For
sports enthusiasts, there’s nothing more exciting
than sports people playing their favourite game. The
sight of the field, rink or golf course initiates
the thrill and anticipation. This, combined with
digital photography, can provide some amazing
photographic opportunities. However it’s not a
matter of point the camera at the person diving for
the ball or puck and snapping away. It’s a lot more
complicated than that.
In digital photography sports can be quite
challenging. The sports people do not present an
easy task of being photographed because of the
amount of high movement. However, you can indeed
achieve great sports digital photography. Most
excellent sports digital photography requires good
planning and execution.
Here are some exclusive tips for gaining fantastic
sports shots in your digital photography.
First things first; know your digital camera. I
recommend taking note and practicing first all the
settings that sports photography needed. You may
find yourself going for the faster shutter speed,
increased ISO and burst mode. Let’s take a look at
all these things on your digital camera and see how
they can be applied to give you sensational sports
photos.
High shutter speeds:
As with all moving objects, in order to capture the
“frozen in time” look in digital photography a fast
shutter speed is required. The faster the movement
the fast the shutter speed will need to be. In
digital photography the general consensus is that
the shutter speed needs to be faster than that of
the subject. For example if you have a sliding puck
across ice and there is a someone about to take a
dive for it then its necessary to quickly mentally
assess how fast that person might be traveling at.
If they are traveling at approximately 50 kilometers
(approx 32 miles) per hour then you may find a very
fast shutter speed is needed for this digital photo.
A very fast shutter speed in digital photography may
be anything from 500th of a second or higher. For
high speed movement you may want to consider an even
faster shutter speed of 1000th of a second or
something in that range.
Keep in mind that in digital photography a fast
shutter speed works to reduce some of the light
which is why a higher ISO is often necessary. (I’ll
talk about that in a minute.) Usually a if a ball,
such as a baseball going at around 145 kilometers an
hour (90.09 miles per hour) a shutter speed of
around 1/4000 will get you that “suspended ball in
mid air” type of photo. For physical movement, such
as someone leaping to catch a football, a shutter
speed of 1/500 or over is a good place to start.
Now this is all very well if your scene if well lit.
But what if you are taking your digital photography
shots indoors at night and the light is not quite
enough to provide enough light? In most instances,
an indoor stadium at night time will be well lit,
but that doesn’t always ensure good digital photos.
In sports photography we need to understand that we
can only control the artistic value and input of our
digital photo and the control of the camera. We
can’t control the lighting on the scene being such a
public event. In digital photography sports photos
we must realize that it’s going to be a challenge to
begin with. So here are something’s you can in your
digital sports photography to increase the amount of
light.
If you have a light tool on your digital camera such
as a histogram you can get a good idea of what the
light levels are like on your sensor. With this
handy tool you can adjust the ISO at the time of
your pictures taking.
Increase your ISO: A high ISO in digital photography
simply means the sensitivity to light that your
digital camera has. In a nutshell the more ISO you
have increased the image to, the less light the
sensor needs. In sports photography an ISO of 400 or
higher can work really well. The downside to this is
that it does increase noise. To combat this you can
use noise reduction software in the post editing
process such as Noise Ninja or increase the LAB mode
in the post editing process. Don’t be afraid to try
a few shots at 400, 800 and even as high as 1600.
Burst mode:
In most sports digital photography this will be one
of the settings you will turn to. Burst mode is also
known as ‘continuous shooting’. This ‘continuous’
shooting mode allows you to get a sequence of shoots
in succession. You can increase your chances of
getting that ideal “split second perfect shot” that
you might not be able to get by pre-emption or in
normal shooting. This also works so beautifully if
your digital camera has a painfully long lag time.
I’ve used this so many times to get around the high
lag my Sony Cyber shot has got. Some cameras have 3
frames per second and some go up to 12 frames per
second. You simply select this mode and hold your
finger on the shutter button and it will fire off as
many shots in 1 second as it can.
Okay so I’ve been talking about your digital camera
and the setting’s used for ideal sports digital
photography, so what about any external equipment?
If you have been thinking about this you’re spot on.
You can take as much time with your settings but
there’s not much point if you can’t get close to the
action. There’s no point having a picture with
perfect lighting and perfect action if the players
are like dots on a sheet of paper. You need a good
telephoto lens if you can’t get close up. A
telephoto lens brings you closer because of its long
distance capability. It will get you closer to the
action but will need a faster shutter speed.
Many fantastic sports digital photos are taken with
an emphasis on a very fast shutter speed, an f stop
of around the 2.8 mark to blur the background and
focus in on the subject. You may find that if your
sportsperson is visually separated from the
background and you take the digital photograph with
a telephoto lens you’ll have a more shallow depth of
field which can give you a more powerful feeling in
your digital photo. You can get away with a good
optical zoom lens, but you’ll get far better digital
sports shots with a proper telephoto.
So what about the artistic side of sports
photography with your digital camera? Plenty!
Pre-emption and Emotion is the key to good art.
When taking sports photography you probably won’t
find a more public display of human emotion. The
emotions of a sports person range from intense
anticipation to extreme disappointment or extreme
exhilaration. Pre-empting when these emotions take
place is they key to getting artistic and impressive
sports photos. This comes with practicing your
digital photography.
SO much pressure is placed on our athletes,
expecting them to perform so we can enjoy the show
and the investors can enjoy their returns. This is
another reason why I say to get a telephoto lens so
you can capture the emotions on their faces and
their body language. It makes for superb
photography. For ideas on ice hockey, have a look at
some ice hockey images that are great study tools.
Don’t just look at these digital photos, you must
study them. Take on the attitude that studying
sports photography will improve your digital sports
photos ten fold. You will have a style to emulate
and copy to start with then eventually, when you
become confident, you’ll start to adopt your own
style.
Happy shooting,
Amy Renfrey
To study digital sports photography check these
sites out:
http://www.espn.com and
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com and
http://cbs.sportsline.com/
By:
Amy
About the Author
Amy
Renfrey is the author of two major successful ebooks
“Digital Photography Success” and “Advanced Digital
Photography”. She is a photographer and also teaches
digital photography. She’s photographed many things
from famous musicians to portraits of babies. Amy
also teaches photography online to her students
which can be found at
www.DigitalPhotographySuccess.com
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Mastering the Art of Sports Photography With your
Digital Camera
