So, how do you shoot those sports action shots in bright sunlight?

Like this, I believe!

(shot by Jaco at a ‘Bulletjie Rugby’ day in Pretoria 2008)

I believe that many of our readers are moms and dads who will soon again be running alongside the rugby-, hockey-, soccer- and netball fields on Saturdays, working up a blood pressure while shouting out instructions, threats and praises that could make or break little Tommie and Annie’s sporting careers…that is good ‘ol South Africa for you!

Many of you will do the running thing with a camera in hand and I am addressing those.

The very basics:

If the camera is inside a cell phone, you don’t have a camera with you – save the battery and use it to phone home after the game to tell granny the score.

The least you can get away with is one of these more advanced point-and-shoot jobs with a 10X or 12X zoom lens.

Ideally you need a DSLR with interchangeable lenses – and a fairly ‘long’ lens. One that zooms up to 200mm may just work if you can get fairly close to the action – best entry level though would be around a 70-300 zoom.

Gallery discussions

Photography (all photography) is about 3 things only:

1. Composition
2. Lighting, and
3. Focus.

Based on the live discussions on lighting the sports action subject in Launchpad Gallery I will focus on this aspect here at the most basic level. (not that there are quite satisfactory ‘basic’ soloutions available, but we’ll try our damnest.) For starters you could visit the Launchpad Gallery and click on some of the sports action shots in the gallery and read the comments on the photos

The challenge

1. To get Tommie and Annie’s faces light enough in the picture so granny will recognize them.
2. To do so without ‘burning’ everything else in the picture to lily-white.
3. To keep the picture sharp in the process.

The solution

Except for your choice of where to position yourself and your ability to quickly ‘frame’ the picture and press the shutter at the right moment, the solution very much depends on the camera’s capabilities and available settings.

1. Shoot with the sun – so get the sun behind you, and Tommie in front of you so that the sun will light him running towards you.
2. If he is playing away from you, wait for the second half when they switch sides as photos of your son or team’s backsides are fairly useless.
3. Zoom your camera to its maximum – it doesn’t matter if you only get his face when he scores the try; it is much better than his bum or him being a little dot only in the corner of your frame – and believe me there is no time to zoom when you start shooting.
4. Set your camera – shooting mode to:
   • Basic point and shoot camera – sports mode or action mode.
   • Advanced digital camera – sports/action mode or shutter priority and set shutter to 1/1000 sec.
   • SLR camera – shutter priority, set shutter to 1/1000 sec.
5. Set your camera – focus mode to:
   • Continuous autofocus (if it has such a setting) (Canon DSLR- AI Servo)
6. Set your camera – metering mode to:
   • Pattern/area/centre weighted average(if you can set it)
7. Aim at the face of the person you are shooting.
8. Try to fill the frame with the person you are shooting and cut out as much background as possible.
9. Good Luck!

Afterthought

There is actually a lot more about the ways to get the best exposure (lighting) in sports action photos and the above should be seen for what it is – basic tips to start with. I will ask Mike to follow this up with an article giving tips to more advanced amateurs on shooting sports action with your DSLR specifically.

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