Lens Extender

Explore Multiple Sports Photography Vantage Points

I recently shot a volleyball tournament at a high school where I had an opportunity to shoot above the courts as well as at the court level.  When shooting above the volleyball courts, I had an opportunity to shoot from the three different elevated vantage points:

1. From the perspective of the ball coming toward the camera
2. From the perspective of the ball moving away from the camera
3. From the perspective of ball moving parallel to the camera

The first 3 photos below are from each of the abovew vantage points.  The 4th photo is from a sitting position perspective shooting up at the action on the court.  Of the 4 vantage points, I'm not sure which I prefer. But having the opportunity to try different shooting locations is very useful. Don't be afraid to explore multiple shooting locations.

 

Cropping for Dramatic Affect

Spend some time thinking about how you crop your photos. There are times when cropping can make the difference between an ok sports shot and a very dramatic sports shot.

An ok crop

A better crop

An Easy Tool for Creating Selective Color Photos - Color Splash Studio

This high jump photo was good in it's original all-color form.  But it really comes alive with the jumper and high jump bar in color while the background is in black & white.  There are various ways to accomplish this post-processing feat.  If you're Mac user, however, I've found Color Splash Studio to be powerful and very easy to create selective color photos.

Check out this YouTube video describing Color Splash Studio for Mac.

Capture sports intensity in your photography

To me, the best sports photos are those that capture the intensity of the game.  If you take enough sports photos, you'll discover that the importance of the game matters to the level of intensity expressed by the athletes in your shots.  Athletes (even young ones) step it up a notch or two when the outcome of a game has real benefits for them.  

The photos below were taken last weekend at the Jefferson Cup in Virginia.  This specific game meant the difference between playing in the championship game later in the day or going home.

Capture sports photos in inclement weather

I know it's tough to be out in the cold, or rain, or mud, capturing sports photos.  But inclement weather conditions allows you to capture some pretty dramatic shots.  So suck it up.  The kids are out there playing. Get off your duff.  Come out of the minivan.  And take some pictures of your kids in bad weather.

A snowy soccer day in Kentucky

Increase your camera's ISO for indoor sports photography

As described at Yahoo Answers, your camera's ISO setting controls how sensitive the camera is to light.  A lower ISO requires more light to properly expose a photo than a higher ISO. Thus, a setting of ISO 200 needs twice as much light to properly expose a photograph as ISO 400.  Your camera's ISO setting is important for sports when there's not a lot of light to maintain the fast shutter speeds necessary to clearly photograph action.  Boosting your camera's ISO to 800, 1600, 3200, or even 6400 can dramatically increase the ability to properly expose your sports shots with a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action.  The downside to higher ISO settings is the introduction of more noise in your photos as ISO increases. Regarding noise, not all camera's are created equal.  Some camera's introduce unusable noise at ISO settings as low as 1600.  Others produce very good photos at ISO 6400.  If you want to take action shots indoors or in other low light situations, having a camera that performs well at higher ISO settings can be very useful.

The photo below was shot at the Pontiac Silverdome (the old home of the Detroit Lions).  While the lighting in the Silverdome is very good, this shot still required an ISO setting of 4000 to properly expose this photo at aperture f/2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/1250s.

Robert's Rules for Sports Photography

Robert Beck is a Sports Illustrated contract photographer.  I recently saw his piece on the Nikon site highlighting a few very good tips for capturing youth sports photgraphs.  He's a Nikon equipment guy like me.  Thus, many of his tips on equipment settings are specific to Nikon cameras (he shoots a D3, D700 and D300). However,  I'm sure that some of those settings are replicated on Canon and other equipment as well.

Try a Different Photographic Perspective for Your Sports Photography

Normally I like to take my sports photos at field or court level from as low of a perspective as possible.  I believe this low perspective makes the athlete appear larger, particularly photos of kids.  While photographing a volleyball tournament recently, I noticed an opportunity to capture the action from a perspective almost directly above the athletes.  So I tried it.  The photographs below are the result of taking advantage of that perspective.  

I must admit.  I like it. I found the higher perspective easier to isolate the intended athlete from other players.  And most importantly I found it easier to capture good action that also included faces an those necessary athletic facial expressions.

Find Interesting Sports Photo Situations

You can find interesting sports subjects in a lot of environments.  This shot was taken during an awful day for soccer played on a water-logged field.  I noticed one player choosing to sit on the bench with the water surrounding her boots.  Truthfully, I didn't notice the boot reflection until after I reviewed the photo on my Mac.  I think the reflection makes the photo even more appealing.

Don't Use AF-On for Volleyball

I'm not sure why, but I seem to get more in-focus volleyball action when I use the shutter release button for auto focus as opposed to the AF-On button and setting on my Nikon D700.  I previously posted that I only use the AF-On setting and button for my sports photography.  Well, I'm fairly sure now that for volleyball at least I get more in-focus shots using the shutter release button for auto-focus, exposure and releasing the shutter.