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Any sports photography tips for the beginners out there. I am hardly a beginning photographer, but my background is mostly in wildlife photography. So - I don't know as much about shooting sports shots.
Any sports photography tips for the beginners out there. I am hardly a beginning photographer, but my background is mostly in wildlife photography. So - I don't know as much about shooting sports shots.
Thanks.
Simple tips:
Never shoot automatic
Never shoot with flash
High shutter speed during day games...keep the ISO as low as you can
High ISO for night games (as long as you have a camera with good ISO noise). I personally don't go past 1600 ISO. You'll be forced to keep the shutter speed low so you can't expect any action shots. It's better to get shots like after a swing or right before
Always have the right white balance (get a white balance card...I got one for $10)
While the never shoot automatic makes perfect sense, I don't understand what's bad about using a flash. Matter of fact, I find it helpful to use my SB-900 at basketball games.
Are you only talking baseball? What's wrong with using flash at a baseball game?
While the never shoot automatic makes perfect sense, I don't understand what's bad about using a flash. Matter of fact, I find it helpful to use my SB-900 at basketball games.
Are you only talking baseball? What's wrong with using flash at a baseball game?
-Frik
Using flash in sports is basically making it look un-natural. I only use flash for portait photography. I don't think I've seen a professional photographer in any sport use flash. That's why they just push the ISO settings up to get the correct lighting.
Using flash in sports is basically making it look un-natural.
Can you give me an example of how it's unnatural? I would really like to know.
I don't think I've seen a professional photographer in any sport use flash.
Other sports photographers, do you concur with Kyle?
That's why they just push the ISO settings up to get the correct lighting.
The problem with that is that I get a ton of noise. I am using a Nikon D300S. I also don't have a sports photography lens, so maybe that's part of the problem. My Nikkor 18-105 mm is adequate, but it's not a sports lens.
Can you give me an example of how it's unnatural? I would really like to know.
Other sports photographers, do you concur with Kyle?
The problem with that is that I get a ton of noise. I am using a Nikon D300S. I also don't have a sports photography lens, so maybe that's part of the problem. My Nikkor 18-105 mm is adequate, but it's not a sports lens.
I've tried once using my flash and it just didn't look right so I deleted them right away. Sports is just a place where you don't expect to see extra lights from a flash. If you ever notice the photographers at the stadiums packed together, you always see that they never even carry a flash.
I used a Nikon D80 last season, which also had a bad bit of noise at high ISO levels, so I shot primarily at day games. I just don't like dealing with night games. There's no action to capture, and the quality is lost.
The D90 and D3/D3x have the best high ISO in my opinion
Kyle-I hate to disagree with you.As you know more than i do when it comes to taking pictures.But you do realize that professional photographers at games like hockey do use a flash.As they have the flashes by the lights of the arena and triggers the flashes when they take pictures.And by the way there is a difference as heres two pictures i took of the same player one using and one not using a flash for the picture.
Originally posted by kylehess10
Using flash in sports is basically making it look un-natural. I only use flash for portait photography. I don't think I've seen a professional photographer in any sport use flash. That's why they just push the ISO settings up to get the correct lighting.
Kyle-I hate to disagree with you.As you know more than i do when it comes to taking pictures.But you do realize that professional photographers at games like hockey do use a flash.As they have the flashes by the lights of the arena and triggers the flashes when they take pictures.And by the way there is a difference as heres two pictures i took of the same player one using and one not using a flash for the picture.
Which one had the flash? left or right?
You miss one key point to your supporting argument, the professionals are enhancing the existing lighting source, not introducing a new direction of lighting source that could theoretically distract and endanger players or annoy paying spectators. Boxing matches will often also have slave flash units added to the existing lighting as well. But the whole point to that is to have all lighting coming from the same primary source direction, not additional lighting coming from everywhere.
Bottom line, most arenas/stadiums have a rule prohibiting the use of flash photography by fans. Obviously enforcement is nearly null.
My biggest problem with using flash at the normal spectator distances is that most flash units will diffuse before hitting a subject that is 2% of the field of view at 100+ feet away. They just dont have enough power to effectively expose a subject that far away. Many on-board flash units are wholly ineffective on a subject over 15 feet away. And if you are closer than that to a player and flashing a bright light in their face, you are putting them at risk. Using an ineffective flash will generally result in significantly underexposed images.
Your best bet is to honor the stadium rules and put away the flash, crank up your ISO to 800, shoot in Aperture Priority mode at your lens's largest aperture, and take a properly exposed picture with the available light. They are playing a dangerous fast moving sport, there should be enough light in the venue to allow for properly exposed images without annoying your neighbors or endangering the players.
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