Sports events photography

Taking sports events photos does not require only technical skills from the photographer, but also familiarity with the main sports, their characteristics and rules. This is the only way to catch the most important moments of a sports competition and to avoid the photographing mistakes. Sports subjects imply very high speeds, consequently there’s the need of using adequate exposures.

As for the lenses that you use, they are determined to a great extent by the type of sports you wish to cover. If you are watching an indoor volleyball game from the stands, you can use a normal lens.

If you use a zoom lens or a telephoto lens, you should also take into account its luminosity. Besides, the longer the focal length is, the more blurred the images can be, because of the camera movements.

Shots of race cars can be taken using the following techniques: with a camera held in a still position or by “chasing” the car. For example, a Formula 1 car reaches very high speeds on the Monte Carlo route; that is why the exposure values should be set between 1/125-1/250 s. In other words, if we choose an exposure value of 1/160 or higher, the car in the image will be blurred. The farther from the camera the object is, the longer the exposure can be and the other way round. That is why, when you take photos of the same object using two lenses with different focal length values, you have to set different exposure values also. A telephoto lens renders the image at a high scale; that is why there is a shorter exposure than that of the wide-angle lens.

In the first case, the camera should remain still when taking the photo. Because of the high speed of motion of the object, the exposure time is quite small and the aperture is appropriate. Try to make the best choice, given that according to these values the depth-of-field changes also. If you prefer a higher exposure, you can get a larger series of depths-of-field, but the objects that move so rapidly will be blurred in the image. This technique allows you to amplify the movement effect, but its disadvantage consists in the fact that the details are lost because of the blurred image of the main object, and you don’t always wish for that to happen.

The second technique is called “chasing” technique and it allows you to render a distinct object on a clear background. Hence, try to maintain the object in movement in the same spot of the frame, by rotating the camera in the direction in which the object moves. The photographed object will be clear and still and the moving wheels will give the impression of speed. Obviously, the background will be blurred and fuzzy.

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