As request from a good friend of mine, and in light of the Superbowl, this blog post will be dedicated to sports photography. Star players include my little sister, my best friend, my wonderful rugby team teammates, and random people that I have no idea who they are and if I was ever to publish my pictures, would be in deep trouble because I don't have their names for publishing rights.
ISO 3200; f4.8; 1/125 second
So this picture is nice, right? That's it, though. It's nice. Not awful, but not front page material. Why?? There's no movement; no sense of action. It's static. That's the trick with sports photography. You want to freeze the moment, or show motion through blurs.
ISO 3200; f5; 1/100 second
Look! Motion! More interesting right? Slower shutter speed, for a little more blur, makes all the difference. Just make sure everything's not blurry, because then it's not a picture, it's crap. Just kidding, but still, focus is important.
ISO 1600; f5.6; 1/800 second
I am now going to contradict myself by saying you don't always need blur. Sometimes "freezing" the moment is what you need to make the perfect image. Here, water droplets are flying in the air, and you're just waiting for this swimmer to do as Dory does, and "just keep swimming."
ISO 1600; f4.8; 1/800second
Another cool example of freezing the moment (and a shameless plug for you to look at more of my photography). This image would've been better if I blurred the background by changing my f-stop, but I wasn't thinking clearly because there were just so many scantily-clad, buff men strutting about.
So if you've been actually reading the exposure settings under each picture, you'll notice that the ISO has been fairly high. Why, do you ask? Well I will tell you, because I want to try and educate you on the wonderful world of photography. (If you understand ISO, you can stop reading now) ISO is the camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive it is. So, if it's bright out, you use a low ISO, and if it's at night or inside, use a high ISO, hence the large numbers in the above pictures. The next set of pictures are outside, so I used a low ISO.
ISO 400; f8; 1/2000 second
Faces can make or break a shot. It's up to you if it works in this shot. HINT, I'M TALKING ABOUT THE GIRL ON THE RIGHT. I KNOW IT'S MEAN BUT SHE JUST LOOKS SO FUNNY.
ISO 400; f11; 1/2000 second
Yah, I don't know what to say about this one, other than that it is bad ass. Wahoo! Go George Washington Women's Rugby!
ISO 800; f8; 1/2000 second
ISO 800; f8; 1/2000 second
ISO 800; f8; 1/2000 second
- To get more movement and more blur, use a slower shutter speed
- To freeze a moment in time, such as water splashing, use a faster shutter speed
- If you're shooting a game outside, use a lower ISO if it's sunny
- If you're shooting inside, use a higher ISO; Indoor lighting is the worst
- Try to get a variety of shots with different angles
- If the sport uses a ball, make sure the ball is in the frame
- If the sport you're shooting is not a common sport, say rugby, make sure the picture makes sense without someone knowing the game. For example, ascrum isn't too exciting to photograph and a common viewer won't understand what's going on
Hope this has been informative. Please comment with future blog ideas!
Great photographs! I especially like the the ones with the swimmer, the diver, and the last rugby shot. I know very little about photography, so it would be great if you could break down each step in a blog post, and maybe compare two pictures with the same subject or scenery, but taken with different methods.
ReplyDelete-Grace Chou
Knowing almost nothing about photography, I really appreciate your explanations of what you are looking to capture in different circumstances and what camera settings you use to achieve those different shots. I really like the shot of the basketball pass with the ball blurred and the rugby tackle (face) and kick. How do you get good focus on action shots though?
ReplyDeleteGreat timing with the sports by the way ;)
ReplyDeleteOne of my rugby teammates turned from teammate to team photographer http://www.santamonicarugby.com/
ReplyDeleteI thought this was interesting- the exception for news: News photographs, even though they can be used to sell newspapers, do not require a model release to be published and sold.