Pudge Rodriguez in 2009, with the New York Yankees by Vinent Rush
Do you find it a problem to shoot great sports action shots? Whether you are shooting pictures of a soccer match, Major League Baseball, or a fast moving car, you may find it a great challenge to produce nice sports pictures of these subjects. In fact, the first thing you’ll realize is that "Point and Shoot" digital Cameras are bad for action shots. That is why first time users, new to digital photography often gripe about how lousy their action shots turn out.
This article will give you some tips for Sports Photography and shooting action shots with a digital camera. Apply these tips and I’m sure you have a better chance of getting a nice action shot.
1. Shutter Lag
One of the major reasons why a "Point and Shoot" digital camera cannot shoot nice action photography is due to shutter lag. On many digital cameras, when you press the shutter button, it may take an entire second before the photo is taken. A traditional, analogue 35mm camera can take the picture within 50 milliseconds. There is a world of difference between 1 second and 50 milliseconds.
What this means is that you need to compensate for shutter lag when shooting action shots. Give extra time when framing your shot, so that when you depress the shutter button, the photo will get taken at precisely the right time. Another option, of course, if to get a higher end camera which offers less shutter lag like a DLSR, Nikon D7000 or better.
2. Take Control Shots
Another factor influencing action photography is the shutter speed of your camera. If your camera allows a very fast shutter speed (say up to 1/8000 of a second), you can easily capture fast motion. If it only supports a slower shutter speed (say 1/640 of a second), then you won’t be able to capture such fast motion. One way to capture motion with a slow shutter speed is to use the panning technique. When you next shoot a fast action shot, try following through with the subject. Track the subject, shoot the picture, then continue moving the camera. If you practise long enough, you’ll be able to get a sharp subject with a blurred background – which is a nice effect. Try to keep depth of field in mind as well. The higher the shutter speed, the shallower the depth. When I am shooting sports photography, I like to try to keep my depth of field at 4.5-5.6. This gives me much sharper images. I rarely shoot higher than 1/1600th of a second.
3. Camera Write Times
The write time of the camera is also important when shooting action shots. Some cameras will chug away to store a picture in memory each time you press the shutter button. This, of course, is terrible for capturing action. One way around this is to ensure that your camera supports continuous shots. This way, the camera takes a fixed number of shots, before writing them all to memory at once.
Conclusion
We all know action photography is exciting and very interesting if the pictures are taken well. However, action shots pose a great challenge, especially to novice photographers. Do keep the above tips in mind the next time you take such shots, and I’m sure your results will be better.
Posted by Monroe Ohio photographer Vincent Rush, Cincinnati Sports Photography and Dayton Sports Photography of Monroe Ohio. Vince Rush can be contacted by phone at (877) 858-6295 or by email at vrush@rushintl.com or visit http://CincinnatiSportsPhotography.com
Thank you for sharing the information.
ReplyDeleteCapturing nature photos and live sports photos have a great difference as to capture sports photos needs lot of skills which will not only help to capture good photos but, it will also help to learn photography.
There are number of photography classes who are providing digital photography lessons and while surfing on internet, I came across a site named as My Photo Sharing Secrets who is providing the service of digital photography for beginners.