Deciphering sports photography skills

Understanding the basic skills of sports photography

It is difficult for us to give a specific definition of sports photography. At present, we think it is a process of capturing the most exciting and exciting moments in sports. Sports photography emphasizes authenticity, immediacy and accuracy. Although the work is a static and silent picture, it gives people a tense and fierce competition atmosphere and a thrilling and beautiful moment. Today, I will tell you about the necessary skills of sports photography, hoping it will be useful to you.

20 12 London Olympic Games once again set off everyone's enthusiasm for sports. As a photographer, do you also want to rush to the Olympic site and record every wonderful game scene?

This paper will introduce some necessary skills for the success of sports photography.

What preparations do you need to make before shooting?

1, understand the game

In sports photography, the most important thing is to know the details of the game you shot. Because any moment in the game is fleeting.

In order to take powerful photos, you must be able to predict the behavior and manners of athletes. If you don't know the rules, you can't keep up with the rhythm of the game.

2. Need to find inspiration

The most important thing is to find inspiration before stealing the camera. Whether reading magazines, browsing online galleries or looking at the works of other photographers, it will be a very effective way. Of course, seeking inspiration does not mean copying other people's works. Simply put, looking at other works is to understand other people's creativity and ask yourself, why do you like his works? What parts do you think can be improved? How would you choose to shoot in such an environment?

Look at the work before shooting, clear your mind and make clear the effect you want to shoot.

Step 3 choose the right lens

Next time you watch the game in front of the TV, pay attention to the sideline, there are many photographers busy there. Although you may not be able to afford their cameras? Cannon? But you really need a suitable lens.

The first thing to consider is whether the game is played indoors/at night or outdoors/during the day. If it is the former, then there must be a lens with a maximum aperture of at least f/4. If it is the latter, then ordinary lenses can do it.

For most games, you need a lens of at least 200mm. You also need a 35mm or 50mm lens. However, if you only have a standard or wide-angle lens, you may spend most of your time waiting for the athletes to come to you.

4. How to set up your camera?

Indoor and outdoor sports have completely different lighting environments, so you need to judge the lighting conditions you will face first. Well-lit sports include tennis, baseball, track and field, football and so on. And sports with poor lighting include basketball, table tennis and volleyball.

5. Find the best shooting position

The angle determines the composition, and it is easier to capture key images in favorable shooting positions. For example, in this competition, a profile photo formed an interesting reflection.

Shooting is about to begin:

1, forecast

As mentioned above, you need the ability to predict the behavior of athletes, and predicting what will happen next is another equally important aspect. Always stare at the camera and pay attention to every move on the field.

When you realize that something is going to happen. Crazy? Press the shutter slowly. At this time, the continuous shooting mode of the camera is very advantageous.

When a scene is over, don't rush to play back the photos on the camera and continue to pay attention to the scene. Getting into the habit of looking at the camera right away will make you miss some rare opportunities.

2. Control the shutter speed

Almost all competitions are about speed. The athletes run fast, throw fast and hit fast. You need a high-speed shutter to freeze these moments. The ideal shutter speed is above 1/400s, but in dark environment, 1/250s is also acceptable.

In some cases, a slower shutter speed is more interesting. Try 1/30s or115, and then use the subsequent shooting technique. In any case, you should pay attention to the shutter you use. In a fast-paced game, choosing the wrong shutter will ruin your shooting plan.

3. Concentrate as much as possible.

In some competitions, you can know in advance where things will happen, but you don't know when. For example, in softball, cricket or volleyball, you know that the key moment will happen at home plate or online. All you need to do is pay attention to these positions in advance and wait.

If you know the exact shooting location, you must ambush in advance. You don't have to follow the athletes, just wait for them to enter your pre-focus range. Sometimes it is better to use manual focusing or autofocus locking.

? Focus mode

Accurate focusing is the basis of taking good photos. Most SLR cameras have three focusing modes (AF-A/AF-S/AF-C), and the AF-C continuous focusing mode is generally used for shooting motion. Of course, in some cases, lock the focus in advance? Trap type? Give your shot of the athlete a little early and let him automatically break into your focus? Trap? Focusing is also a multiplier.

4. Settings of shutter and aperture

No matter whether you are indoors or outdoors, you should at least ensure that your shutter speed is above 1/250 seconds (except special effects). Under the outdoor conditions with good lighting environment, using the ISO200 sensitivity of F8-F 1 1 aperture will bring you photos with ideal depth of field. If the shutter can be raised above 1/500s, it is often necessary to use F2.8-F4 aperture with high ISO value in indoor sports shooting to obtain higher shutter speed.

Step 5 write a composition

In sports photography, composition plays a direct and obvious role in dynamic performance. A good composition method can fully show the light and heavy relationship, primary and secondary relationship, perspective relationship and spatial proportion relationship of sports pictures, so as to better reflect the photographer's creative intention, show the fierce competition of sports pictures and show a strong dynamic effect. In sports photography, we often use the following composition methods:

? Changing composition

In variant composition, the main and disturbed objects are deliberately arranged at a certain angle or a certain side of the picture, and the proportion is slightly higher than that of other accompanying objects, thus resulting in the light and heavy contrast of the picture and the effect of picture circulation.

The changing composition can guide the reader's vision well, and the whole picture gives people space for thinking and imagination, space for further judgment, and is full of charm and interest. Usually this composition is used to express humorous moments in sports competitions.

? Compact composition

Compact composition method is to enlarge the close-up form of the main body of the scene to make it full of pictures, compact, delicate and microscopic. In sports photography, it can play a good role to use compact composition method to close up athletes, such as showing the scene of sweating after exercise.