Photographing tennis

gercam

gercam

Messages
420
Name
Gerry
Edit My Images
Yes
I have been asked to take photos of my godson playing tennis - action shots. I have never done this before and obviously want to get it right.

I have 70-200 f4.0, 17-55 f2.8 and a nifty fifty. What would best lens be to use and what settings? It will be outdoors. I will be using a canon 40d

Thanks in advance
 
I'm far from experienced at shooting tennis, having only shot for my tennis club's finals day once a year for the past two years, so take my advice with a pinch of salt. Firstly I'd stick with the 70-200 in order to keep a safe distance between me and the hurtling ball. I can't see a 17-55 or 50 being much fun when faced with any mis-hits. I'd be shooting at widest aperture for some subject separation through background blur and also to allow faster shutter speeds (1/1000 or faster) without raising the ISO more than would be comfortable.

I find timing the shot tricky, and shooting across court makes this even more challenging. Shooting down the court should help and will make that longer lens more valuable too.

Here are some examples, hopefully with EXIF still intact....
1.
20120916_144855_3743_LR.jpg


2.
20120916_165454_3923_LR.jpg


3.
20120916_172831_4005_LR.jpg


4.
20120916_181505_4099_LR.jpg
 
They are exactly what I am looking for thanks.


When you say shooting down the court do you mean position self in other side of net from where he is?
 
Yes. You can still shoot from the side of the court, but head maybe half way between the net and the opponent's baseline so that you are shooting more in line with the travel of the ball. This might give you a fraction more time to see the ball enter the frame and react before it has disappeared again.

Of course, this does all rather depend on your Godson's age and the speed of play.

However, try varying your position and shooting angles, but remember to stay safe. A ball hit at 100mph+ is probably not much fun if it hits you in the face or smashes into your gear.

Another option in your quest is to run a Google image search and just see what turns up. You'll probably find plenty of examples which work well and give you some ideas which you could try to reproduce.

Here are a few examples clearly shot over the net. This was a professional tournament and to take these I was in seating set off to the side along with a hundred or so other spectators, and just another spectator myself, being on holiday at the time.

20110828_125740_9515_LR.jpg


20110828_151252_9729_LR.jpg


20110828_152454_9749_LR.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thank you again. He is only 13 but plays for Scotland so he can hit hard and fast. Thank you for your help again
 
Well hopefully you'll get some cracking shots. Have fun. :)
 
Grab a coffee / beer and make just under 2 hours available and then watch this:

https://vimeo.com/47937385

It will be time well spent. Chris is currently covering the US Open, has done for 15+ years and knows his onions.

or for a fast path/taster check out his website:

http://www.photographingtennis.com/Tips.htm

I can highly recommend Chris' book especially if you are going to shoot more than once.. even with a few years experience of covering tennis I found it to be really useful and improved my images as well as my technique..

You'll certainly need the 70-200 - forget the 50mm or wide unless you are going to shoot an environmental image from a viewpoint. Keep your shutter speed up above 1/500 for slight motion blur in the hands/racquet or over 1/1000 for sharp images. Ideally you'll be at f/4 and as close to 200mm as possible to give you that fall off.

Realistically you'll be limited in where you are positioned - there won't be an overhead or rear court pit as you would see at Flushing Meadow or Roland Garros so side court with a good view of both baselines. Chris' info will help you - but your critical choice is the clean background. I typically work in Aperture Priority mode as I want to keep the background out of focus and a shallow depth of field, watching my shutter speed as the light changes... and bumping ISO if I have to.

You can check out some of mine from this years Eastbourne ATP tour event here if you like:

http://www.meonshorestudios.co.uk/b...ernational-tennis-devonshire-park-eastbourne/

It is much harder to get a clean background at a regular club environment and so choosing your position is going to be harder but it is possible. See here for an exhibition match at my local club with normal fence backgrounds..

http://www.meonshorestudios.co.uk/b...nnis-photography-pat-cash-vs-chris-wilkinson/

After that it is the basics of sports photography - ball in frame, focus on eyes, look for action and reaction. Don't stop shooting when the point ends.

Hope these help
 
Last edited:
Good advice as above.
Ive done tennis a few times.
I found tight crops on players showing face expressions works well.
But unfortunatly with tennis you see alot of the same shots.



LIVERPOOL_TENNIS_041.jpg


LIVERPOOL_TENNIS_321.jpg
 
meonshore said:
Grab a coffee / beer and make just under 2 hours available and then watch this:

https://vimeo.com/47937385

It will be time well spent. Chris is currently covering the US Open, has done for 15+ years and knows his onions.

or for a fast path/taster check out his website:

http://www.photographingtennis.com/Tips.htm

I can highly recommend Chris' book especially if you are going to shoot more than once.. even with a few years experience of covering tennis I found it to be really useful and improved my images as well as my technique..

You'll certainly need the 70-200 - forget the 50mm or wide unless you are going to shoot an environmental image from a viewpoint. Keep your shutter speed up above 1/500 for slight motion blur in the hands/racquet or over 1/1000 for sharp images. Ideally you'll be at f/4 and as close to 200mm as possible to give you that fall off.

Realistically you'll be limited in where you are positioned - there won't be an overhead or rear court pit as you would see at Flushing Meadow or Roland Garros so side court with a good view of both baselines. Chris' info will help you - but your critical choice is the clean background. I typically work in Aperture Priority mode as I want to keep the background out of focus and a shallow depth of field, watching my shutter speed as the light changes... and bumping ISO if I have to.

You can check out some of mine from this years Eastbourne ATP tour event here if you like:

http://www.meonshorestudios.co.uk/blog/2013/06/aegon-international-tennis-devonshire-park-eastbourne/

It is much harder to get a clean background at a regular club environment and so choosing your position is going to be harder but it is possible. See here for an exhibition match at my local club with normal fence backgrounds..

http://www.meonshorestudios.co.uk/blog/2009/05/exhibition-tennis-photography-pat-cash-vs-chris-wilkinson/

After that it is the basics of sports photography - ball in frame, focus on eyes, look for action and reaction. Don't stop shooting when the point ends.

Hope these help
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Have had a quick look at tips and they are exactly what I need
 
ChrisDonnelly said:
Good advice as above.
Ive done tennis a few times.
I found tight crops on players showing face expressions works well.
But unfortunatly with tennis you see alot of the same shots.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking time to reply and help
 
One of the main rules of cropping is.. dont crop at joints.. esp knees or elbows.....arrrgh chris :)
 
Did you watch the video? I did. Once you get your timing down to a fine art then hopefully single frames at a time will be good enough. That's what I found for myself once I began to improve my predictive powers. It's important to be aware of not only visual clues for timing, but also audible ones. In a rally of several strokes you can expect a rhythm to build up and the tick-tock of the ball back and forth will help you predict the next stroke, at least until someone tries to mix things up. You might also consider keeping your left eye open so that you have better awareness of the overall scene, as well as staring through the viewfinder and seeing only a narrow field of view.

However, even if you do fire off one shot at a time you might want to keep the camera set for high speed burst mode just in case an interesting sequence unfolds - especially expressions or gestures after a point is won/lost.. Just don't plan on deliberately shooting bursts all the time.
 
Last edited:
I haven't watched video as didn't have a minute today.
Thanks for all your help - taking them in about 15 mins so fingers crossed
 
You will definatly want to be shooting burst till you can read the game well enough.
 
another option is shooting down the court from the net. I'm not overly experienced myself but if you can get opposite the umpires chair down by the other side of the net and shoot at the forehand wing it makes for the best shots imho. Timing is hard but I think it captures the effort and intensity of the shots better and you don't get so much of the horrid facial expressions players tend to make when they hit the ball...!

I know these are shot at a pro event but you should be able to find a similar position:


IMG_2856 by Andrew_S84, on Flickr


IMG_3881 by Andrew_S84, on Flickr

poses after the ball has gone or before it arrives are also good (imho)


IMG_3952 by Andrew_S84, on Flickr


IMG_9327 by Andrew_S84, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Also if you can, try and get yourself a different angle

4745480770_ebeb90d965.jpg
[/url]
Summer 5 by Raglansurf, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
FWIW the OP took the images on Thursday evening around 7pm.

Looking forward to hearing how it went.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top