Couple of tips for sports photography?

Squidgy Black

I know you's all hate these threads, but I figured I might as well ask :rolleyes:

Shooting a school match tomorrow, done it before, didn't exactly work very well with a 18-55 legging it around the pitch

This time round I'll have a 70-300 f4-5.6 on me, no monopod sadly.

So what's just a couple of basic tips for Gaelic? Fast shutter speeds, around 450-500 is what I'll be using. I've heard a few people say keep it low on the ground, not sure how that'll plan out with no monopod but I might give it a shot.

Any other idea's or advice? I've no IS or VR on the lens so shutter speeds have to be quite high

Paulw

There are plenty of sports tips in the FAQ thread, and also on my website.

High shutter speed, turn off IS/VR.

5uspect

stetyrrell wrote: »

I've no IS or VR on the lens so shutter speeds have to be quite high

This makes no sense. If you taking pictures of fast moving subjects IS will do absolutely nothing to prevent motion blur. All is will do is reduce shake caused by you during exposures longer than ~200/s.

You might find yourself hunting for focus, if your lens has a focus limiter use it.
If you're comfortable with manual focus stick it an infinity and try a few test shots and see how they look.

Lao Lao

stetyrrell wrote: »

Shooting a school match tomorrow, done it before, didn't exactly work very well with a 18-55 legging it around the pitch

I've been covering a few hockey games recently and one thing I learnt pretty quickly was to not keep moving up and down the pitch.

Pick a spot, whether be near one of the goals or halfway point and stick with it. The action will eventually come to you.

FoxT

- Increase the ISO so your shutter speed doesnt drop below 1/500. You will need this speed to freeze the action & also eliminate camera shake.
- Use back-button AF & prefocus for setpieces.
- Aim for a shot that is clearly focused, with the ball in the frame, & with players faces/eyeballs clearly visible

- I usually take about 400-600 shots during a soccer game, & discard 90% , ending up with maybe 30 OK shots, 15 decent ones, and 5 good ones. (And that would be on a good day!)

Enjoy, post results!
- FoxT

mdebets

Lao Lao wrote: »

I've been covering a few hockey games recently and one thing I learnt pretty quickly was to not keep moving up and down the pitch.

Pick a spot, whether be near one of the goals or halfway point and stick with it. The action will eventually come to you.

It's even better if you place yourself behind the goal line rather than the sidelines. This way the action is moving towards you, making it easier to focus, as you don't have to pan a player running past you.

grif04

just sit on ur butt and stick ur elbows into ur legs to get good support, theres not much technical stuff involved tip wise, its really about where you are sitting, standing depending on how much freedom you might have on the sideline.

Squidgy Black

Figure I might as well post some of the results that I'm only getting around to converting to jpeg's and sending off now
[IMG][/img] Reach For The Sky by mynameistyrrell, on Flickr
[IMG][/img] No Where To Run by mynameistyrrell, on Flickr
[IMG][/img] Tag You're It! by mynameistyrrell, on Flickr
[IMG][/img] Fore! by mynameistyrrell, on Flickr

The Sigma really and truely is a horrible lens, this match really made me realise it :pac: absolutely terrible focusing, it was so slow and rarely actually focused on the players but rather the background. Not sharp at all on most shots.

None of the shots were edited or cropped at all, I'll do it sometime later maybe, a quick straighten and a crop

magicbastarder

one thing i learned from shooting a couple of rugby matches; it's good to get slightly above the action so you're not sooting with a background of advertising hoardings.

City-Exile

stetyrrell wrote: »

Fore! by mynameistyrrell, on Flickr[/IMG]

Why is your aperture f/6.3?
If it's a 70-300mm f/4-5.6, then use the f/5.6 at 300mm.
Yes, it's a slow lens, but that's where you need to use anticipation, to prepare for where you think the action is going to be and already have it in focus.

magicbastarder wrote: »

one thing i learned from shooting a couple of rugby matches; it's good to get slightly above the action so you're not sooting with a background of advertising hoardings.

I don't agree at all!
Your image becomes too flat, with too much grass & is very one dimensional.
By getting down low, you can give the players a greater presence, since you're looking up at them.

It's very rare that a shot from the stands will look better than an equivalent shot from the ground.

Paulw

magicbastarder wrote: »

one thing i learned from shooting a couple of rugby matches; it's good to get slightly above the action so you're not sooting with a background of advertising hoardings.

I totally agree with City-Exile, and disagree with you here. Getting lower makes a much more dramatic impact to your photos. Shooting from a higher point gives a more flat view to the photos.

The vast majority of sports photos (professional) are taken from as low a level as possible. Very few would be taken from a high point. Just look at sites like Inpho, Sportsfile, AP, Getty, etc, and you will see just how few are shot from a height, and how the majority (99%) are shot from a low angle.

Squidgy Black

The aperature was a slight blunder that I only realised after a while, I was only after taking a crowd shot and forgot to bring the aperature back down

If the player even slightly moved out of frame the focus just went, and it took a life time to focus after that.

I'm pretty sure near the end the focus just crapped out, I actually haven't touched the lens since, I'll check now....