Sports Photography - Shooting Horizontal (landscape)

[MikeChua]

Do you happen to recall what lens and body you used for these amazing shots?

[sds4kst8]

@MikeChua - The lens was the 400/f2.8 and the body was either a Canon 1dMk2n or 1dMk2.

[sporty5522343]

he broke his arm in tht game i was there

[sporty5522343]

My son plays on the team you shot in this video... I was searching for videos to help me take better sports pics and I saw this one as one of the first on the You Tube list... small little world!!! Great shots!!! I use a Nikon D3000 and am learning a lot on-line about how to improve my sports photography... thanks for posting this tutorial!

[sds4kst8]

@sporty5522343 - That is too funny! Small world, indeed. Let me know if you have questions or need help with anything. Good luck!

[bindazzone]

hi i am gonna be shooting soccer in a few weeks my first time, can u pls give me some adivse, like wht mode should i be in A or SP. i would like to knw if in A mode wht is the best F# to be in and if in SP mode wht speed should i be in to freeze the moment and have the background blured. any advice will be helpfull. thax

[tfole14]

Pentax K-70. I am new to this and am not having much luck when I get the cropped pix back from snapfish. They look real blurry and grainy??  Thanks for the help.

Tim

[tfole14]

Silly Question, Why is the background blurred out? How can I do that

[Sipoch]

@tfole14 What kind of camera do you use?

[majikalramseatjello]

@tfole14 the lower the aperture/f-stop is the more blurry the background is. if your using a dslr put it in aperture priority and lower the f-stop as low as the lens will let you and you will get a nice blur. but that also lets in more light so if you have a low aperture lens your going to have a really fast shutter speed and low iso.

[sds4kst8]

@majikalramseatjello - I think it's important to mention that there are several factors that come into play when trying to attain blurred backgrounds, just one of which is the aperture. Distance from lens to subject and distance from subject to background are almost equally as important.

[TheRubycapulong]

@tfole14 theyre using telephotos lens thats why or you have to use bigger aperture or small F numbers like F4,F3.5 and so on to make the background blurry.

[sds4kst8]

@TheRubycapulong - lots of reasons it's blurred out, including the use of a 400mm lens, shooting close to wide open, and the distance between the lens/subject and subject/background.

[australianfan]

Hi Scott,great action shots ...I take a lot of Soccer shots still learning ..great tutorial thanks  Aussie

[sds4kst8]

@australianfan - Thanks! Keep shooting.

[sds4kst8]

Well, there isn't really a right or wrong way. However, if the action is rather far away from you shooting vertical will give you a lot of grass (bottom) and sky (top) that no other athlete will be running into the shot. At least shooting horizontal when the action is farther away you might be able to pick up players as the run into the shot from either the right or left. When the action is close, shooting vertical makes a little more sense. By all means, do what works best for you. Good luck.

[dayingyang0]

There are a lot of sports where horizontal makes sense, but for me I don't count soccer as one of them. I think that a player running toward you lends itself perfectly for vertical composition.

[CWCphotography]

It's great when you can quickly switch from shooting landscape photos and start shooting portrait. The action photo are great!

[graffsax]

hi,  my mom gave me the sony alpha 200 Im starting to take photo for a local teen magazine. I really need some new cheap and good lenses for sport photography . Please help me get the correct lenses....

[sds4kst8]

I have never used Sony gear, so I can't offer any assistance on that line-up. However, I can tell you that "cheap" and "good" are two words that are rare when talking about lenses for sports. The key is fast glass. It seems many new sports shooters get all excited that they can buy a 70-300 lens for $100, but the variable aperture of that lens is worthless for anything other than daylight sports. Since many sporting events are at night or indoors, fast glass is key.

[XECUTA2]

it is depending on what you want to do. most minolta lenses fits Alphas Cameras these are the cheap replacement if you cant afford the SAL sony lenses. i just sold my old A350 to a canon 50D because i want to get into sport photography. i hope that helps?

[FischerPhotography]

My soccer photos are shot landscape, but if the players are really close to me, I shoot portrait.

[sds4kst8]

Yep, there really isn't a right or wrong way of doing this. Each situation and photo is different.

[Linayaya]

Hi Scott, your images are wondefull, I love that very much and the videos are definitely very helpfull.

I do soccer pictures last years too. At the beginning, my first try, I do horizontal and vertical both. But after, I almost do horizontal only. As you said, I figure out for the soccer sport, the players run fast all the time and they don't jump up that often. When try to do a good close up. Vertical shot miss a lot.

And I like the horizontal pictures, look very comfortable for me.

[elsospechas]

nice vid i just started with this art and i love it, just a quick suggestion to help us more, can you please put down the info of the pic like Aperture, Shutters Speed, and ISO well thanks for all this man

[sds4kst8]

I could and might do that now and then, but for the most part I am going to assume everyone knows the basics of exposure. Without that basic understanding, all this other stuff is a little overwhelming.

Good luck.

[jacobovs]

Hey Scott, Thanks for all of the great vids. You have made a huge difference in my photography skills. Quick question, what autofocus setting do you prefer. I try to shoot in continuous mode but have been burned by it and single mode seems to miss some good opportunities. Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

[sds4kst8]

Glad the videos help.

I always use AI Servo for sports, along with setting the custom function to separate the focus (* button) and shutter (shutter button). If I recall, it's custom functino 4, #3 on the Canon bodies (Mk2 and Mk2n).

[TkiraT]

Hai Scott~ First i would like to say great job on those soccer shots. Also great tips for the landscape shooting. this will help me alot. Also i wanted to know if you could give me some avice on getting into the sports photography business. ive been a portrait photographer for about 2 years and i am looking for somthing more intresting. my question is, what would be an easy way to get started, consiering i already have a Canon Rebel XTi. Should i go to a couple magaziens or newspapers?

[sds4kst8]

Thanks for the kind words about the video. Glad they help.

I would say if you don't have a sports portfolio that's the first thing you're going to need. Shoot as wide a variety of sports you can, then put together a portfolio of 15-20 of your absolute best images. Once you have that you basically have a "product" you can start sharing with different outlets you might be interested in shooting for. Do you have any photojournalism experience?

Good luck.

[ctdayton]

Hi Scott,

Your shots are fantastic. I'm new to this and wanted to know what kind of camera you use or would suggest for someone who is trying to get into the business (just getting started) Thank much for the advice.

~Caroline~

[sds4kst8]

Caroline, I apologize for not seeing this note and replying earlier.

It's tough to know how to recommend a camera without knowing how much money you have. You can pick up something along the lines of a Canon 40d for maybe $700 or so.

Send me an email if you would like more detailed information.

Scott

PS -- thanks for the kind words about the photos.

[Linayaya]

Hi, I'm new to DSLR, about 1.5 years.

First, for the people they want to do good photos, they are better go take a course first. This will save them huge of time and money.

And for the equipment, I think the lens is much importand than the camera body. A fast f/2.8 lens is a much have for sport.

Camera go for the 40D or 50D first, except you have good money for the 1D series.

And review the picture home after, find out the good and bad. Figure out why and how to try the next time.

[Epiha]

Hi Scott,

W/ regard to cropping for a league versus a publication would you crop these to a std 4x6, 5x7 sizes etc or would you crop the same for any situation or as you would like to see the image.

Just curious how you handle those situations where you are trying to sell prints to parents versus what an editor needs from you.

Thanks as always

[sds4kst8]

That's a very good question. In my opinion, there is a very big difference in shooting/cropping for publication like a newspaper versus sales to parents.

For sales to parents, I shoot a little loose and do not crop at all until an image is sold. I don't believe it's a very wise use of time to crop images that might never be purchased. So, when images get posted online for sales they are posted at their original aspect ratio (which is about 2:3).

Hope that helps.

[Epiha]

Thanks so much Scott, that helped a lot. See you on the other forum, hopefully one day I'll make it to the SS one (hardly).

[emmanuelSC]

again, thank you so much for your videos! great to just get information from a real professional like u.

[sds4kst8]

Thanks.