Sports Shooting Tips

Well, had a pretty busy weekend now that I’ve started shooting youth sports again. This time it’s soccer even though I wouldn’t mind shooting football again since that’s where I’ve gotten a lot of my portfolio worthy shots. But I figured that I while I’m exporting the first game’s photos, that I would write up a quick blog entry since I got Lightroom just about maxed out. Quad core CPU, 4 gigs of ram and I can still make a pc cry for mercy.

Well, anyway, there’s a few things that I’ve learned or “relearned” about shooting youth sports. Especially soccer, since you will end up taking a LOT more shots than other youth sports due to the constant action. For those that don’t understand or dabble too much in photography, I’m sorry if this seems a bit “geeked” out for you, but I figured this would be good info. So here we go.

Learn to know your camera’s settings for dealing with action shots. Continuous focus, shutter and aperture priority mode. Also make sure that you are in multiple shot mode. This is a MUST for sports. Even if you aren’t a machine gunner, you can use it in those situations that call for it and pick out the best of the burst series.
If you have a light meter, USE IT!! I cannot stress this enough. The reason being is that if you get the exposure reading at the beginning of your shooting and double check it at set points during the game (sun changing position, etc..), this will save you a LOT of time in post processing. Why not rely on your camera’s meter? Well, you have situations where you have lighter color jerseys, bright balls, different complexions, sky in the background, tree’s in the background, etc… All situations which will get different camera exposure readings, which aren’t always right. Break out the light meter, get an incident reading, and lock it in. And write down your settings for frequently used apertures and shutter speeds so you can remember them in case they accidently get changed. And be sure to “chimp” a lot.
White balance. If you have a white balance card, bring it out as well for the exact same reasons that I mentioned bringing the light meter. With the different colors, angles, etc… this will save you from MANY corrections in post processing when the camera guessed it wrong.
Learn to isolate players - What I mean by this is when I’m shooting, I tend to isolate players with a combination of specific focal point use and aperture. Many photographers will shoot a smaller aperture for a larger depth of field. They do this for two reasons. First, with the smaller depth of field, you have a larger depth of field and more of a chance of getting more players in focus. Secondly, they like to get a whole bunch of kids in focus in one picture so that one shot is appealing to multiple parents. I actually hate doing this! I will do it every now and then, but I prefer to isolate players as much as I can with a wide aperture to separate from other players in the picture (much more pleasing photo) and by using specific focal points.
Keep the ball in the shot. This is pretty simple in concept, but can be much harder to actually practice. sometimes to keep the ball in the frame, you have to use the left most focal points if your player is kicking the ball to your right or the rightmost focal points for vice versa. And speaking of focal points…
Learn to use one focal point at at time. Yea, you can use the “auto” focal point feature on your camera, but it will often use the subject closest to the camera as the point of focus. The person closest to you isn’t always what you want and can therefore ruin a few shots. By using specific focal points, you have more control over pinpointing the action and your subjects.
Bring PLENTY of memory – For soccer, shooting raw with my 40D camera, I can easily use up an 8 gig card. Pretty much to the point that I’m strongly considering moving over to jpeg for sports. Especially if I’m being careful about exposure and white balance. In which using a raw format will give you more flexibility. If you’re shooting a full game in raw, I would suggest getting a 16 gig card if you can. If you’re shooting jpeg, then 8 gigs will be plenty.
Bring a portfolio of some of your shots. While you’re shooting (and if you’re good) the parents will marvel at your shots and more strongly considering buying from you rather than getting shots from Bob who is a parent at the game with his basic SLR camera with kit lens thinking he can shoot just as good as the pro.
Use good glass – For the reason stated above, you have to really be able to separate yourself from the shutterbug parent crowd. If you want to provide a quality better than what they can do on their nice camera from Best Buy, you’re going to have to bring your guns. Ideal setup would be a 70-200 lens on one body as your main shooter and a 400 mm lens on another body for shots all the way across the field. So be prepared to spend the money. This is why pro’s aren’t cheap. They got to make up the costs of the equipment it took for them to shoot at such a good quality.
Mingle with parents. – nuff said
Mingle with coaches and referee’s. – I always hook up with coaches and referee’s. This insures that I can get access to various parts of the field without getting grief for being outside of the area reserved for parents.
While I’m on that, be sure to dress like a photographer if you want access to other areas of the field. When I venture out downfield outside if the parent’s seating area in sports, I get a LOT less grief than others due to the fact that alongside my big lenses, I wear jeans, boots, and my photographer’s jacket. That way, there’s no doubt that I’m simply just a parent who doesn’t know his/her bounds.
Speaking of clothing, ALWAYS wear pants and wear waterproof boots. It will become obvious to you as you shoot in various weather and field conditions. And keep your memory cards with you so that you don’t have to keep running back to your bag. Heck, keep as much as you can on your person. Even though I live in Overland Park, don’t assume you won’t get stuff stolen.