8 Tips On How to Photograph Sports - selected quotes

I'm confused by this article: http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-on-how-to-photograph-sports

The author recommends:

1. "ensuring all your focal points are active will make sure you have optimum chance of focusing on the player with the ball."

Seems like a bad idea for soccer and center expanded is better.

2. Shoot in JPG

Huh?

3. "An absolute MUST when photographing sports photography is to have IS on your lens. You want to set your lens to Image Stabiliser Mode 2. Mode 1 is only made for still subjects & portraiture and won’t perform as well as the panning mode 2 in sporting situations."

Huh? How is IS helping with moving subjects?

I mean the author explains his standpoint / statements very well (???) - of course, one's mileage always may vary.
--
don

Article is a bit misleading.. I've shot soccer, baseball, flag football and one thing you can guarantee is the sun is never perfectly placed, and with clouds and time of day it all varies. I always shoot RAW to fix white balance issues. Always shoot center point only because who needs a focus point picking up fans in the background. Anything indoors is a must with f2.8 or better. IMO image stability is non-factor if shooting 1/400+ which is about the lowest for gymnastics or basketball.

Anticipation is the key and pre-focusing as much as possible, I rarely fire off bursts and can get great shots. If it's not about making $$ shooting the fans watching the game can produce some great shots, always be looking around even when there is no action..

okaye said:

I'm confused by this article: http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-on-how-to-photograph-sports

The author recommends:

1. "ensuring all your focal points are active will make sure you have optimum chance of focusing on the player with the ball."

Seems like a bad idea for soccer and center expanded is better.

Click to expand...

I agree with you on this. I've always used center point only for sports (don't have the 7D)

okaye said:

2. Shoot in JPG

Huh?

Click to expand...

Sports is the only time I shoot JPEG. It really depends on how many shots you want to take. Shooting JPEG gives you longer bursts and far more shots on a single card than RAW. When I used the 20D, this was more important. The maximum RAW burst is only 6 shots on the 20D. With the 50D, it's less important. I've never exceeded the RAW burst limit. But there's still the point about getting more shots on a card. There's also the processing time to consider for several hundred RAW shots. If you can get the exposure and white balance right in JPEG, I think it makes sense to shoot sports that way. There's nothing wrong with shooting RAW, though, if you are prepared to take the processing time.

okaye said:

3. "An absolute MUST when photographing sports photography is to have IS on your lens. You want to set your lens to Image Stabiliser Mode 2. Mode 1 is only made for still subjects & portraiture and won’t perform as well as the panning mode 2 in sporting situations."

Huh? How is IS helping with moving subjects?

Click to expand...

IS doesn't help with moving subjects, but it might help with camera shake. If I'm shooting basketball, using 1/500 on my 70-200, IS can still be useful. 1/500 is unlikely to eliminate all camera shake at 200mm on a crop sensor. The guideline of 1/35mm equivalent focal length is only a guideline, and designed for fairly small prints. I find IS at 200mm makes a difference all the way up to 1/1000. You can get pretty much the same advantage using a monopod. IS certainly can't hurt (unless you don't use the panning mode). I wouldn't call it an absolute MUST, though.
--
Alastair
http://anorcross.smugmug.com
Equipment in profile

I shoot heaps of sport -

nearly always use centre point focus, never bother with raw (too time consuming and W Bal is not the key - catching the action is), and never use IS but a monopod instead.

I think the advice given in the article refers to shooting a single, isolated player; in jpeg mode; handheld with IS on.

Not many sports shooters I know shoot RAW if they are covering events where they sell images to parents. Sure use RAW if you're doing a particular assignment or fancy shot but if you're a reasonably competent photographer you should be able to get away with shooting jpegs.

Zoooming

okaye said:

I'm confused by this article: http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-on-how-to-photograph-sports

The author recommends:

1. "ensuring all your focal points are active will make sure you have optimum chance of focusing on the player with the ball."

Seems like a bad idea for soccer and center expanded is better.

2. Shoot in JPG

Huh?

3. "An absolute MUST when photographing sports photography is to have IS on your lens. You want to set your lens to Image Stabiliser Mode 2. Mode 1 is only made for still subjects & portraiture and won’t perform as well as the panning mode 2 in sporting situations."

Huh? How is IS helping with moving subjects?

Click to expand...

My 8 tips:

Centre Point Focus - f2.8 lenses have additional sensitivity at the centre point only

JPG - for max throughput speed and memory card capacity

IS is a non-issue (most of the time) - for brightly lit situations it actually makes the shot harder because you are battling against the IS

Shoot AV

Pre-focus where possible

Know the sport - know where to be

Shoot tight - crop tighter

Shoot to get faces in action - expressions make a sports shot every time

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismarvell

Second all those and will add two -

• don't be afraid to shoot into the sun (backlit) - use plus EC as required

• shoot as close to ground level as possible (use a small camping chair/stool) for a better background/look.

Zoooming

CapnM said:

My 8 tips:

Centre Point Focus - f2.8 lenses have additional sensitivity at the centre point only

JPG - for max throughput speed and memory card capacity

IS is a non-issue (most of the time) - for brightly lit situations it actually makes the shot harder because you are battling against the IS

Shoot AV

Pre-focus where possible

Know the sport - know where to be

Shoot tight - crop tighter

Shoot to get faces in action - expressions make a sports shot every time

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismarvell

Click to expand...

I took a look at the two sample images in the article and knew two things:

1) That's not an actual "school"
2) The photographer doesn't deliver results worth emulating.

Much better resources out there for you so ignore that article.

Joe

he seems concerned about competition with his make sure to wear a bright orange vest to make sure everyone knows that you are THE official photographer at the game, maybe he want less successful competition hah

ok, not likely but

okaye said:

I'm confused by this article: http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-on-how-to-photograph-sports

The author recommends:

1. "ensuring all your focal points are active will make sure you have optimum chance of focusing on the player with the ball."

Seems like a bad idea for soccer and center expanded is better.

Click to expand...

this is about the worst advice i have ever heard

(maybe likely after all hah)

okaye said:

2. Shoot in JPG

Huh?

Click to expand...

on some cameras, like the old 20D with a horribly small buffer, you almost have to

it all depends

these days i use a lot more RAW

okaye said:

3. "An absolute MUST when photographing sports photography is to have IS on your lens. You want to set your lens to Image Stabiliser Mode 2. Mode 1 is only made for still subjects & portraiture and won’t perform as well as the panning mode 2 in sporting situations."

Huh? How is IS helping with moving subjects?

Click to expand...

it can help for crowd/bench shots, at times
or for special trick sort of shots

or more generally for bicycle, auto, air

but saying it is a must is kinda crazy, most people would say just get the non-IS and put that money into a second lens or a body with better AF

unless conditions were truly desperate I never used it for soccer or football, makes it worse

CapnM said:

My 8 tips:

Centre Point Focus - f2.8 lenses have additional sensitivity at the centre point only

Click to expand...

will add turn on the helper points, if available

and a few models allow outer points with helpers to be used, occasionally that can be better

CapnM said:

JPG - for max throughput speed and memory card capacity

Click to expand...

i prefer RAW if the body and situation are amenable to it (not always the case)

CapnM said:

IS is a non-issue (most of the time) - for brightly lit situations it actually makes the shot harder because you are battling against the IS

Shoot AV

Click to expand...

M if you can, AV if you can't
I probably used M 60% of the time (Av the remainder)

CapnM said:

Pre-focus where possible

Know the sport - know where to be

Shoot tight - crop tighter

Shoot to get faces in action - expressions make a sports shot every time

Click to expand...

while you do need to do a lot of timing yourself, don't be afraid to fire off a ton of shots each match either

don't use a monopod with something light like a 70-200 2.8 or a 300 f/4

who has maybe only dabbled a little in sports on the side)

the link to see samples of her work doesn't even show a single sports photo, it's all weddings and events

Joe Marques said:

I took a look at the two sample images in the article and knew two things:

1) That's not an actual "school"
2) The photographer doesn't deliver results worth emulating.

Much better resources out there for you so ignore that article.

Joe

Click to expand...

Yeah. When NCAA Football season starts here, the sports photographers here can give you more in a two-sentence tip when posting their images than that article ever will... Oh, and they have amazing images.

A guy bouncing a ball off of his chest by himself? Um... boring.

Nice catch. What a strange site. Take a fairly good wedding photog and have her "teach" on a topic she knows clearly knows very little about and thus demonstrates almost no credibility in her "lesson". Why on earth would this site operate that way? Bizarre.

Joe

bronxbombers said:

who has maybe only dabbled a little in sports on the side)

the link to see samples of her work doesn't even show a single sports photo, it's all weddings and events

Click to expand...

CapnM said:

My 8 tips:

Centre Point Focus - f2.8 lenses have additional sensitivity at the centre point only

Click to expand...

There is no extra precision in Servo AF mode (which is what sports shooters use).

Also, "additional sensitivity" is misleading because it seems to imply the center AF point is better at getting a reading under challenging conditions (it's not). I know this is the terminology used by Canon's marketing department but it would be much more accurate to say "additional precision" (and only under relatively good light with a static subject).

The above comments apply to the 40D and 7D bodies (and almost certainly the 50D but I have not tested the 1 series).

--
Mike Mullen