Catch that Shot! 10 Tips for Weekend Warrior Sports Photographers

[Sonny]

Catch that Shot! 10 Tips for Weekend Warrior Sports Photographers

[Tom]

They talk about using IS after talking about keeping your shutter speed over 1/1000th of a second to freeze action. IS isn't going to help AT ALL with a moving subject with a fast shutter speed. It only helps with camera shake, which really isn't an issue when you are shooting over 1/1000th of a second.

Some lenses have an IS setting for panning, which is great for sports like auto/biking or something else when you want to get a panning shot.

The author talks about shooting wide open to blur the background, then shows a shot at F/5. MUCH Better to position yourself to not have cluttery things in the background, as most of their shots were positioned for. A wide aperture will help, especially if you are able to use a 70-200 2.8 (possibly with a 1.4x.

I would also suggest not relying on Aperture priority. Rather, if you are in constant light, figure out what the exposure is. If you aren't shutter priority will help keep your shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action and eliminate the possibility of the shutter speed dropping so low that you are unable to freeze action. But learning to shoot manual is even more preferable, and with a handy little LCD, not entirely difficult. Shooting manual will definitely help you have a much more consistent product right away.

[DigMe]

Thanks for the tips, Tom!

brad

[Flores]

Tom, how do you feel about using the jpg processing in the camera vs shooting RAW and doing all the corrections with PS/LR ?

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Flores

Tom, how do you feel about using the jpg processing in the camera vs shooting RAW and doing all the corrections with PS/LR ?

I generally only shoot sports on a tight deadline, so I shoot JPEG. However, I don't use any in-camera processing.

[digidawg87]

I shoot NEF's on one card and jpeg on the other for that tight deadline. I'll work on select NEF's a little later. I think that the sneaker zoom is very important. Don't just stand there, get a little closer or just a different angle.

[kenw]

The article seems to be targeting soccer moms, and for that audience it is pretty good advice. They do seem to have most of the high end equipment.....I once sat in front of a mom who just got a new Canon, a Rebel but with a 24-70L attached for her birthday a few days earlier. Sitting in the upper deck at the high school FB game, clicking away chatting all the while. The 2.8 was fine but 70mm wasn't going to get anything closer than an entire half of the field from where we were at.

I would have the same comments as Tom, in particular the misguided recommendation for IS and the clutter issue. I would find it hard to believe that even a panning shot of a person would have a slow-enough shutter to warrant IS; you still need to freeze the action. Watching the backgrounds for clutter is tough but you can always plan better and be willing to move. A lot. Soccer moves from one area to another quickly, so you are likely to shoot a lot of angles from one spot and clutter comes with that. In kid's soccer you almost always have the other team in the shot if you shoot from your sideline. My biggest issue with soccer was the sun's direction, if you aren't careful you can shoot into the sun a lot more than you should. I found shooting from the ends gets a lot less clutter and tends to give you more face-on shots anyway (but you need longer glass).

In the 90s I shot a lot of film with my Elan and the basement 75-300 @300mm with 400ISO film. As long as it was broad daylight I managed. Youth baseball on the other hand had fewer set spots where you can pretty much camp out all day long. MS Football never had the light, so I quickly moved to pure specatator.

Now I'm waiting for my grandson to start playing.....and you thought soccer-mom-with-camera was a dangerous breed....grandfather-with-camera can be lethal.

[rab3rd]

Catch that Shot! 10 Tips for Weekend Warrior Sports Photographers
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