Sports photography

A typical sports picture. Notice the compression of perspective and loss of depth of field due to the long lens.

Photographer on the sideline of an American football game with multiple cameras, long lenses, and monopods.

Sports photography refers to the genre of photography that covers all types of sports.

In the majority of cases, it is a branch of photojournalism.

The main application of sports photography is for editorial purposes; dedicated sports photographers usually work for newspapers, major wire agencies or dedicated sports magazines.

Equipment

The equipment used by a professional photographer usually includes a fast telephoto lens and a camera that has an extremely fast shutter speed that can rapidly take pictures. In general, monopods are used as well, in order to support the weight of the camera and heavy lenses. In addition, it may help stabilise the camera.

Camera Bodies

Common bodies for the modern sport photographer are those with an excellent focussing ability, and a high shutter frame rate (usually 8 frame/s or faster). The two main camera bodies uses by professional sports photographers are the Nikon D3 and the Canon 1D-series.

Lenses

Sport photography requires long fast lenses. Apertures of f/2.8 or faster are usually used, with the most common lens being the 400mm f/2.8. A sports photographer may also use 15mm Fisheye, 16-35mm, 70-200mm and 300mm lenses. For larger field sports such as football and soccer, a 400mm f/2.8 is used for about 99% of the pictures. Golf photographers may use a 500mm f/4 as opposed to a 400mm f/2.8 as it is a lighter lens to be carrying around all day.

Such wide apertures are required for a number of reasons:

• The background is put drastically out of focus, resulting in better subject isolation.
• The lenses can focus more quickly due to the increase in light entering the lens - important with fast-moving action.
• Faster shutter speeds can be used in order to freeze the action.

Remote Cameras

Sports photographers may use remote cameras triggered by Pocket Wizards to photograph from places they could not otherwise be, such as on a basketball basket, or to be in two places at once, such as at horse racing.

Location

Unlike some other photography fields, location is very important, in order to get the best possible shots. At big events, professional photographers usually have VIP spots with the best views. These locations tend to have the best scenic background and to be near to the subjects as well, allowing them to use medium sized lenses. A sport photographer has to be able to stand, sit, kneel or lay down for long periods of time, and always have to look for some kind of action and be ready to press the shutter. Because most of sport events are held outside, light conditions change frequently. A sport photographer must be quick enough to change the camera settings on the fly before shooting.