What lens is better for sports photography?

A good camera must be equipped with a good lens to give full play to its combat effectiveness. In view of the particularity of sports photography, in order to cope with the ever-changing competition situation on the field, sports photographers often have to complete all shots from super wide angle to super telephoto.

Big three yuan is necessary for professional sports photographers, and 70-200mm may be more suitable for general 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.

Of course, for amateurs, this series of lenses may not be so suitable for you; Just look at their volume and weight!

▲ Telescope head has always been a weapon for sports photography.

Monopod

Because of its flexibility, monopod is almost a must-have item for sports photographers. At present, carbon fiber is popular, which is light, durable and expensive. If you don't want to invest too much on a tripod, an alloy tripod is also a good choice.

diastimeter

Rangefinder can increase the focal length of the lens, which is convenient for shooting farther objects, but it will damage the image quality, reduce the aperture value of the lens, and may also affect autofocus. Among professional sports photographers, rangefinders are not widely used, but only as a last resort. But for enthusiasts, rangefinder is undoubtedly a very affordable choice; Compared with the money saved, the lost aperture and image quality are nothing at all.

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 ultra-telephoto fixed-focus lenses: EF 300mm f/2.8 is USM, EF 400mm f/2.8 is USM, etc.

Others: EF 500mm f/4L is II USM, EF 600mm f/4L is II USM, etc.

Photography Skill 0 1: Application of shooting mode

Shutter priority mode

For sports photography, shutter speed is the most important, so using shutter priority mode 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. The camera will automatically adjust the aperture according to the exposure to make the image clear in any case. Shutter priority mode can also use slow shutter to shoot special effects, which is an advantage that other modes do not have. Note: When using shutter priority mode, the "Av, Tv safety offset" option in the camera menu must be turned off (off by default). Otherwise, when the ambient light is insufficient, the camera will extend the shutter to ensure exposure, and the shutter priority mode is meaningless.

Manual exposure mode

Manual exposure mode For beginners, using shutter priority mode is a good start. When you are familiar with the game, the lighting environment and the shutter speed required to capture various moments, you can try to switch to manual exposure to accurately grasp the exposure effect. It is suggested to use it in a relatively certain light environment, make good use of the camera's custom parameter settings, store the manual exposure mode parameters in various scenes, and switch freely in different scenes to improve shooting efficiency.

Automatic sensitivity function

If you use the automatic ISO function of automatic sensitivity, you can automatically select the most suitable sensitivity and get the best picture quality under the condition of customizing the most suitable aperture and shutter. This slight difference may affect the imaging quality at a critical moment.

Photography tip 02: Choose the right focusing method.

Artificial intelligence servo focusing mode should be used to shoot moving objects. When shooting, you must concentrate, keep track of the subject at any time, and keep focus by pressing the shutter half. When an event occurs, continuous shooting is used to capture the whole event, ensuring the highest success rate.

Take Canon EOS 5D Mark III used by the author as an example. When choosing the focusing mode, it should be determined according to the size of the subject. The coverage area of fixed-point focusing and single-point focusing is too small, which is not conducive to shooting. Therefore, we should choose the focusing method to expand the focus and expand the focus to the surrounding or area. It should be noted that artificial intelligence servo focusing only supports area autofocus at most. If you want to turn on all (6 1) autofocus points for tracking and focusing, you must switch to artificial intelligence focusing mode. Although 60-point autofocus can reduce the tracking difficulty, it is difficult for the camera to determine the accurate focus because of too many focusing points, which reduces the focusing accuracy, so it should be used with caution.

▲ Using artificial intelligence servo focusing, you can lock the focus on the subject at any time to ensure that the focus is always clear.

Canon EOS 5d Mark III+EF 85mm f/1.2l is USM II, f/ 1.6, 1/3200sec, ISO 1250. (Photo: An Lingjun)

Photography tip 03: the choice of anti-shake mode

On the shock-proof telephoto lens such as EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II, there are two shock-proof modes to choose from.

Mode 1: Suitable for still shooting when the lens is in a stable state. At this time, the focus of earthquake prevention is to keep the picture still and make the captured image clearer.

Mode 2: specially designed for post-shooting: in this mode, the lens anti-vibration system will ignore the influence of one-way motion and only impact the vibration outside the direction of motion to improve the clarity of post-shooting. In the shooting of sports activities, we must choose the corresponding earthquake-proof mode according to the actual needs.

Photo Tip 04: Expect wonderful photos.

Another important skill of sports photographers is to predict upcoming scenes. This is also necessary for photographers in other fields. Photography needs a certain degree of pre-judgment time, but the pre-judgment time is too short to be measured by numerical value, but the grasp of the moment of action is the key. The more familiar you are with the action you are shooting, the more you can predict the moment of action and improve the probability of shooting the desired picture accurately.

▲ Accurate prediction is the key to capturing wonderful moments. Canon EOS 5d Mark III+EF 400 mm f/2.8L ISUM, f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 3200. (Photo: An Lingjun)

Photography tip 05: Use a slow shutter

It is difficult to avoid monotony only by shooting with high-speed shutter. At this time, you might as well switch to a slow shutter and shoot a dynamic picture. It is more suitable for shooting with slow shutter, such as sprinting, cycling and racing. Ball games with physical contact are not suitable for this skill because of their variable speed.

There are two ways to use the 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.

Fixed camera shooting dynamic trajectory

It is relatively easy to shoot with a fixed camera. Stabilize the camera with a tripod to ensure that the still part of the picture remains clear; You can choose TV mode as exposure mode, try different shutter speeds and choose the best shutter time to make the picture present the best dynamic feeling.

Chasing moving objects

Relatively difficult to chase. When the camera is stable, the field of vision of the camera must move at the same speed as the subject, so that the subject can keep a fixed position in the observation window. When the moving direction of the subject is almost perpendicular to the direction of the lens, press the shutter, and then the lens moves at the maximum speed, which can ensure the best dynamic effect.

When shooting, pay attention to the fact that the lens must move smoothly, neither fast nor slow, otherwise it will blur the subject; Attention should also be paid to the accuracy of focusing. In addition, it should be noted that the background can not be single, otherwise it is difficult to show the effect of blurring. Some scattered backgrounds look like colorful canvases after being blurred, which can better set off the main body. This skill is quite difficult and needs repeated practice.

General dynamic effect of explosion

There is also a commonly used slow shutter, which enlarges during shooting to produce explosive visual effects and enhance the impact of the picture. Although this shooting method is simple, it is of little use. Just give it a good decoration. The main items suitable for this shooting method are track and field, swimming and cycling.