Sports Photography

[MLeeK]

Grey card Exposure For setting exposure.
You can actually print a grey card at home if you have a decent printer that is fairly accurate. It's not the best, but if you have a good printer it's pretty accurate! Laminate or put it between two sheets of clear contact paper.

 

[imagemaker46]

AF one point dead centre, all manual settings, with shutter speed the most important, white balance auto, any minor colour corrections can be done in post. Look through books and magazines on sports, see how the sports you are going to be shooting are shot, learn the game, watch video. Understand that sports are one of the the hardest things to shoot well and expect to miss alot, before you start to miss less. Don't worry about how many you end up deleting, think about how many you are going to keep.

If you get yourself all wrapped up worrying about the gear you're using, then you will end up missing things. Work with what you have. There is more to shooting sports than just action.

 

[tevo]

sportswurlz.com SPORTSWURLZ - 11/05 Branham - Westmont

sportswurlz.com SPORTSWURLZ - 11/05 Branham - Westmont JV



Some of my work (football)

 

[MLeeK]

I THINK I got it to work right... You have some serious calibration/color issues in that album. It's very blue. Otherwise it looks like you are getting the hang of things! It really does get easier!

 

[tevo]

I THINK I got it to work right... You have some serious calibration/color issues in that album. It's very blue. Otherwise it looks like you are getting the hang of things! It really does get easier!

Elaborate on this? I believe I had my WB set to Auto, shooting in Aperture Priority on a Nikon 80-200 f/2.8.

 

[spitshine]

Hey Tevo,

I shoot mountain biking, skim boarding, track and field and other extreme to semi-extreme sports, and so far I agree with the suggestions above. I also agree with the one point AF choice. I shoot a canon 40d and usually choose the middle or sides when aiming for a decent thirds look. High school sports can be tricky due to the dull lighting in gyms or bright outdoor lighting, but having a wide open lens with a high iso works. I sometime shoot a bit slower just to avoid a lot of grain (iso 800-1600), but its all preference and camera familiarity.

One question for you, how'd you go about landing your job? I really want to find a solid photography job just like yours but it seems hard to stumble upon the right people/companies.

Thanks man and have fun!

 

[MLeeK]

I THINK I got it to work right... You have some serious calibration/color issues in that album. It's very blue. Otherwise it looks like you are getting the hang of things! It really does get easier!

Elaborate on this? I believe I had my WB set to Auto, shooting in Aperture Priority on a Nikon 80-200 f/2.8.

Is your monitor calibrated? How do those images look on your computer?
You are fine shooting in auto white balance especially if you are shooting in raw. Raw you can completely change the white balance in post.
Those either were tweaked to a very cool setting or the camera erred to the cool side-which is odd in this situation. It'd actually tend to err to the side of magenta because of all of the green in the grass... All of which leads me to think your monitor is not calibrated and you have tweaked to match what you see on your monitor. It will print BLUE. very blue.

 

[tevo]

Hey Tevo,

I shoot mountain biking, skim boarding, track and field and other extreme to semi-extreme sports, and so far I agree with the suggestions above. I also agree with the one point AF choice. I shoot a canon 40d and usually choose the middle or sides when aiming for a decent thirds look. High school sports can be tricky due to the dull lighting in gyms or bright outdoor lighting, but having a wide open lens with a high iso works. I sometime shoot a bit slower just to avoid a lot of grain (iso 800-1600), but its all preference and camera familiarity.

One question for you, how'd you go about landing your job? I really want to find a solid photography job just like yours but it seems hard to stumble upon the right people/companies.

Thanks man and have fun!

Thanks for the advice! I just talked to one of the photographers at SPORTSWURLZ, and he told me to email the owned because they were looking for more photographers. I just shot him an email, and we worked out the details.

 

[imagemaker46]

I THINK I got it to work right... You have some serious calibration/color issues in that album. It's very blue. Otherwise it looks like you are getting the hang of things! It really does get easier!

Elaborate on this? I believe I had my WB set to Auto, shooting in Aperture Priority on a Nikon 80-200 f/2.8.

Is your monitor calibrated? How do those images look on your computer?
You are fine shooting in auto white balance especially if you are shooting in raw. Raw you can completely change the white balance in post.
Those either were tweaked to a very cool setting or the camera erred to the cool side-which is odd in this situation. It'd actually tend to err to the side of magenta because of all of the green in the grass... All of which leads me to think your monitor is not calibrated and you have tweaked to match what you see on your monitor. It will print BLUE. very blue.

Calibrating the monitor isn't going to help shoot sports, that is the point here. tevo has a long way to go before worring about the monitor, or grey cards, or thirds, all of which really don't apply to shooting sports. It is a new area of photography, learning the basics of shooting sports is what matters.

Outdoors, iso around 200 in sunlight, 400-800 in overcast and 1000-1600 under dark skies. Shutter speeds no slower than 500th, aperture between 5.6-8.0. Indoors iso that works with the light avaliable, if it's 1600-3200 then that's what you have to figure on, not ideal, shutter speeds, 400th-500th, for action, you can get away with slower speeds and better iso if you shoot around the action, the static players. Aperture 2.8 if you have, if not work around it and shoot as fast as your lens is. Don't over think what you're trying to do. I won't go into shooting in the snow, a whole new set of concerns. It shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to figure out your camera settings for each venue, especially indoors, they don't change.

 

[sierramister]

I usually divide my football settings (for night time shooting) into zones. If the field has 4 light poles, I have a 50 yard line zone, a 30 yard line zone, and an endzone zone. I keep my aperture at f/2.8 and will set my ISO so I can shoot around 1/640 in the 30 yard line zone, and 1/500 in the other zones. Given the stadium lighting, I don't see these as too blue.

I've learned you need to be about 15 yards from the line and WAIT for the action to come your way. It's not even worth shooting anything that goes down the other sideline. And after I get my action shots that I want, I play around with shooting lineman, linebackers, etc.

For some reason, I get shunned by some DB's on this forum when I suggest it, but you really need a face in sports photography. Parents and newspaper editors don't run shots of backs. Typically (and I use it lightly), the needs to be in focus. Granted, shooting at night gives me LOTS of unfocused shots...I've learned to toss those out.

From your shots, I would suggest the following: tighter shots (including less headroom), tossing out the out-of-focus shots, and only include a distinct plays or scenes in your set (it might not be necessary to include 5 shots of the kickoff). It looks like you've got the settings down, you just need to refine!

 

[imagemaker46]

I went though some of the gallery and understand that this is the first time you've really been shooting football, but what it looks like is that you are just pointing the camera and hoping that you end up with anything. What you have to do is isolate on players. I have to say that the way the photos are uploaded doesn't help, there shouldn't be any garbage going online. it's it's not sharp or just a bad images delete it in the camera. There is lots of time during a game to chimp, at half time, just go through and dump all the images you don't want online. If it means that you only end up with 50 strong images, that is better than 150 bad ones as well, bad brings the quality down and if people see enough of them they stop looking. I don't know if you're getting paid to shoot, or paid based on sales.

If you're interested in looking at some football I have over 4300 football images on my site, it should give you a better idea as to what works. www.imagecommunications.ca just visit any of the team galleries. The majority of them were shot on film Hope this helps.

 

[gsgary]

I went though some of the gallery and understand that this is the first time you've really been shooting football, but what it looks like is that you are just pointing the camera and hoping that you end up with anything. What you have to do is isolate on players. I have to say that the way the photos are uploaded doesn't help, there shouldn't be any garbage going online. it's it's not sharp or just a bad images delete it in the camera. There is lots of time during a game to chimp, at half time, just go through and dump all the images you don't want online. If it means that you only end up with 50 strong images, that is better than 150 bad ones as well, bad brings the quality down and if people see enough of them they stop looking. I don't know if you're getting paid to shoot, or paid based on sales.

If you're interested in looking at some football I have over 4300 football images on my site, it should give you a better idea as to what works. www.imagecommunications.ca just visit any of the team galleries. The majority of them were shot on film Hope this helps.

Love your film shots, but people on here will probably say they noisy not knowing they were shot on film

 

[imagemaker46]

I went though some of the gallery and understand that this is the first time you've really been shooting football, but what it looks like is that you are just pointing the camera and hoping that you end up with anything. What you have to do is isolate on players. I have to say that the way the photos are uploaded doesn't help, there shouldn't be any garbage going online. it's it's not sharp or just a bad images delete it in the camera. There is lots of time during a game to chimp, at half time, just go through and dump all the images you don't want online. If it means that you only end up with 50 strong images, that is better than 150 bad ones as well, bad brings the quality down and if people see enough of them they stop looking. I don't know if you're getting paid to shoot, or paid based on sales.

If you're interested in looking at some football I have over 4300 football images on my site, it should give you a better idea as to what works. www.imagecommunications.ca just visit any of the team galleries. The majority of them were shot on film Hope this helps.

Love your film shots, but people on here will probably say they noisy not knowing they were shot on film

Thanks for the comment. I've had some people make comments about them, and that they have a lot of noise. I explain that it's not just noise, but it's old school noise. Different generation and in everyway tougher than shooting digital.

 

[MLeeK]

Calibrating the monitor isn't going to help shoot sports, that is the point here. tevo has a long way to go before worring about the monitor, or grey cards, or thirds, all of which really don't apply to shooting sports. It is a new area of photography, learning the basics of shooting sports is what matters.

Outdoors, iso around 200 in sunlight, 400-800 in overcast and 1000-1600 under dark skies. Shutter speeds no slower than 500th, aperture between 5.6-8.0. Indoors iso that works with the light avaliable, if it's 1600-3200 then that's what you have to figure on, not ideal, shutter speeds, 400th-500th, for action, you can get away with slower speeds and better iso if you shoot around the action, the static players. Aperture 2.8 if you have, if not work around it and shoot as fast as your lens is. Don't over think what you're trying to do. I won't go into shooting in the snow, a whole new set of concerns. It shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to figure out your camera settings for each venue, especially indoors, they don't change.

You are correct in that the monitor calibration is not going to help in SHOOTING sports, but you certainly aren't going to sell any images if the color is incorrect and doesn't look good on them either. Tevo is jumping into this head first and learning on the fly, so it's ALL got to come together. In the end the calibration and white balance do matter.
I am not talking about using the grey card for setting white balance, but we discussed using it for setting exposure and determining your bump up in exposure, so... little different there.
Rule of thirds is nice, but you're right-it doesn't matter. It's the emotion and action that matters in sports.


I'd also like someone to explain to me (because I am of a different mind that could very well be WRONG...) why you would choose aperture priority for sports when you know you are already going to have to shoot wide open? This is my line of thought (and like I said... it could be really wrong) in many to most situations you already know you are going to have to shoot wide open-inside a gym or on the night fields-so your aperture isn't in question ever. Why would you choose to keep an eye on what the camera is deciding for shutter speed if you know your aperture is going to max out on you? In which case I would choose to go with shutter priority. The camera can't screw up to awfully bad if you are hitting the wide open spot on the aperture. It's a non point. Not running the risk of the shutter dropping through the gutter would be more important to me, personally.

I shoot sports in full manual. It's easier than a priority mode for me and here's my thoughts on that: I know I am going to be forced to shoot wide open in most situations. I know I need to have a shutter of 1/640 or faster depending on the sport. That's the 2 main elements of your exposure right there. I also know that if I am on the football field at night I am going to max out my ISO.
With a priority mode I had more nightmares in post processing. The meter may have hit something dark and chose settings based on that or vice-a-versa. I had to fix and tweak constantly in post. Now I keep an eye on where my meter hits when it's reading the grass or the gym floor. I know where I want those things to fall in the meter (grass is about +1 or +1/2 and a gym floor is about a +1.5 to +2 depending.) As long as I check my meter here and there in changing light (football) making sure it's reading where I want it to, I am fine to shoot. In a gym your lighting never changes. Once you get one perfect exposure you don't need to meter again at all. I found that if I hit the white jerseys in a game I had dark images to fix and if I hit the navy or dark jerseys I had way too bright images to fix. It took me longer in post. Now I know my exposure is the same across the board. I can apply one preset that covers all of the images, delete the crap and I am done.

Could I be doing this differently that would make it still easier yet on me?

Edit to add: I am a bit like you in that I know if I am under the lights and I have to be in the end zone I have to change my shutter and/or ISO to accomodate for the dark, lack of light there. It's so much habit, just like your different zones that I just click according to where I am and what I know I need-that came with a little experience...

 

[imagemaker46]

Calibrating the monitor isn't going to help shoot sports, that is the point here. tevo has a long way to go before worring about the monitor, or grey cards, or thirds, all of which really don't apply to shooting sports. It is a new area of photography, learning the basics of shooting sports is what matters.

Outdoors, iso around 200 in sunlight, 400-800 in overcast and 1000-1600 under dark skies. Shutter speeds no slower than 500th, aperture between 5.6-8.0. Indoors iso that works with the light avaliable, if it's 1600-3200 then that's what you have to figure on, not ideal, shutter speeds, 400th-500th, for action, you can get away with slower speeds and better iso if you shoot around the action, the static players. Aperture 2.8 if you have, if not work around it and shoot as fast as your lens is. Don't over think what you're trying to do. I won't go into shooting in the snow, a whole new set of concerns. It shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to figure out your camera settings for each venue, especially indoors, they don't change.

You are correct in that the monitor calibration is not going to help in SHOOTING sports, but you certainly aren't going to sell any images if the color is incorrect and doesn't look good on them either. Tevo is jumping into this head first and learning on the fly, so it's ALL got to come together. In the end the calibration and white balance do matter.
I am not talking about using the grey card for setting white balance, but we discussed using it for setting exposure and determining your bump up in exposure, so... little different there.
Rule of thirds is nice, but you're right-it doesn't matter. It's the emotion and action that matters in sports.


I'd also like someone to explain to me (because I am of a different mind that could very well be WRONG...) why you would choose aperture priority for sports when you know you are already going to have to shoot wide open? This is my line of thought (and like I said... it could be really wrong) in many to most situations you already know you are going to have to shoot wide open-inside a gym or on the night fields-so your aperture isn't in question ever. Why would you choose to keep an eye on what the camera is deciding for shutter speed if you know your aperture is going to max out on you? In which case I would choose to go with shutter priority. The camera can't screw up to awfully bad if you are hitting the wide open spot on the aperture. It's a non point. Not running the risk of the shutter dropping through the gutter would be more important to me, personally.

I shoot sports in full manual. It's easier than a priority mode for me and here's my thoughts on that: I know I am going to be forced to shoot wide open in most situations. I know I need to have a shutter of 1/640 or faster depending on the sport. That's the 2 main elements of your exposure right there. I also know that if I am on the football field at night I am going to max out my ISO.
With a priority mode I had more nightmares in post processing. The meter may have hit something dark and chose settings based on that or vice-a-versa. I had to fix and tweak constantly in post. Now I keep an eye on where my meter hits when it's reading the grass or the gym floor. I know where I want those things to fall in the meter (grass is about +1 or +1/2 and a gym floor is about a +1.5 to +2 depending.) As long as I check my meter here and there in changing light (football) making sure it's reading where I want it to, I am fine to shoot. In a gym your lighting never changes. Once you get one perfect exposure you don't need to meter again at all. I found that if I hit the white jerseys in a game I had dark images to fix and if I hit the navy or dark jerseys I had way too bright images to fix. It took me longer in post. Now I know my exposure is the same across the board. I can apply one preset that covers all of the images, delete the crap and I am done.

Could I be doing this differently that would make it still easier yet on me?

Edit to add: I am a bit like you in that I know if I am under the lights and I have to be in the end zone I have to change my shutter and/or ISO to accomodate for the dark, lack of light there. It's so much habit, just like your different zones that I just click according to where I am and what I know I need-that came with a little experience...

I think in my post I gave a pretty good idea as too what the exposures will be based on light. Yes indoors, if you have a 2.8 lens to work with then that's what you can work with, I shoot some stuff at a slightly slower speed and at 3.2-3.5. Shooting outdoors using field lights I work within the brightest points on the field, end zones tend to be in near total dark.

From what I've seen of the work tevo has online, he is really a long way away from selling much, regardless of the colour. It's not a cheap shot at his work, he is learning on the fly, but personally I would not take on a photo assignment that I couldn't do well. He has to learn and that is good, but having people see all of the garbage that should have been deleted isn't going to do him any favours.