Several Skills of Sports sports photography

The purpose of sports photography is to record the eternal moment of athletes' high-speed movement in the competition with beautiful composition and light, and to show the wonderful posture of athletes in the fierce competition, which has certain appreciation and interest. The following are some sports sports photography skills I have compiled for your reference, hoping to help friends in need.

Eos- 1dx, ef ef 200-400mm f/4l isusm, ISO:500,11600s, F6.7, focal length: 400mm.

The athletes' expressions are captured wonderfully, the snowflakes splashing around them are full of movement, and the diagonal composition is well used.

Tip 1: Choose the right shooting position.

For sports photographers, the shooting position is very important. A favorable shooting position and wonderful photos are often closely linked, which directly affects the quality and effect of photos. We should give full consideration to the lighting effect and background of the shooting scene to set off the theme.

When choosing a shooting position, look for places where action climax often occurs and places where it can definitely appear. For example, the shooting point of basketball, under the backboard, the shooting point of football, in the restricted area, above the hurdle, etc. Are the best points to show the characteristics of the project and the climax of the sport.

Eos- 1dmark iv, ef 200-400mm f/4Lisum, ISO: 160, 1/2500S, F4, focal length: 300mm.

The dynamic shooting of the characters is very stretched, the projection enriches the language of the picture, and the composition is very wonderful.

Eos- 1dx, ef 200-400mm f/4l isusm, ISO:200, 1/2000S, F5.6, focal length: 200mm.

Tip 2: Choice of body and lens.

Sports photography may be the most difficult and unpredictable subject in the field of photography. Canon is the main camera brand with the highest exposure rate of photographic equipment in the sports field, because it has a complete ultra-telephoto lens group and a digital SLR body with superior speed, which is almost the only choice in sports photography, and there are crowds of white gun scenes. The selected machine is not only high in pixels, but also has the functions of precise focusing and high-speed continuous shooting. Commonly used cameras include canon EOS- 1dX, 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark III, etc.

A good camera naturally needs to be matched with a good lens in order to exert its maximum combat effectiveness. In view of the particularity of sports photography, sports photographers often have to complete all the shots from super wide angle to super telephoto in order to cope with the ever-changing competition situation on the field. Big three yuan is necessary for professional sports photographers, and 70-200 mm may be more suitable for ordinary photographers; As for the super telephoto world, various monster-level fixed-focus lenses are often used. Because sports photography requires fast focusing speed, accurate and sharp focusing, zoom lens is often difficult to do.

Recommended lens (taking Canon as an example)

EF 16—35mm f/2.8L USM II

Ef 24-70mm f/2.8L USM II

Ef 70-200mm f/2.8L is USM II.

Commonly used super telephoto fixed-focus lens: EF 300mm f/2. 8 is USM, EF 400mm f/2.8 is USM, etc.

Others: monster lens such as EF 500mm f/4L is II USM, and EF 600mm f/4L is II USM.

Eos- 1dx, ef 24-70mm f/2.8l USM II, ISO: 1600, 1/640S, F4, focal length: 50mm.

In the tense moment, the athletes of both sides make moves at the same time, focusing on each other, and the characters are chic.

Tip 3: Choose a monopod.

Because of the heavy weight of sports photographic equipment, photographers should be flexible and stable when shooting. Monopod is almost a must-have item for sports photographers. At present, carbon fiber materials are popular, which are light, durable and expensive. If you don't want to invest too much on a tripod, an alloy tripod is also a good choice.

Tip 4: Choose the correct shooting mode-shutter priority mode.

For sports photography, shutter speed is the most important, so shutter priority mode shooting is a good start. In the case of poor lighting conditions, first set the sensitivity to the maximum acceptable image quality, and set the shutter to high speed, and the camera will automatically adjust the aperture according to the exposure, so that the image will be clear anyway. Shutter priority mode can also use slow shutter to shoot special effects, which is an advantage that other modes do not have.

Shooting with a high-speed shutter is inevitably a bit monotonous. It is better to shoot a dynamic picture with a slow shutter. More suitable for shooting with slow shutter are sprinting, cycling, racing and so on. Ball games with physical contact are not suitable for this skill because of their variable speed. There are two ways to use slow shutter in sports photography: one is to fix the camera and shoot the trajectory of moving objects; Second, the camera moves with the subject, making the subject clear and the background blurred. It should be noted that successful slow shutter photography must have a very clear part, and the whole picture must not be blurred.

Eos-1d x, ef 70-200mm f/2 .8L is II USM, ISO: 1250,1/200s, F5.0, focal length: 200mm.

The first runner rushed to the finish line with open arms and cheered to celebrate the upcoming victory.

Eos-1d x, ef 24-70mm f/2 .8L USM II, ISO:800, 1/320S, F8, focal length: 24 mm.

The cyclist galloped past the camera, leaving a dynamic illusion on the screen. The audience in the background and the athletes in the architecture and foreground are full of fun.

Tip 5: Use the automatic sensitivity function.

With the Auto ISO function, you can automatically select the most appropriate sensitivity and get the best picture quality under the condition of customizing the most appropriate aperture and shutter. This subtle difference may affect the imaging quality at a critical moment.

Tip 6: Choose the correct focusing method.

The artificial intelligence servo focusing mode must be used to shoot moving objects. When shooting, you must concentrate, follow the subject at any time, and press the shutter half-way to keep in focus. When the incident happens, continuous shooting will capture the whole incident to ensure the highest success rate. Taking Canon EOS- 1DX as an example, its core advantage lies in providing us with a top-level focusing experience, which is not only reflected in the nearly crazy 6 1 focusing points, but more importantly, the intelligent subject recognition system with 1 pixel and 1 DIGIC 4 processors is additionally integrated inside the machine.

Eos- 1dx, ef 200-400mm f/4Lisum, ISO: 1600, 1/640S, F4, focal length: 300mm.

The funny expression of basketball star Kobe Bryant when he competes with his opponent for the ball.

Tip 7: predict

Another important skill of sports photographers is to predict the upcoming scene, grasp a certain amount of advance, and press the shutter at the moment before the wonderful moment, which is what Master Bresson called "decisive moment". This is also necessary for photographers in other fields. Sports photography needs a certain degree of pre-judgment time, which is so short that it can hardly be measured by numerical value, but grasping the action moment is the key. The more familiar you are with the motion you are shooting, the more you can predict the occurrence of moments such as actions and improve the probability of accurately shooting the desired picture.

Eos-1d x, ef 24-70mm f/2 .8L USM II, ISO:3200, 1/4000S, F 1 1, focal length: 28 mm.

This picture captures the charm of professional cyclists very well, and the composition has strong visual impact.

Sports photography is more demanding and more difficult to shoot. Due to the limitation of objective conditions, sports photography works have less subjective intervention, so they are authentic, without traces of manipulation, and the competitive atmosphere is fierce, which makes people feel immersive. I hope that through some skills introduced in this article, we can have a deeper understanding of sports photography.