject.
Shot with a Canon 30D and 70-300,f2-8IS lens in manual mode. 1/25 at f6.3, iso100. C&C appreciated.
I've enjoyed and learned much from the tips on this site. I recently had the opportunity to try, for the first time, panning some action shots. I learned that it is NOT as easy as it seems! Here is one photo I took trying to blur the background while maintaining focus on the subject.
Shot with a Canon 30D and 70-300,f2-8IS lens in manual mode. 1/25 at f6.3, iso100. C&C appreciated.
I think this article was very helpful. I am just starting out in sports photography but I am actually working towards Rodeo photography. If anybody has any insight about good articles regarding this particular sport, that would be very helpful as well! The first rodeo I am going to photograph is in early January so I'm going to practice with the zone focus a lot because I think that'll be very helpful with the different events.
Hi, with regards to the ice-hockey shot and 1/200th F4.5, were you able to get a faster shutter speed than 1/200th? Was the shot taken hand-held or did you use a tripod or monopod? I think you might have achieved a sharper image with a faster shutter speed.
I'm a photography student just starting out. I have hooked up with a local roller derby team here in Cahrleston, SC, The Lowcountry Highrollers. I getting good shots, however most are "happy accidents". Because of the extreamly low lighting and the speed of which the ladies skate, I'm finding shooting very difficult. I'm also a poor college student, so affording the expensive lenes is down right impossible now. What are some tips for shooting this sport? I'm shooting with a D50, but upgrading to a D90. I have several lenes, an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 70-300mm and when I get the D90 I will have (I believe) a 18-135mm. I do have a external flash that I am able to use.
I have always loved this article although it has become somewhat dated. It did inspire me to write a book and a number of articles on the subject of Sports Photography, what I believe is the most challenging and difficult photography to shoot. The greatest challenges I have listed below. More information can be found at http://sportsphotographysuccess.com
Sports photography is the most difficult photography to master. You are faced with a myriad of challenges. As with any challenge those that overcome the greatest obstacle gain the greatest reward and thus it is with sports photography. Read our list of top nine sports photography challenges:
Where Venue/Location
Sports photography does not let you choose the location of your shoot. You don't get a choice on where the competition or event will be held. You are stuck with where the event is being held whether it's an old musty school gym, an outdoor field with next to the freeway or a performance halls. You as the sports photographer will have to adapt to the venue and figure a way to make it work.
When
As a sports photographer you will not be able to choose the time of day that you take your photos. You must shoot the competition when it's being held which means you may be shooting at 6:00am in the morning or 11:00pm at night or anytime in between. It's not always a time when it's convenient for you, but the only way to capture those great photos is to be there.
Who
You obviously can select "who" you want to take photos of, but you don't have control over the team they are competing against, when that individual participates, and where in the even they participate. The quality of the event is often determined by the skill of the competition, some athletes may not participate the entire event and may be in the back or a position that makes them difficult to photograph.
Lighting
You've got to love those old school gyms with lousy lighting. School gyms are typically quite dim, never with sufficient light and often have a harsh yellow tone from wonderful florescent lights. Your challenge, capture photos that are bright enough, without blur or unnatural colors.
Weather
Sorry, they won't reschedule that championship match for the weather to improve. You will be at the mercy of whatever weather is occurring. You will be dealing with wind, dust, rain, mud, snow, cold and heat.
Obstacles
Have you ever bought "obstructed" view seats? They don't make for good photos. As a Sports Photographer you will want the best position possible to take photos, but that's not always easy to come by. There may be physical obstructions hindering you including people and depending on the event there may be rules that will prohibit you from the ideal positions.
Equipment
All cameras are not created equal, those point and shoot cameras are just not going to get the job done when shooting sports photography. In fact, many cameras will not work well for shooting sports and you will need special lenses to assist you. In addition to quality lenses and camera bodies there are many other accessories you will need.
Framing
Framing your photos for sports photography is not easy! Unlike portrait photography you don't get a chance to pose your subjects. You don't get a to tell the athlete's to STOP, do that again when I'm ready. Not only that but your subjects are moving and not remaining in once place so you have to anticipate when and where the action will be.
Timing
Once you see the great sports moment it's too lake to capture it. Sports photographers must be ready at every moment and even anticipate the action and great moment to have a chance at capturing it.
There are many challenges to being a sports photographer, but they are all worth it when you capture those great sports moments. You can learn to do it like the pros by following guidelines and techniques found on this site.
http://sportsphotographysuccess.com
The Sports Photographers
All very great insight and info- thanks for the helpful lesson. I personally enjoy surf photography- where lighting-shooting styles and location make BIG differences in capturing the moments!
Great article, it directly talks to my current project. I'm working on going from amateur to profesional and actually get paid for the "service" of snapping pictures of athletes other than my kids. I have been taking pictures for the last 15 years going from Minolta 35mm to Pentax 35mm and finally settled on Pentax K10.
I too enjoy learning as I go. Thanx again and congratulations to everyone.
ABortoni
Very useful article, if dated, as noted. I'd agree that knowing the sport you're shooting is of great importance. My favorite sport to shoot is water polo. The nice thing is that it's a fairly small field of play; everything else is a crap shoot-- glare, backlight, extremely fast action.
I still have trouble with indoor sports as related to lighting and shutter speed. My kingdom for a fixed-aperture zoom lens.
Great article! It has many timeless tips as well as some that need to be interpreted for use with today's digital equipment. High ISO and noise are becoming less of a problem as the new sensor technology advances. Just look at the Nikon D3x topping out over 100,000. The most important thing the article states is know the sport and get in the right spot for the shot. This is important for capturing images that balance lighting, motion and that special momment in time. Happy shooting!
Great and very detailed article! Here's a post that I made on my blog "All Photo Buzz" that covers sports photography aimed at extreme sports photographers. I think readers here may find this useful as well:
Hi, it was some time ago that I found a very interesting and informative article about photographing golf, and it mentioned the photographer Darren Carroll.
Mike Criss: When you say “off camera flash” do you mean a flash on a stroboframe-like device, as opposed to the one on the camera that flips up? Could you explain? I’m just learning…
I realized again just this past week or two how difficult it is to take great sports photos. It does take practice and study. I gave my wife our great camera, the Nikon D2Hs with a superb lens, the 70-200mm F2.8 and sorry to say, her soccer photos were not very good. That is one reason we wrote the books at http://sportsphotographysuccess.com. There are a number of great sites that can help including this article, at least to get you started.
, April 08, 2005; 03:03 P.M. 
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