Sports Photography

One genre of photography I thoroughly enjoy and I have had many opportunities to shoot is Sports Photography.

Sports Photography is not as easy a genre as some may believe it is to shoot , especially action and fast moving sports, as a photographer you always have to be alert as moments are fleeting. Also, location and positioning relative to the action is key to shooting quality sports images.

You will see from images under my Portfolio and on my other website (www.guildengilbert.photodeck.com) I very often look to fill the frame with my subject and there are times where I will shoot at a slower shutter speed in order to show movement of the athlete.

Sport Photography can make you feel exhausted after the event because you have to be so “focused” on capturing the right images at the right time that it takes total and complete concentration.

Camera Settings I typically shoot in Manual mode because first and foremost my initial objective is to freeze the action so I know I will need a fast shutter speed (different sports require different shutter speeds in order to freeze), after my shutter speed I will manually adjust my ISO based on lighting conditions and changes in those conditions and on most occasions I look to isolate the subject from the background so I generally will shoot my Aperture wide open.

Shutter Speeds For events like swimming my minimum Shutter Speed is around 1/2000th, not so much to freeze the swimmer, as that can be done with a slower shutter speed but more so to freeze the water being splashed/pushed by the swimmer. For Football (sorry, I find it blasphemy to call it by the name beginning with “S” that some called) I find I can comfortably get away with Shutter Speeds as low at 1/1000th or sometimes even a little slower. For Football I do not mind having a little bit of blur in the extremities of the players because it invokes a feeling of movement. For Track and Field, when I am looking to freeze the subject I know I need to be up around 1/2500th but as with Football, I often want a little bit of motion blur in the extremities, so often times I will shoot at slightly slower shutter speeds.

Equipment I am a Nikon shooter, there, I said it………But seriously, camera brand does not matter. Below is a list of the gear I typically carry:

Nikon D3s (older technology but still very much relevant and a great high ISO performer)
Nikon D500
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
Nikon 300mm f2.8
Nikon 200-400 f4

There also times I will go as wide as a 14-24mm f2.8 for perspective or when using the stadium as a background.

For Track and Field and sometimes during Football I will use a Monopod but often times, even with the 200-400mm I will shoot handheld because it affords me more maneuverability.

As I mentioned above I often times look to fill the frame so more times than not I will be using my 200-400mm or 300mm to achieve that.

The key, in my mind, when shooting sports is timing of the capture and in sports where a ball is used I always look to include the ball, otherwise the subject just looks to be in a strange body position. I have included images from some of my Sports Photography work to give you some examples.

As always, I welcome any questions or general feedback.