Almost all of us have times when we require, or want, to shoot a sporting event. Maybe your child is in a soccer league, a friend’s child is on a faculty softball team, a nephew in high school competes on an athletic team, or you’re carrying your camera to a professional event. Regardless of the event, you can accomplish several things to make better pictures possible.
Tips to improve your Sports Photography
Catching the Action
Next, consider where you want to position yourself. Think about where most of the action occurs in the sport you re photographing. In some sports, you can catch the action coming at you, if you re positioned carefully. Sometimes the top of the bleacher-seats is the perfect spot to shoot from. Because of this high angle, looking down on the court (especially good for volleyball). At leisure time, you can often try different places with non-entertainment events. If you can, leave the seating areas and go with the crowd. That will put you closer to the action and in the occupants’ line of sight.
You will begin to realize a certain sport has a distinctive chronologic notion of the action as you shoot at it. The more you shoot, the better your timing of the action will become. Even the professionals practice shooting the start of a season to hone their awareness of the pace of the game.
The greatest photos are taken at the time the baller jumps up in an attempt to make a basket. Just before a volleyball serve, or when the cheerleaders have completed a pyramid. In soccer, action in the infield (catching, throwing, plays at bases and home plate) usually make for the very best photos.The most crucial action in soccer is most likely to happen near the goal.
COMPOSITION:
Consider the layout of your composition. Is the background cluttered? See if you can safely move to another spot so that you can compose an image that is not full of distractions.
LENS CHOICE:
The Nikon DSLR is one of the most popular cameras with a large zoom range. And it’s highly likely that you’ll be using a telephoto lens. The most commonly used zoom lenses reach 200mm to 300mm. Shoot as much as possible (fill the frame), and your pictures will look better.
AUTOFOCUS:
If you have continuous motion (by holding down the Capture button), be sure to change your autofocus setting to Flexible Focus. That way, your camera will remain in focus, even as the subjects topics covered change. You will also want to set your AF points to Flexible Focus for your camera to remain focused on your subject as the action takes place.If your camera has scene modes, you can select the sport setting, which tells the camera that you are shooting sports and require a fast pace to capture movements.
FOCUS LOCK:
If it takes you more time to stay focused, try focusing primarily on one item so that you can finish the action. For instance, during a baseball game, you can pay attention to a specific base and wait for the runners to get there.And, if you’re pre-focusing in only one place, use the focus lock button (often labeled “AF-L, or AE-L AF-L “) or change the autofocus to manual mode and adjust the focus on the lens by turning the focus ring.
Exposure
Exposure is mainly determined by the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO level.
SHUTTER SPEED:
The longer the shutter on the camera is open, the more light enters the frame. To stop the action, a quick shutter speed is needed. The exact shutter speed needed depends on the subject you’re shooting. To improve clarity, try to get your shutter speed to about 1 500, with a minimum rating of 1 000 and ideally higher. You may need to raise your ISO level if you set your shutter speed to low.
APERTURE:
Lens aperture, also known as an f stop, is the size of the hole in the lens that light passes through. The bigger the hole (smaller the f stop number), the more light passes, and the faster the shutter can be opened. Each lens has a maximum f stop, which limits how much light can pass through it.A “fast” lens has a very wide open main aperture (such as f 2.8 or f 1.4) and a “slow” one may only be able to open as far as f 3.5. Some zoom-lenses have a variable aperture, which means the longer you zoom in, the slower the lens is. We’ll see this in action a bit later.
ISO:
The ISO setting measures the sensitivity of the camera to light. A higher ISO (ISO 1600 or 3200) permits a faster shutter speed and opens a lens with a maximum aperture of a slower speed.
Added Challenges of Indoor Sports
Indoor sports can be especially challenging to photography because of various reasons. The shape of the event space like whether you are seeing a professional sports game or high school gym can be unwelcoming at times like fluorescent, tungsten, and mercury vapor.
Digital cameras must distinguish the color delivered from certain light sources to allow for correct creation of a final image. Since each type of light produces a different color, the camera will need to compensate for this (just like our eyes and brain do). In some situations, the camera may utilize a customized white balance, if supported, to achieve an improved end result.
A camera’s built-in flash generally has a fairly long working distance, possibly to 10-20 feet, or less in a large room without walls or ceilings to help reflect light. A more focal flash mounted over the camera may extend its working distance, but may still have trouble lighting more than one close subject in a large gym or large venue. Be sure to check with the coach, referee, or event official before utilizing a powerful flash, because sometimes flash can be distracting or hazardous to the athletes.
Professional sports photographers will often have access through the course rafters to the rigging lighting and can use it in detail within the arena. As you can imagine, this simply leaves working photographers at a disadvantage as amateurs are often the only ones to gain access to this.
Compensating for Low-Light
To capture the action of fast-moving athletes, you can use a fast shutter speed with a lens that allows you to control the light from the scene. A lens that has a high max aperture speed is necessary to capture fast-moving athletes. Usually, if you turn the ISO up. You’ll encounter larger noise and more blur in your final pictures. But be aware of the problems this can cause. Unlike in gyms, the gym lights can be very low, so for this reason. Even if you’re shooting at f/5.6 and a high ISO of 1600. Your image will be blurry unless you have a shutter speed faster than this. Having a lens with a faster maximum aperture is ideal in these circumstances.
To make indoor sports shooting more complicated. You will usually be far from the action and require a lengthy focal length to “zoom in” on the subject. Most zoom lenses are “variable” aperture; meaning that as you zoom their f stops grow smaller and gather less light. A variable aperture lens may have a f-stop range of f 3.5 to f 5.6, implying it has a moderate aperture of f 2.8. A “fixed aperture,” like the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f 2.8G ED VR II lens has a constant aperture over the course of its zoom range and is an excellent choice for indoor sports photography.
Another option could be to use a fixed focal length lens, such as the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f 1.8G. Initially, it can be hard to use a lens with fixed focal length (as you can’t “zoom” in and out); however, these lens are generally much faster and less expensive compared to a zoom lens.
Below are the best settings for a Nikon D-SLR user to increase indoor sports shooting before rebranding.
- Set the exposure mode to Aperture Priority and set the f/stop to it’s widest settings (i.e. f/2.8, f/4 or f/5.6)
- If your camera has an Auto ISO feature. Set it to Auto ISO ISO 1600 and the Min Shutter Speed to 1 60 a second. You may need to adjust this setting. If you find that 1 60 of a second isn’t fast enough to freeze a moment.
- Focal settings can vary widely depending on the sport you are playing. Overall, one of the “Dynamic-area AF” modes will be the best possible option for most sports.
For most COOLPIX users, the basic “A” Auto mode will be the optimal choice for capturing shots. But in many areas, a digital camera’s tiny sensor and tiny aperture may not be able to adequately stop action. Without the help of higher ISO settings or faster lenses.
Some photographers can take pictures of items that are already laid out on the field. Such examples include a pile of hockey pucks or baseball bats leaning against a fence.
Indoor sports are difficult, but appropriate gear, a high level of expertise and a great deal of practice. Even under most conditions, can have many benefits.
Conclusion
A contest is every bit as memorable and important as any other event that takes place before it. The emotions you experience and the memories created afterward are just as significant as the recollections made during the contest.
