Sport Photography Tips

Shooting sports can be hard. Particularly fast paced, high adrenaline sports. There are so many factors to think about, from camera settings, to composition to location.

Some of my very first photography shoots were kayaking events, and over the last few years since starting with these, I have taken on board loads of experience, helping me to improve, and hopefully one day, perfect those action shots.

So what are the best things I’ve learned from my time?

Camera settings

So first up, what are the best settings? Well, what I say to anyone in any situation when asked this question is, there is no one set of numbers that are going to give you exactly the right set up. There are so many variables, lighting conditions, speed of movement, wether you are looking for a complete freeze frame or some dynamic motion blur.

However, I will talk you through the way I like to capture these events.

My personal preference is a freeze frame. I know some photographers enjoy a motion blur effect, but there are two main reasons I prefer to avoid this;

1) I like to see the detail of my subject and the backgrounds - especially with something like whitewater kayaking, the background is part of the scene, the water spraying, the drop the kayaker is/has just paddled off sets the scene and gives context to the image. Having a motion blurred background to me, can take away from that. I’m not saying there aren’t times it can be a really cool effect, especially in things like motorsport to give an impression of speed, but for my images, I prefer the full context

2) Where I’m standing - this is often on a slippery rock, feet in the water, on a slightly sketchy gradient. I often have a big telephoto lens in my hand and the last thing I want to do is make myself unstable panning a shot and lose my footing, ending up with me, and high value camera equipment, going for an unexpected, and rather costly, dip.

So how do I set my camera up?

Well, the main thing I think about is shutter speed. There is a general rule that your shutter speed should at least match, and ideally double your focal length to avoid motion blur. That is for standard photography. So me shooting at 400mm, I would use around 1/800 shutter. However, to really freeze frame things like water coming off a moving paddle, this needs to be even higher - so often my shutter speed will be 1000 or above for kayaking events.

This has obvious implications for light. Namely, the amount coming in gets pretty restricted sometimes, especially on an overcast scottish day.

I generally will shoot with as low an f stop as my lens allows. Normally I’m trying to get focus on a subject, and yes, I did say I like to avoid blur in the background. However, motion blur, and bokeh, are very different. So sometimes I will close my aperture a bit to try and increase depth of field.

So, this all leads to the thing you are probably dreading - ISO. Essentially, yes, sometimes I will need to increase my ISO more than I perhaps would like, to get the exposure I need for a good shot. However, remember, especially if shooting a modern mirrorless system, the noise from this is pretty acceptable, and RAW files contain so much data now, that even with some underexposed areas, you have a pretty good chance of getting the shadows back in post.

The key thing is not to OVER expose. On a sunny day, with light reflecting off water - it is really easy for those highlights to get washed out. I would always rather work with a slightly dark image that I can recover, than an overexposed image with blown out highlights that are dead forever. Nothing is worse than getting ack from a long day shooting, looking at those RAW files and seeing no detail on the reflective water.

This brings me to one more thing about camera set up - filters. A CPL filter is an amazing addition to your lens in bright sunlight on water. It helps dampen those reflection giving you more detail than you would get without it.

Composition

Leading lines, rule of thirds, S shaped? Whilst these, and other composition rules, always have their place, they work when you can control the scene - which when you have paddlers focussing on their race lines, you cannot do as much! They will go where they wanna go.

So what works? Well, personally, I always like an image with something in it that is NOT the subject. It can be easy to just fill the frame with the subject, and lose surrounding context. Even just a rock, a tree, maybe even a dark space beside them that they are heading into, can add a lot to your image, changing it from a portrait, to an action shot.

It is important to leave space in can image, somewhere that the subject is going, to help enhance the feeling of movement, and to ensure it doesn’t just seem static.

You can see in the image above, the paddler is moving into a space, giving some context to the motion, even without motion blur effect. The foreground elements to me, add a nice sense of scale, something to clarify where the shooter is, a give an idea of almost POV image.

One last thing I like to think about, especially when shooting a whole event is to get a variety of images - its easy to focus on that shot going off a drop, or the biggest most impressive waterfall - but there are also more moments than that to an event. To me a gallery should tell a story of the event, including some portraits of people, and slower moments.

Location

Somewhat related to composition is location - where are you standing/sitting/stuck in a bush? For me, I like to pick a few spots where I know what the image is going to look like. For example, the shoot I am referencing here, McLaren’s Giant Slalom (all images in my gallery), was a full day event. I couldn’t just stand in one spot and take all the same photos. I headed to the site early and scouted out a few different positions for me to work from. These gave different angles of different parts of the course.

Thinking about this you have to think about - what am I going to see, what’s the angle, am I face on with the subject, behind, to the side? What do I want to image to feel like, do I want action, movement and dynamic, or closer up slower moments? Where do I want the light to be, and will that change through the day?

It may seem like a lot to think about but different positions can really change the feel of your image. Its great to have a think about this at any site you are shooting at, wether that is sports, weddings, family shoots, or even landscape, to understand how the place you are standing will affect your images.

And finally, I know it is a bit boring, but it is also important to think about your safety - no point in getting a great shot if you and your camera are going to tumble off the edge of a waterfall. No position is worth that, so make sure you are safe and secure, and not on risky footing to get your shots!