It’s Fall again, and you know what that means. Yes, the leaves are changing color. But it’s also time to dig out the cleats, fill up the water bottles, cut up the orange slices and head down to the field. Don’t forget your camera, because this season you can become your team’s photo MVP with Smilebox’s three quick tips to sports photography:
Pre-game warm-up
Before you hit the field, take a few moments to study your camera and know what you’re working with. Most modern point-and-shoot cameras have action shot settings, which typically have a ’running man’ symbol on your settings dial or menu.
The action shot setting will ensure that you are shooting with the fastest shutter speed possible for capturing moving objects. If you don’t have this setting on an SLR camera, you can increase the shutter speed manually by adjusting the ISO.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
The key to capturing good pictures of moving objects is to keep your camera as steady as possible. This is especially important in sports photography so that your subject does not become blurred or grainy while making their shot on goal or run for the end zone.
If you have a tripod handy, use it. If you don’t, not to worry! You can set your camera on a table or any other flat surface nearby and use the ‘automatic self-timer’ function to ensure that your hand doesn’t shake the camera when taking the photo.
If there is nothing suitable to set your camera on, try resting your camera on your knee, and again, use the ’self-timer’ function.
Study the Lighting
Lighting in sports arenas is often patchy, with bright illumination in some areas, and dark spots in others.
If neither having the flash on or off is putting your subjects in good light, try turning the flash setting on and diffusing the light by putting a sheet of tissue paper over the flash. This will help to even out the patchy lighting and give balanced illumination to your photos.
Once you’ve captured your all-star photos, pull them together in a sporty Smilebox, for a quick and simple way to send them to all of your team’s number one fans! Check out this Victory on the Field Slideshow or browse all sports for more ideas.
