Sports Photography

whyulittle

A quick question for Paul, Peader and any other sports photographers on here.

What's your brief when you cover a sports event, say in particular a football match? What do papers want?

Is it a good quality action shot, celebration shot or what? Is the action shot better to feature a goalscorer over another player? Do you shoot all players to have them on file in case you want them, or do you be more specific? Do you send a selection of different shots into the paper at the end?

I'm just curious as I probably try and cover too much when I'm at a match.

Ricky91t

Would like to find out about this
But i was going to ask a local newspaper photograher.
I have never got any photos in a newspaper
But i think it would be action more than anything
But i could be totally wrong
And i probably am
Iv got a few photos on flickr this is my first attemps at sports photography
Id love to get job in this
Flickr sports set
p.s why dont you look on there flickr profiles

Paulw

Peadar is probably better able to answer.

I've never submitted any photos to print yet. I'm currently just building up experience and a portfolio.

In general, they look for good clear action shots. Clear faces and visible action. Second to that comes the actual scoring or also the celebration of same.

soccerc

whyulittle wrote: »

A quick question for Paul, Peader and any other sports photographers on here.

These will give you an idea of what picture editors are looking for,

Ireland V Wales

St Patrick's Ath V Odense - UEFA Cup

Ricky91t

Paulw wrote: »

Peadar is probably better able to answer.

I've never submitted any photos to print yet. I'm currently just building up experience and a portfolio.

In general, they look for good clear action shots. Clear faces and visible action. Second to that comes the actual scoring or also the celebration of same.

I thought you would of had these printed in news papers some are very good!
Do you get press passes for these matches as alot of your shots look like they were taken from the sideline

Chochese

Check out the Getty Images sports library and see what type of shots the pros deliver. These are the shots you see in your national daily papers.

I can only imagine a fast lens is a must. Backgrounds can be distracting and busy if they're not successfully thrown of of focus due to the shallow DOF.

Calina

Man you shouldn't have posted that. Now I wish I was here....

Paulw

ricky91t wrote: »

I thought you would of had these printed in news papers some are very good!
Do you get press passes for these matches as alot of your shots look like they were taken from the sideline

Thanks for that. Yeah, I've press access for the matches. I do think some are good enough for print, but I'm personally not ready quite yet to start submitting. Each game I feel more and more confident.

A fast lens is certainly a must. You need a f/2.8 for sure.

I've actually taken a selection of mine, and submitted them to Getty, to join as a freelance associate. I'll wait and see what they say.

whyulittle

Thanks for the replies. That was actually another thing I meant to ask. How difficult is it to get photos accepted if you are not with Sportsfile or Inpho?

Paulw

It all depends. There's no set rule to getting access. Sometimes it helps to know the team members, sometimes it's useful to know someone high in the club, sometimes you just contact their PR person, or sometimes you need to be registered with an accreditation organisation, or with a recognised press organisation.

whyulittle

Oh I can get a press pass no bother for the eL, I meant the papers entertaining you if you're not with Inpho or Sportsfile or whoever.

Paulw

There are a good few freelance photographers out there, who submit to the papers and other organisations. You just have to submit and hope. The papers just want the best photo.

City-Exile

Basically, papers want action, two players & a ball.
Goal celebrations are always good.
The thing is, the bigger the event, the less likely you are to be in a position to compete with the agencies.
If you cover local games, you should get team shots, action shots & goal celebrations.
Here's an example of a game I covered today.

AnCatDubh

Calina wrote: »

Man you shouldn't have posted that. Now I wish I was here....

Pardon me for pointing it out but on review of some of your posts i think (IMHO) that you should be there too !

Cheers.

whyulittle

Thanks Peader.

By the way, and open to anyone who has either lens, is it worth spending the extra 350 or so on the IS version of the f2.8 70-200mm? Where does the IS really come into its own?

City-Exile

I never use IS.
Have the use of a non-IS version of the 70-200 & it's perfect as I usually shoot with high shutter speeds.

Paulw

While I have the IS version, I seldom use the IS, especially during sports events. High shutter speed does it for me.

whyulittle

But say even for non sport stuff, is the IS worth it? I was reading somewhere that the benefit of IS doesn't really kick until you get to 300mm.

Not going to pay for it just for the sake of having it, but at the same time when I'm going to get one or the other, may as well get the best overall.

Ricky91t

whyulittle wrote: »

But say even for non sport stuff, is the IS worth it? I was reading somewhere that the benefit of IS doesn't really kick until you get to 300mm.

Not going to pay for it just for the sake of having it, but at the same time when I'm going to get one or the other, may as well get the best overall.

I know im not using the 70-200 2.8 but i have a 90-300 and at 300 its f/5.6 i think this lense is good never got much camera shake and get good pics well except for the lense being abit soft.300mm pics.Iv always used this lense for sports during the day time and the only reason im upgrading to a 70-200 f/4 is the "L" glass you get in it which will make photos more sharp.I dont really see a need for IS on a f/4 during the day so an f/2.8 with IS would'nt be used to much as paulw says

Ricky91t

City-Exile wrote: »

Basically, papers want action, two players & a ball.
Goal celebrations are always good.
The thing is, the bigger the event, the less likely you are to be in a position to compete with the agencies.
If you cover local games, you should get team shots, action shots & goal celebrations.
Here's an example of a game I covered today.

Hey just looked at these photos
They look like they have alot of noise?
But it doesnt look like noise..Is it rain

City-Exile

High ISO, because it was virtually dark towards the end of the second half.
So dark infact, the ref. & the linesman both missed a blatant handball.
The image sharpening also increases the appearance of noise.

Ricky91t

City-Exile wrote: »

High ISO, because it was virtually dark towards the end of the second half.
So dark infact, the ref. & the linesman both missed a blatant handball.
The image sharpening also increases the appearance of noise.

Oh i see hate when it goes dark
Other than that nice photos
And a nice lens to take them with

kenwood

Paul and City Exile mentioned "high shutter speeds". I think this is where I'm going wrong. I have read a lot about but still seem to be getting it wrong most of the time.
Can someone clarify what is an acceptable high shutter speed? I know this is a complicated question but in kind of layman's language..............

I submitted a few photos of our club long puck to a local evening newspaper and they were accepted. I was bloody thrilled!!!!!!!!
Just keep on trying and eventually they might use them.

Paulw

The shutter speed will depend on the camera body and the lens.

To freeze action, you want to set a shutter speed that is 1/focal distance.

So ... 70-200mm lens, at 200mm, on a 40D (1.6 crop), means 200x1.6=320

You want a shutter speed faster than 1/320 (min 1/400 really). So, anything faster than that will freeze the action.

Another example - 300mm lens on 40D is 300*1.6=480, so shutter speed should be faster than 1/500.

The faster the better really. And to get a faster shutter speed you may need to increase the ISO. You will also want to set your camera in Shutter Priority (Tv) to set the shutter speed. The aperture is less important in this case. Or, you can set the camera to Manual, and set the shutter speed and aperture (as low as you can usually).

Does that help?

Covey

Paulw wrote: »

The shutter speed will depend on the camera body and the lens.

To freeze action, you want to set a shutter speed that is 1/focal distance.

So ... 70-200mm lens, at 200mm, on a 40D (1.6 crop), means 200x1.6=320

You want a shutter speed faster than 1/320 (min 1/400 really). So, anything faster than that will freeze the action.

Another example - 300mm lens on 40D is 300*1.6=480, so shutter speed should be faster than 1/500.

The faster the better really. And to get a faster shutter speed you may need to increase the ISO. You will also want to set your camera in Shutter Priority (Tv) to set the shutter speed. The aperture is less important in this case. Or, you can set the camera to Manual, and set the shutter speed and aperture (as low as you can usually).

Does that help?

Id' go with that generally, though technically the digital crop factor (1,6) is irrelevant in the calculation afaik.

.

Paulw

You could very well be right.

Personally, I always try for the highest shutter speed I can get, so would normally start at 1/400 and try for faster.

I bump the ISO as high as I need for that, and since I mostly shoot raw, I've an extra 2 stops to play with later. A quite dark image on the camera is fine when processed on the PC.

For most of the floodlit rugby games, I can get 1/500 with ISO 1600 on the 20D and 1/640 with ISO 1000 on the 40D.

It really is a matter of trial and error, and will very much depend on the light.

kenwood

Thanks guys, that is a brilliant advice. As a rule of thumb, the shutter speed should be about double the focal length so.

I'm using the trusty 350D. Lens now is the 70-200mm 2.8L, (good oul Santa), upgraded from the 70-300mm. I'm going to make a serious effort when the GAA season begins to improve on my skills.