Kicking Around Ideas For Rookie Sports Photographers

If someone wanted to create a photo gallery of human emotions, he or she would be well served to hire a sports photographer. Photojournalists who cover sporting events may even be able to capture an impressive range of emotions on a single afternoon. Anyone who reads Sports Illustrated or the sports section of a daily newspaper that has a talented sports photographer on board has seen stunning photos of anguish, determination, elation, despondence, confusion, anger, frustration, surprise, and bewilderment on the faces and in the body language of athletes, onlookers, referees, and coaches. In fact, these images routinely win awards in big-stakes photo competitions. And many sports photographer pros have no interest in the sporting events they cover. After all, it’s not about sports - it’s about permanently suspending an intensely focused soccer player in mid-air as she sends home the winning goal or capturing a pitcher’s outstretched arm as he winds up to deliver the decisive fast ball.

Anyone with an interest can learn sports photography. Tips from the experts abound on the Internet, side by side with dramatic photo galleries demonstrating the value of their advice. One caveat: Recognized photojournalists usually have the advantage of almost being on top of - or directly under - the action. Joe Lightbox, however, needs a few more tricks in his camera bag when he is shooting from the stands. His requirements for zoom, light levels, and speed are different.

What the pros want to tell Joe is this:
• You need at least a 7x or higher optical zoom when using a digital camera.
• You need an SLR camera - digital or 35 mm.
• Lighting at sporting events is usually less than ideal, and you’ll have to deal with it.

How does Joe deal with it?

• For sharp action shots, he should set the shutter speed as fast as he can. Speeds of 1/250 to 1/500s work best. It’s a good idea for Joe to arrive at the venue early to experiment and find the best shutter speed for the lighting level; the more light, the faster he can shoot. Good light allows an f range, or aperture opening, of 8-11 (more about f numbers shortly). The faster the shutter speed, the larger the lens aperture, to allow maximum light in minimum time. (Incidentally, the larger the aperture, the heavier and more expensive the lens.)

• The pros recommend that Joe have two, even three, types of photography camera lenses for varied shots.

- Telephoto lens descriptions include focal length, expressed in mm, and aperture information, which is expressed as an f number: for example, the Nikkor 200 mm f/2 and the Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 - the lower the aperture number, the larger the aperture opening and the “faster” the lens, because of the low required exposure time. The Canon EF 70-200mm lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.8 and a minimum of f/32, which is extremely small. One particular pro sports photographer covers all his bases with three lenses: a 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6; an 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5; and a 50 mm f/1.8, so he can snap fast yet clear action shots as well as lower activity ones.

- Digital cameras zoom lenses typically have a maximum aperture (again, minimum f-number) of f/2.8 to f/6.3. A very fast zoom lens will be constant f/2.8 or f/2.

• To help compensate for low lighting levels, Joe should increase the ISO - the measurement of a camera’s sensitivity to light - to 200 or even 400. Unfortunately, the higher the ISO, the grainier the result. However, a very fast lens can somewhat reduce the ISO. Shooting at f/2.8 or f/4 will give him a lot more leeway as far as shutter speed and ISO.

• Joe should also understand shutter lag time - the slight pause between the time he presses the shutter and the time the picture is actually snapped. Using auto focus takes longer, increasing shutter lag, so he should try to use manual focus mode if it’s an option on his camera.

• One last thing for Joe to do: Call the venue ahead of the event date to learn their policy for picture-taking. Photography could be prohibited and, at the very worst, he could be barred from entry if he’s carrying a camera; or he could be allowed in but forced to leave his camera in a back room, which may not be a palatable option for Joe; or limitations on camera size and flash use could be posted. Any of these consequences would be a painful disappointment for Joe.

Oh, and he should find out if he can get season tickets, so he has lots of opportunities for practice. See you at the game, Joe.

Photography is a great hobby! Everyone knows that you have got to have a good camera to get good shot, but to transform a good shot into a great shot, then you have got to have a good lens for your camera. At Digital Cameras Lenses you will find the best selection of camera lens accessories at the best prices, plus all products ship free in the US.