Sports and Sports PhotographySports and Sports Photography We have all at one time or another been captivated by sports images. It may be Kirk Gibson’s World Series Homerun, and the image of him running the bases, overcoming the pain he was in or an image of high flying Michael Jordan slam dunking a basketball with his tongue out. We have all been captured in the moment of human drama. We all like a good action photo and, in particular, if your kids play sports, you want to remember them in their toils. Quality sports shots are somewhat difficult to come by. Most people have limited access to events to photograph them. The further away you are from the event, the harder it becomes to capture the event in a pleasing manner. Sports are an event where crowd control is important, not only for the crowd's safety, but for the players also. There is nothing more frightening than to be on the sidelines of a football game, focused on a play in the field, when out of the blue a 250 pound line backer drives a player into your legs or a foul ball comes crashing at your $8,000 lens!
Location, Location, Location! I frequently get asked how to get started in sports photography and if there are any tips I could give for making contacts to shoot at college or professional sporting events and what equipment to use. You simply have to start at the beginning, pay your dues, find your own level of talent, and work your way up. Go to little league games and practice with what equipment you have. Go to high school games and shoot from the stands with a long telephoto lens. Look for action and feature shots. See how good your knowledge of the game is, and how good your anticipation and reflexes are. Build up a portfolio that shows what you can do. If you are any good, you can contact the local weekly newspaper and show your work and see if they need anyone to shoot the local high school games. Move up a level and continue to practice your craft. You can take some great pictures at high school games. These athletes really give total effort and you can capture this in your images. If you are really good, contact the local daily newspaper about shooting some high school games for them. After you prove yourself on this level you may even get some assignments covering the local college games. You can also try contacting the local schools and seeing if they would be interested in using your sports photography in their internal publications such as newsletters or web sites. Don't even think about trying to get onto the sidelines for any high school, college or pro football games unless you have an assignment to be there covering it for a legitimate reason. After you have actually covered some games with legitimate assignments from real publications and built your portfolio and resume up, you can try contacting the wire services, such as the AP, UPI, Reuters, EPA, and Getty, to see if they are looking for any help covering events that you might be good at. It's not that hard to make contacts at daily newspapers and even the wire services. You just have to keep calling until you find the right person to talk to, the person who actually gives out assignments and hires freelance photographers. But before you do, take a step back and do a really critical evaluation of your own work. Is it really good enough to compete with the quality of the work you currently see in those publications that you want to work for? If it's not, then don't waste your, and their time. Practice until you get better and are good enough.
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Equipment If you want to become a professional, there is, unfortunately, no getting around the fact that you will need to invest a lot of money in equipment. Today, virtually everyone wants digital images, and this equipment is quite expensive. You will need professional-level digital cameras and long, fast telephoto lenses to shoot with. To shoot indoors or night games you need fast lenses with large apertures that let in a lot of light. You won't be able to get by with just a 35-70 f/3.5 - 4.8 zoom lens. You'll need something like an 85mm f/1.8 lens for basketball, and definitely a 300mm f/2.8 lens for football, baseball, and soccer. This is at a minimum.
Good sports photographers don't shoot straight flash on camera as the main light. This is the method of the amateur snap shooter. If there absolutely is not enough light to shoot a high enough shutter speed to stop the action, you need to learn how to use flash correctly as a fill light on camera or as the main light off camera. To use flash on camera as a fill light you have to dial the power way down so that it is just a little bit stronger than the available light and you have to match the color temperatures of both. To use flash as the main light, it has to be off camera, usually in a multiple strobe setup where the strobes are triggered by radio or infra-red remote control. This is not trivial and it's not inexpensive. In addition to the photographic skills and equipment required to be a professional sports photographer, considerable computer skills are also required to handle the digital images. You will need computers to process the digital images, usually including an expensive laptop to transmit from remote locations and events. Expect to spend a lot of money on equipment, especially with new professional digital cameras coming out every two years. Most professional sports photographers have the following set of equipment: 3 top-of-the-line digital camera bodies, such as the Canon 1D or Nikon D2H ($3,000 each) 6 Extra batteries ($100 each) Extreme wide angle 14mm f/2.8 ($1,400) Wide angle zoom lens 17 - 35mm f/2.8 ($1,400) Fast short telephoto 85mm f/1.4 ($900) Telephoto zoom 70-200 f/2.8 ($1,500) Fast Telephoto 300mm f/2.8 ($4,400) Fast Long Telephoto 400mm f/2.8 ($7,700) Teleconverter 1.4x ($450) Teleconverter 2x ($450) 2 Monopods ($150 each) Tripod ($450) 2 Flashes ($400 each) Radio Remotes ($300) Light stands, umbrellas, misc lighting equipment ($500) Laptop with extra ram ($2,500) Photoshop ($600) Other software ($500) Rolling camera case ($300) Rain gear ($500) Total: $34,000
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Eight elements necessary for success Talent - Natural talent is something you are born with. You either have it or you don't. If you don't have it, you can still go a long way on the other six elements. Skill - This is something you can learn, like hitting a baseball. Or photography. Knowledge - You need knowledge both of your craft and of the game you are photographing. Study the game. For instance, in baseball, if there is a runner on first base and the ball is hit in the gap, where will the play be? Hint - not at second base! Practice - Photography is a physical as well as a mental skill. Practice will make you better at both. Skills improve dramatically with practice and atrophy with disuse. Desire - Your philosophy and attitude will affect your work. When I go out to shoot a game, I want the great peak action moments and the ones with great content. I expect to get them. I get really mad when I don't. I'm greedy. I want it all and I expect to get it all. My goal is to combine a great moment and great content in a single picture in every game I cover. Work - Make a commitment to excellence. Don't stand around picking your nose just because baseball is mostly boring. Shoot it like you would if you were playing the game. Concentrate on every pitch. Figure out the situation beforehand. If you are in left field and there is a runner on second, and the ball is hit to you, where are you supposed to throw it? Be in a "zone of your own" of concentration. Know the game situation and what's going to happen. Opportunity - You can't always control what opportunities you have, but you have to seize them when then come along. I was in my last semester in college with only 11 credits left to graduate with a degree in journalism from Louisiana State University, when I quit school to take a job as a photographer at the Jefferson Parish Times, a small suburban newspaper just outside of New Orleans. It was a job that would not have been there when I graduated, and it was in a city where I wanted to live and work. I finally went back to college about a decade later and finished up my degree. Luck - Some say you can't control it, but it favors the prepared.
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The bad news Never give up, but know when to quit. If you have a passion for sports and photography and you are willing to work very hard for very little money, you can go a long way. However, you also have to have realistic expectations. I was crazy about playing basketball when I was young. I even made my high school team. But I was short, and that was where my skill level peaked. I could have wanted it and worked at it as much as anything, and I would never have been good enough to play in college, let alone the pros. Unfortunately, there just are not a lot of full time sports photography jobs. Maybe a half a dozen at the major newspapers around the country, maybe a couple of dozen for the baseball card companies, maybe a dozen at Sports Illustrated, maybe a dozen elsewhere working as team photographers. I'm not counting photographers who shoot little league team mug shots, or vanity action shots of kids soccer. At most, there may be only a couple of hundred (if that many) full-time sports photographers making their living covering college and pro sports for editorial publications in a country of 250 million people. The odds are not good. And on top of that, with the auto-focus cameras they have today, anyone who can afford one thinks they can shoot sports, and they are willing to do it for nothing. Photographers also get very little respect. Everyone has a camera, or their brother takes pictures. Even grandmothers have digital cameras these days. Everyone thinks it is easy. After all, didn't Kodak say "You push the button and we do the rest"? Despite this being a visual age with TV and movies as the pre-dominant art forms, the publishing industry, which uses these sports pictures, is a literary institution. Literary means words. Publishing is run by and for writers. Photos are usually just an afterthought, something to illustrate the words, something to break up the gray space, something to draw readers into a word story. Even the pre-eminent sports picture publication in the world, Sports Illustrated is not run by photographers. Heck, photographers and photo editors don't even have the final say on which pictures get used. Anyway, if you are good, and you really have a burning desire that can't be put out, you will probably succeed. Good luck!
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Sports Shooting Techniques The Truth is realized in an instant. The act is practiced step by step. - Zen saying To shoot peak action, you will need a high shutter speed. Usually a minimum of 1/500th of a second. If there is not much light, you will need to use a high ISO and a fast lens with a wide aperture to be able to use a high shutter speed. To capture the critical moment, you simply have to be there and take the picture when it happens. This is the zen of it, but the devil is in the details.
Master your craft and your equipment Football Flip Know your cameras and lenses inside and out. You should know things like which way the shutter speed dial turns to increase the exposure without having to look at it. Check the focus on your camera bodies and lenses periodically. Things do get out of whack. This photo of a football flip that happened right on top of me was taken with a manual focus camera. I just swung the camera, focused and fired at the same time. I did it instinctively because I had years of practice doing this and didn't need to think about which way to focus the lens. Later, I found out something I didn't know, got a little surprise and learned a lesson about luck.
Use Your Vision Nigeria Jumps Watch what is happening. No, really: SEE what is happening! Learn to use your peripheral vision, especially in the eye that is not looking through the camera. Keep that other eye open! Teach yourself to pay attention to what's going on in that other eye. Not only does it stop your vision from getting fatigued faster, your brain expects to be getting visual signals from both eyes. Eyes change with age. If you make your living with your eyes, get them checked regularly! Even if you don't shoot full time, get your eyes checked regularly. Your eyes are your primary interface with the rest of the world. In the example of Nigeria Jumps, I was concentrating on the runner who had won the race, when I saw this out of the corner of my eye. It was better than the winner!
Be Prepared Frankie Mitchell Research who and what you need to be looking for in a game. Talk to the coaches and writers and find out what might be of special interest and who the star players are. Know the game. The mental part of sports action photography is very similar to actually playing sports. You must have a knowledge of the basic rules of the sport you are shooting, as well as knowledge of the sport's patterns and ebbs and flows of action. Having a thorough knowledge of a sport, say from having actually played it on an advanced organized level, can be invaluable. Study it on TV (gasp!), but remember, shooting at ground level looks very different from most overhead elevated TV camera positions. Constantly check things like the exposure if the light is changing, and make sure you don't run out of film (or digits) just when the critical play happens. Make sure you have film in the camera to start with. Always keep a short lens around your neck pre-focused for where something might be likely to happen. For football, I keep a 50mm lens around my neck focused at 15-20 feet for those plays that happen right on top of me that are too tight for the long lens. If something critical happens out of the blue, make the picture with whatever lens you are holding, don't worry if it's not the perfect focal length. In the Frankie Mitchell example, I was shooting with a camera with an 85mm lens on it, when Mitchell knocked out his opponent on the other side of the ring. He then ran across the ring and stopped right in front of me and jumped in the air. I grabbed the camera with the 24mm lens that I had around my neck and shot. I still don't know how I managed to turn it vertical. I guess it was just instinct.
Get in position Barcelona Olympics Like they say about real estate, location is everything. Much of positioning to shoot in today's crowded sports venues is just finding a place where you won't get blocked when the pictures happen. Always try to pick out a shooting position that will give you a clean or interesting background and separate the action in the foreground from the background. Most of the herd of photographers will shoot from the front lit side, try going against the grain and shooting from the back lit side. You will increase your chances of getting something different from the pack, and it will be less crowded giving you more room to work, and you will actually have an easier time holding shadow detail. In the Barcelona Olympics diver example, the press photography position was set up with the city of Barcelona as a backdrop. Whoever decided this location certainly knew the impact such a setting would have on the pictures!
Focus - Auto focus cameras may have solved most problems of follow-focus, but they won't get you the picture in every situation. Learn these other techniques:
Follow the ball Football Catch Follow the ball doesn't mean to literally try to follow the ball through the air after it leaves the quarterback's hand. It means to try to figure out where the ball it going, get there first with the camera, and then focus and fire as the ball gets there. In this example of a football catch, I momentarily took my eye away from the camera's viewfinder by moving it down just the smallest amount so I could see over it to figure out where the ball was going. I acquired the receiver visually, and then put the camera back up to my eye, framed, focused and shot all at one time. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it takes lots of practice. It's like playing a video game, and very zen-like.
Don't follow the ball Allen Iverson Stay on a player if you know they will give you a reaction shot after they make a play. If something else is going on somewhere, don't feel obligated to always follow the ball. In this example of Allen Iverson reacting to a shot he made sealing victory the first time he and the 76ers beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls, I didn't worry about who was bringing the ball up the court for the Bulls. I knew how emotional Iverson was and followed him after he made the shot, and took the photo when he reacted as he ran back up the court.
Pre-focus and lock down the focus Home Plate Pre-focus where you know the action will occur. In this example of a play at home plate, I pre-focused on a right-handed batter's front foot before the ball was even hit. That foot is always exactly where a runner will slide when he tries to avoid the tag by the catcher. Because of the location of the photo positions at Veterans Stadium, we have to shoot with two lenses, a 300mm lens for home plate, and a 500mm lens for second and third base. Normally I keep my eye at the 500mm looking for action when the ball is hit. But I keep the 300mm pre-focused on home. That way, when a play happens at home unexpectedly, I just pick it up and shoot.
Pre-focus immediately before the shot Pre-focus where you know there is going to be a picture, such as a double-play at second base. As soon as the ball is hit and you know where the play will be, swing the camera to the base and focus on the base, then don't touch the focus again. Shoot the play when it happens and be ready to refocus if the play moves away from the base.
Timing Boxing Hit You have to anticipate what is going to happen. If you wait until you see it, it is over and you have missed it. It takes 200 milliseconds for a visual perception to register in the consciousness. This means that athletes do it on a subconscious level through training of muscle memory and practice. They literally do not have time to see the ball and then think about hitting it. Like Yogi Berra said, "You can't think and hit at the same time." For photographers, it is even worse. Not only do we have the 200 millisecond delay between when we see something and when we recognize it, it also takes a certain amount of time for our mind to send the signals to our finger to press the shutter, and then another length of time for the shutter to actually open. Anyone who has used the early generation of digital cameras like the NC2000 and the DCS 520 will know how long this can be. Timing is critical for peak action photography. For baseball, if you want to try to get the ball on the bat, pretend you are the batter. Get into a rhythm of pressing the shutter and timing your "hit" for when you would swing the bat to hit the ball. Put the camera on a tripod, and don't even look through it and try this technique. Boxing is probably the most difficult sport to photograph and get an actual punch landing. You literally have to start shooting when the boxer looks like he is going to throw a punch. This can burn up a lot of frames, but it's the only way to do it.
Pay attention Fan attacked Always expect the unexpected. Stay awake. Don't just stand there and watch when something unusual starts to happen. Don't even try to figure out what it is, press the shutter! In this example of a Devil's hockey fan being attacked by Flyer's fans, I was shooting the game action when I saw something happening out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw some kind of commotion. So I quickly changed shutter speeds because it was much darker in the stands than on the ice, and fired without really knowing what was going on. The fight was broken up quickly by security guards and it was over.
Take a chance Pete Sampras Play around sometimes if you start getting bored. It may not work 99 percent of the time, but once in a while you may get something different. In this example of Pete Sampras winning the finals of the US Pro Indoor Tennis Championship, I shot with a slow shutter speed. I had been shooting tennis all week, and quite honestly had gotten bored. So for the finals, I decided I would try to get something really different. Not just a different angle, but an entirely different kind of picture. I shot some traditional high-shutter speed shots for the first couple of minutes to be sure I had something to fall back on in case I totally struck out with my "experiment". But not that many, and certainly not enough to get something really good. I then shot the rest of the match at very slow shutter speeds at around 1/30th of a second. Out of the several hundred frames I shot, I lucked out on this one. The ball seems frozen in time as it reverses directions as it hits the racket, while almost everything else around it is in motion except for Sampras' head, because his vision is locked onto the ball.
Stick with the Stars Randall Scores You can't go wrong with concentrating on exceptional athletes. Good players make good pictures, and great players make great pictures. It's simple... they can do stuff that other people can't! In this example of Eagle's quarterback Randall Cunningham flying through the air to score a touchdown, many of the above techniques are illustrated. I like to position myself on the sideline halfway between the goal line and the back line of the end zone. That way I can keep a 50mm lens around my neck on a second camera body with the lens pre-focused on where the goal line meets the sideline. I started shooting the play with a 300mm lens, but when it became obvious that Cunningham was coming towards the flag near the corner of the end zone where I was positioned, I picked up the short lens with one hand while holding the 300mm lens on a monopod with the other hand. This was in the days of manual focus cameras, and there was no way to focus anyway because the long lens was in the other hand. But because I had pre-focused, I didn't need to focus and I waited and then shot as Cunningham leaped through the air to score.
Write good captions Learn to write captions that add significant information to your photos. The Five W's are for you too. Who, what, why, where and when. Shoot extra frames after a play that you think might have made a picture. It will be easier to identify players if their numbers are blocked in the good frames. Shoot the clock after critical plays or plays that might have made a good picture. If you have a digital camera with voice-recording capabilities, record everything about the play as soon as you can after it is over. This is an example of a good caption. It presents not only the facts, but also explains why the content of the photo is important: Philadelphia Phillies manager Larry Bowa grimaces in the dugout after a bad play by his infield with his team losing 4-0 to the Florida Marlins in the fifth inning of a game played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Thursday September 30, 2004. Bowa was fired two days later with two games left in the season. Bowa's team, with a $93 Million dollar payroll and high-hopes to win their first division title in more than 10 years, was eliminated from the playoffs earlier in the week. Photo by Jerry Lodriguss / The Philadelphia Inquirer
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid. My first editor told me this, and I've always had success when following this advice. When I first started I used to carry every lens I owned in a bag on my shoulder, and I had just about every lens Nikon made. But as I got more experienced, I found that I was usually making pictures with the lenses that I had on the two camera bodies that I used! What a surprise. You can't make a picture with a lens that's not on a camera! So I started to work with just a short focal-length lens on a camera around my neck, and a long focal-length lens on another body. Usually a 24mm and a 300mm in the days of film, and their equivalents today for digital. Sometimes I carry a tele-extender in a waist bag. But I stopped carrying a shoulder bag with a ton of other lenses in it a long time ago. My back and my shoulder thanked me, believe me. For journalism, you usually just don't have time to stop and change a lens. If you try, you usually miss the picture. For landscape or architectural photography, you have the time to do this, but not for sports. For sports, pictures happen at every focal length. You certainly don't have time to change lenses during the play! So, you just have to shoot with what you have. Sometimes the pictures are framed a little loose, sometimes they are a little tight. For some sports you might be able to use a zoom lens, such as for basketball, if you have enough light. The important thing is to just take the picture with the lens you have when the picture happens. What could be simpler? #1: Call Sporting Venues Ahead Make sure you can take photographs before entering sporting events. #2: Know the Game or Event A little research in a sporting event can go a long way into taking better photos. #3: Take Plenty of Photos The more photos you take, the better the chance several will come out great. #4: Capture the Emotion of a Great Play Capture players' expressions with your digital camera. #5: Get Plenty of Sleep Before an Event Ensure your concentration level is high when taking sports photos. #6: A Long Zoom is Essential Take great sports photos even if you are in the 'cheap seats'. #7: Fast Shutter Speed is Crucial Prevent your sports photography from becoming blurry. #8: Don't Forget the Scoreboard Snap a few scoreboard photos to help tell the story of a sporting event. #9: Know Your Camera Understanding your digital camera's features can help you take better sports photos. #10: Anticipate Shutter Lag A digital camera's slow shutter speed can prevent you from taking great photos if you don't plan for it. #11: Be Careful with Your Camera and Equipment Prevent your digital camera and equipment from getting damaged. #12: Capture the Anticipation of a Moment Tell a story with your sports photography on the events leading up to a play. #13: Look for the Unexpected Sometimes the most interesting sports photo opportunities are not found on the playing field. #14: Photos to Inspire Your Photography Get your creative juices flowing with these places where you can find great sports photography. #15: Increase ISO Settings Reduce your required digital camera shutter speed by increasing your ISO. #16: Bring Plenty of Batteries Ensure your digital camera does not run out of power when taking sports photos. #17: Be Considerate with Golfers Don't use flash in the middle of a golfer's backswing. #18: Use Breaks in the Action Wisely Use timeouts in sporting events to care for your camera equipment and prepare for later shots. #19: Prepare for the Elements Don't let the rain, wind, sleet, or snow keep you from taking great sports photos. #20: Capture the Interactions Between Teammates Photograph how a team responds to a key moment in a sporting event. #21: Photograph Judges' Expressions at Athletic Events Digitally capture the look of astonishment on judges' faces after a great play or move at a sporting event. #22: Authenticate Signatures Use your digital camera to authenticate professional athletes' signatures. #23: Don't Leave Sporting Events Early! Don't miss out on the chance to take great digital photos at the end of a game. #24: Arrive Early for Practice Time Great digital photos can sometimes be taken while a team is practicing for the game. #25: Burst (Continuous Drive) Mode can be Useful
How burst (rapid shot, or continuous drive) mode can aid your sports photography. #26: Don't Forget the Fans The look on a fan's face can sometimes tell the story of a sporting event just as well as a photo of athletes. #27: Shoot in JPG, not RAW or TIFF In the high-speed world of sports, use a lightweight image format to help you take more photos quickly. #28: Capture Motion By Panning Effective use of panning can capture the motion in a sporting event. #29: Is Flash Photography Allowed? Ensure flash photography is ok to use at a sporting event. #30: Capture the Results of Weather Weather can play a part in sporting events; record this with your digital camera. #31: Practice Before Going to Big League Events
Practice makes perfect when it comes to digital sports photography. #32: For Racing Events, get to a Corner or Turn
Add perspective to your racing photography. #33: In Gymnasiums, You Just May Need a DSLR
DSLR cameras can normally take clearer photos in darker situations than prosumer digital cameras. #34: Study the Lineup On whom should you concentrate your digital sports photography efforts? #35: Consider Accessory Flash Units Add distance to your flash efforts by purchasing accessory flash units. Sports Photography by Rob Miracle abc-bourse.info
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