Lens Extender

Should All of Your Subject be Sharp for Sports Photos

Some sports photographers believe that every part of the photo should be sharp.  I don't agree.  I think it's perfectly ok for those components of the photo that highlight speed and action to be a little blurry due to your camera's shutter speed not being high enough to freeze all of the action.  In the above photo the ball, the foot and the lower left arm are not sharp.  To me, this is fine.  In fact the ball and foot in this particular shot highlights significant speed and motion with the slight blurriness.

Ryder Cup Golf Photography of Tiger Woods and Others

Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk for the U.S. team

Padraig Harrington for the European team

A working pro photographer

With Tiger Woods winning $10 million in the FedEx Cup this week, it reminded of some my old Ryder Cup golf photos.  Back in 2004 I got an opportunity to attend a practice round during the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills Michigan.  At the time the only camera I had was rather decent point and shoot Fuji prosumer model.  Each of these photos were taken with that camera.

Capture the Easy Sports Photos

If you know the sport you're shooting, you can always capture the easy sports photo.  If you're taking soccer photos, you should know the throw-in is part of the sport that allows the soccer photographer to easily capture action with a lot of facial expression.  And it's very easy to get.

Quickly Capturing the Staged Team Photograph

Photos like the one above can be a challenge for the photographer tasked with quickly capturing a series of staged pictures related to a sporting event.  This photo was part of a high school soccer senior day event before the soccer match.  Unlike regular action photos, you can't screw up these photos.  You onlyget one shot to get the shot.  My advice:

• Know exactly where the staging of the photos will occur.
• Try not to shoot into the sun, or have the subjects look into the sun.
• Use your best lens that will allow you to easily frame your subjects (that lens might not be a zoom lens by the way).
• Don't use an aperture that's so small that some subjects in your photos will be sharply in focus, while other subjects are not.
• Take at least two photos of each staged opportunity if you can.  Make sure you refocus for each photograph you take.  This gives you a better opportunity to get at least one of your shots in focus.

The above photo was taken using a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S lens attached to a D300.  The camera settings were: f/2.2 aperture, 1/400 shutter speed, ISO 400, no flash, shot at dusk under high school stadium lighting.

Get to a Low Perspective when Photographing Sports

I see this pro photographer at many of the high school sport events that I cover.  One strategy that I see him use (that I've posted about before) is to shoot from a low perspective if possible.  This photographer frequently sits on the ground while leaning back on his camera bag to capture dramatic photos of his sports subjects

Using the Appropriate Aperture Setting on Your Expensive f/2.8 Lens

Just because you've invested in a f/2.8 or f/4 lens for your outdoor sports photography, doesn't mean you have to use the minimum aperture of the lens all of the time.  If you have sufficient light, moving slightly away from the minimum aperture will help you with 2 problems:

1. Even the best lenses are sharper when not shot at their minimum aperture.  Thus, your photos will be sharper at f/4 when using an f/2.8 lens.
2. You'll get more of your sports photos in focus at f/4 when using an f/2.8 lens.  The depth of field produced when shooting at f/2.8 requires that the autofocus be more spot on at f/2.8 than at f/4.

Of course there are many occasions when you'll really, really need to shoot at the most minimum aperture particularly when there isn't enough light to attain a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action.

The photo above was shot at f/3.2 using a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lens (in aperture priority).

Nikon D300 Settings for Outdoor Photography

Check out this discussion over on Photo.net about the appropriate settings for a Nikon D300 DLSR to capture outdoor sports like football or soccer.  As you'll see, there are a number opinions about the proper settings to get the job done.  This discussion will give you a general idea how to approach choosing your settings with a good explanation of why some of these settings might be appropriate for you.

Good Soccer Hair

Some kids have good soccer hair.  Some do not.  This kid has it.

Catching the Dramatic Crash Photos

The modern digital slr makes capturing these types of photos rather easy.  Any time a player gets up in the air this kind of action is possible.  With a decent dlsr, combined with knowing the sport you're shooting you'll get your fair amount of this kind of action.  

This was shot with a Nikon D300 with the vertical grip attachment which allows this camera to shoot a 8 frames per second.

 

Capturing the Colors of Fall Sports

I really like the colors in this soccer photo.  This photos was taken in Michigan in late September.  The colors in the uniform, the grass, and the blurred background of the trees beginning to change colors all come together really well.