sports shooting

[PaulWa]

Where possible, try to focus on the player's face, or failing that his/her upper body.

All very good points Paul.

Just remember that faces sell. To know what makes a great photo is to look at Sports Illistrated or you local paper. Figure out what makes the shot. Most of the time there is a shallow DOF. This makes the player the subject of the shot.

One other thing is to try and have the ball in the photo also.

What sells is action and emotion.

The ball and the face are key to this, but you can also have lots of emotion without the ball - winning celebrations or sorrow of being beaten.

I've loads of tips on my website for beginner sports photographers. Anyone who's been doing it should know everything I have listed http://www.photography.paul-walsh.net/sports.html

With a lot of action, movement is so fast that it is hard to keep the camera focused (or even pointed at) a player's face. So, the upper body should be enough to give you focus.

Shallow DOF is a great way to isolate the action from the background. Open aperture (f/4-f/2.8) is best for that. But that can also depend on the lenses you have to hand.

After that, it's a case of practice, practice, practice.

--
Irish Freelance Sports Photographer
http://www.photography.paul-walsh.net/

 

[glanglois]

Someone explained to me years ago that we are not shooting sport, we're shooting people.

It becomes a mantra.

Almost all the other guidelines and suggestions arise from that simple truth.

There's nothing new in this post but I found that the mantra makes it easier to recall what I'm about. And it certainly extends beyond sport shooting.

 

[Rdefen]

You had it right the first time. It's a mantra. It is not a truth, simple or otherwise.

In any event, you're shooting a sporting event, which images may or may not include people.