It seems like the yearbook is heavy on sports photos, but good sports photos are hard. It's really easy to get intimidated by people with long lenses and fast cameras. Most of us have Rebel XT(i) or Nikon D40(s) which means that you can only shoot 3 frames per second or less (pretty much useless in most sports). Here are a few things that you can try for sports pictures.
-Anticipate Action
Since we can't shoot 10 frames per second (sometimes even that is not enough), we have to try to nail the picture by anticipating the moment. In tennis, for example, shoot single frames every time they serve, and hopefully you will get a few good shots. Also anticipate framing, you don't know where the athlete will be in a fraction of a second, but you might anticipate that she/he will jump, so you can correct for that. Autofocus is also an issue, if you have a $1000+ camera, autofocus tracking might be pretty good, but in XT(i) and D40(s) you have to rely on single focus points (we can talk about autofocus in the meeting, there are a few things about dedicated "AF buttons").
- Tight Cropping
If you look carefully at sports magazines and whatnot, you will notice that most of them are very tightly cropped. That puts the focus on the athletes, shows their bodies, skills, etc. You can get a tight crop either by cropping the photo that you took, or by framing it tight initially. Try framing it tight as you shoot. You will see a big difference. If you crop your photo too much in Photoshop, you lose resolution and get a pixelated photo with little detail.
- Use Really Wide or Really Long Lenses
Extremes are interesting. You always see those dudes on the sidelines with their 400mm, 600mm lenses shooting college football. So take your longest lens with you to the game (or borrow one). Sometimes wide angles are also lots of fun (provided that you can get close to your subjects). If you can sit on the sidelines at basketball games, you can shoot with your 17mm end of the lens (or even wider if you can).
- Capture Athlete's Faces
They make very funny faces when they hit the ball (or jump). So try to catch their face expression. If you catch a cool soccer moment but the player is facing the other way, the photo is not going to be very special.
- Shoot After the Game is Over
Shoot how athletes interact with each other, how they interact with coaches. Try to catch them if they do goofy things, or cry, or do anything funny. A lot of interesting things happen after the game is over. And for these moments you don't really need 10frames/second or 500mm lens.
- Shoot Very Low or Very High
Usually we shoot things from our eye level (5-6 feet above the ground). You get very different prospectives if you kneel down (or better, lie down) or you climb somewhere high. For soccer/football shoot from grass level, or go up on the tribunes and shoot from there.
- Very Slow or Very Fast Shutter Speed
For most sports you need high shutter speeds to stop the motion (tennis you need about 1/1000sec, same for baseball, about 1/250-1/500 for basketball, waterpolo). If you shoot slower the players and the ball will be blurry. But you can choose to shoot very slow (1/15sec, or 1/20sec, or even slower) and put emphasis on the motion or people or the ball. If possible, you have time and want to experiment, you can combine this with a flash exposure (you get blur, but the flash gives a sharp definition of people).
- Shoot Equipment
You can shoot a pile of sneakers, or a bag full of equipment, or anything that lies on the sidelines and has anything to do with the sport. That can add a nice touch to a page about the sport.
- Shoot into the Sun for Silhouettes
Sun is your enemy usually, but sometimes you can try shooting into the sun, so you get only the silhouette of the athlete. You might need to try several settings for this, perhaps exposure compensation +/-.
I am sure there are lots of other cool things to shoot. Please share your experience, post some pictures. I am going to add some photos on Monday.
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1 comment:
Excellent points, Ghe. I'll vouch for the fact that 3fps doesn't fair well if trying to capture a sequence in sports. Remember to use Continuous focus (there should be C, S, and M focus modes) when shooting sports, action, or anything that moves quickly where you anticipate having to pan the camera. It just keeps things in focus.
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