Tips on how to shoot sports needed

[Mancunian Lee]

Here's a couple of pics of my mate at a skatepark, problem was he moves so fast im lucky to get his picture let alone consider composition and whether or not its going to turn out ok.

I took these in automode, using the sports mode made them come out blurred In automode the camera pics him up ok but there's little inspiration in the pictures imo, it doesnt capture the moment nor the excitement and skill of what he does. So im basically after tips on how to get these kind of pictures looking bob on.







Here's one he took of me, i like to call it "Arsecrack and undercrackers" not one id hang on my wall but one people seem to like

 

[dazzajl]

Tips on how to shoot sports needed

If you want crisp action action, keeping the shutter speed high is your prime goal.

You need to be one step ahead to get the shutter to fire at the moment you want to capture. Knowing what's about to happen before it does gets great shots.

Small apertures and spot on focusing help to keep the background from taking over the shot as much as poss. Quite often even the best auto focus is a heartbeat behind and that's enough to kill your shot. Pre-focusing on where you think the action is going to be takes away that lag. If you're right that is.

Be prepared for a low(ish) hit rate. You will always be prone to binning 10 times more than you keep.... at the very least.

And by far the most important. Never... NEVER, take your eyes off the action as horrible, painful and frankly embarassing eye watering things can happen very quickly.

 

[Marcel]

:yuk: at that last one mate. hehehe (But loving that catchline in your sig...lol)

If he was travelling left to right, I would try Shutter Priority, 1/200, and pan with him.

Outdoor, I would try Aperture priority, throw it wide open (to get rid of the background)...assuming there was enough light to keep the shutter speeds up of course.

 

[markp]

I agree with Marcel, I think if you want to make the photos have some "action" to them, then panning with the subject so as to blur the background could work really well.

 

[Mancunian Lee]

The pan sounds like a great idea, but these things move fast and my pork pie fingers dont ill certainly try it, im down there friday night so will try panning from a distance, ill try a zoom lens rather than the kit lens so i can pan from further away, it should make it easier.

The pre focus idea is a great one and its how i got these, ill try that again too with apature priority mode on.

One alst question about 'em. I get red eye with the flash, when using the anti red eye flash the exposure always seems to set itself too long so it all goes blurry any ideas what im doing wrong here?

 

[RobertP]

The red eye reduction won't work in this situation. Not much you can do about it if using a built in flash. A flashgun on a bracket so it is away from the lens would work better. Red eye is one of the easier things to edit out though so don't worry too much.

Oh and meant to say... indoor action shots with flash is difficult. You want some blur to show there is action but you need the light of the flash as it is too dark. If you can get settings that will give you say 1/60th or faster shutter with no flash - then put the flash up for fill light you might get something.

So Manual ...high iso... wide open aperture...fastest shutter that works for poor light and fill flash (try 2nd curtain setting as you may like the effect). Just keep experimenting Then you can come back and tell us work works