Most sports photographers use lenses around f/2.8. This will give you a lot of light, but shallow depth of field, meaning that this is great for 1 person, and give you a lot cleaner background. But for example a hockey player will give you a sharp face and a big part of the body in focus. but the stick or opponent will be out of focus, this can give a great effect and focus the attention on the one player instead of the whole scene. But the difficult thing about this is, when you have a fast moving subject our AF system just has to get in a very small bit out of focus and your short is immediately useless.

So when use apertures around f/2.8 or f/2. For 1 person, or when you want the focus only on 1 person. or of course when there is less light available. For a group shot, you need apertures around f/8 or maybe even higher to get everything in focus. Be aware that the background will also be in focus, so a good clean background is important in this situation.

Personally i shoot a lot of f/4, but love the effect of f/2.8. Knowing your camera in and out will help you to switch between apertures without watching, this give you both great photos in f/4 (which is a lot easier than f/2.8) but also makes great portraits or solo action in f/2.8.

When shooting indoor the most important part is the available light, you are almost never allowed to shoot with flash, and indoor lightning is never as good as sun or just outside light. You probably want to shoot f/2.8 here or maybe even f/2. Be aware of what you shoot, since your a limited to these apertures and cannot shoot complete groups of fast moving objects. try to focus on 1 target and work your creativity on this.

Good luck shooting!!

Shot at a f/2.8 aperture

Shot at f/4 background is not really clean

A blurry bit underexposed background give a good separation

Shoot in high apertures

Shooting F/2.8 or F/2 will give you excellent blurry background, this way your subject will really pop out and the distractive background will be almost invisible. The hard thing to this is that your shoot is hard to get sharp on the full body of the athlete. If you are shooting offense/defense action its hard to get 2 persons in focus. This is why this does not always work.

Choose a standpoint with a clean open background

Shooting towards clean or structured backgrounds will give you better shots. think of a open field, a part of woods, a empty or filled stadium will do as well. Be aware that a pretty high aperture is required for this to work. probably somewhere maximum to F/4. Personally i love to get a big crowd in the background. with a well exposed subject and a bit underexposed background will give you perfect separation. Getting this the other way around will give you problems.

The spectators in the back are a pretty big distraction

Choose a standpoint with lower chance of players in the background

When you are shooting from the sidelines you often get more chance on a player-less background. Players are often pretty close and wont get blurry by a high aperture, or at least not blurry enough. Shooting from different positions will give you more possibility on clean photos.

A higher perspective

Choosing a higher perspective gives you a awesome background of the field in the back. this way you often have no other players behind the player. the downside to this is that you don’t catch a idea of the field or filled stadium or anything. But this is sure the easiest way to get a clean background.

In this shot i think the distractive background is a good thing.

Blur your background in Photoshop

The other last solution is blur out the background in photoshop. the best way is to duplicate a layer. Gaussian blur the bottom layer and cut out the player. using the feather tool in photoshop will give you a nice even fade to blurry and a more natural look. Be careful do not over-do this. natural shots are important!

.

There are a lot of moments of pain in a match tackling another player, a hockey stick hitting someones face by accident or not. A aggressive fight during ice hockey, or a group of cyclers falling in the middle of a big hard corner. These can give amazing spectacular photos. only keep one thing in mind, be respectful!

But other 2 amazing parts of sports are power and happiness. the shot above this post for example, this is a great photo where the power is key! you don’t see the ball or anything, the amazing things about it is just pure power! But not only power of shooting, but also of running, checking a ice hockey player to the boardings or a sprint of big muscled athlete. Most of the times a moment of power is followed by a moment of happiness. Do not only shoot the shot in the goal but also the celebration!

Football Photography – Introduction

Introduction to a series of videos about the basics of football photography. By Scott Sewell

Exposure