5 Tips for Better Sports Photography

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Sports photography is an exciting field of action photography that can provide us as photographers with unique challenges, awesome images, and perhaps even some extra income.

Let’s jump in with some sports photography tips, including some recommendations for sports photography gear that can help make a difference in capturing great images.

#1 Sports Photography Tip: Know the Sport

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Before we remove the lens cap and turn on our camera, the absolute first step for capturing outstanding sports photography images isn’t about photography. It’s about the sport we want to photograph. We need to know the sport before photographing it.

The reason is so we can be prepared for the action, strategies, and physical needs of covering that sport. Knowing the sport gives us an idea of where to position ourselves for sports photography and a way to predict when we might see a peak of action.

Knowing the sport tells us if we should be down on the field or court or perhaps somewhere up the stands for the best views and angles. It lets us prepare for what could happen and gives us time to move to a better location and perhaps back again.

These top sports photography tips can tell us who we should watch and what they might do. This gives us an advantage in choosing the right gear for that event and deciding on the optimum settings.

Lenses for Sports Photography

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Speaking about sports photography gear, what lenses should we use? If you've watched the Olympics, an NFL game, or MLS, you have probably seen the photographers down on the field with giant lenses. These are usually long and fast telephoto lenses.

But these photographers also almost always have another lens on a separate camera body, ready to use at a moment’s notice. It could be a normal lens or perhaps a general-use range zoom lens. This lets them capture a wider field of view or something happening very close.

So, a good rule of thumb for lens choices in sports photography is to have on hand a general-purpose lens and whatever telephoto focal lengths provide a good view of the action in the playing area. The faster the maximum aperture of those lenses, the better, since this gives you more options for exposure settings and selective focus.

Speed is a Key for Sports Photography

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Whether the sport has rapid action or not, a key to capturing great pictures in sports is the speed in the sports photography gear. Fast lenses, fast shutter speeds, and rapid cycle times are the speed we’re referencing here.

A large amount of sports photography will be photos of the action. Even when calculating the peak of action moments in a particular sport, the faster the shutter speed, the better.

A faster shutter speed helps freeze the action, reducing or eliminating subject blurring due to motion. A lower shutter speed could be used artistically, such as when panning with motion, but faster speeds are generally preferred for action.

Faster lenses allow faster shutter speeds based on the Exposure Triangle. A fast lens is generally easy to focus rapidly, in autofocus or manually. Fast lenses will enable us to use selective focus to highlight the subject interest.

Switching the AF mode to servo or continuous is a good idea since this reduces the time to activate the shutter. The camera is not waiting for a focus lock which could come right after the split second we wanted to capture.

It’s a good idea to change our image file type to JPEG from RAW since the file sizes are smaller and can be written onto our cards more quickly. Watch the read/write speed of the cards used and what size buffer your camera has. You don’t want to sit and wait while the action passes by, and your camera is still writing to the memory card.

High-speed continuous shutter activation is preferred over single-shot mode. While this may increase the number of unusable images, it also raises the probability of getting a good shot. You trade out several lesser images for one or two excellent pics. Practice and knowing the sport will reduce the number of unusable frames you get.

Sports Photography in Any Weather

A lot of sports photography happens outside, so the weather may not be ideal for a camera. Rain and snow rarely stop the players, except for dangerous circumstances, so you want to be ready for sports photography in whatever weather you’re in.

GoShelter is the perfect solution for sports photography in virtually any type of weather. Instead of using a cumbersome camera and lens sleeve for rain protection, you are basically enclosed in a canopy that protects both you and your sports photography gear.

GoShelter is a wearable canopy, attaching to your waist or hips and your shoulders. It allows for freedom of movement with you and your camera, almost like not having it at all. This is a great feature for sports photography during inclement weather, you can shoot in portrait and landscape orientation, adjust any setting you need to, and can even change lenses if you’re careful enough.

It comes in multiple colors from camouflage to safety colors and can be folded up for ease of transport. It’s lightweight and sets up rapidly, so you can keep it with you ‘just in case.’

The GoShelter is reasonably priced, too. Order now using the coupon discount code PT1Umbrella for a $15 discount on Amazon.

Capture the Whole Experience in Sports Photography

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There is often a lot more happening at any sports event than only what’s in the field of play. Sometimes the fans or spectators can tell a good story. Keep your eye peeled for interesting characters and unique situations in the crowd. Players after the game might be a good photo.

You might also photograph sports gear, memorial statues, and unique-to-the-area food choices to complete a story encompassing the entire experience of whatever type of sport you photograph.

Use these tips and ideas for sports photography as a jumping-off point and keep getting better and better sports images.