Action Photography Tips
At the risk of over simplifying you need two things to freeze action. Obviously you need some photography knowledge followed by knowledge about your sport. When I used to photograph dance competitions I learned that the younger kids would always get a running start before doing a leap and that the apex of that leap would happen quickly. Older kids took a little more effort to predict.
The photography skills include panning, knowing your camera shutter lag, focusing modes, and learning to pre-focus. Successful action photography required some practice.
Using Timing for Action Photography
Timing is a key element to great action photography. You must learn to press the shutter at the right moment so that the photograph is taken when you want it. There are two parts to this timing issue:1. Get to know your equipment! All cameras have something called “shutter lag”. Shutter lag is the time it takes for the camera to take the photograph once you press the shutter. This will vary from camera to camera. You need to do some practice shooting to get a feel for the lead time you need to have the photograph taken at the right moment.
2. Understand the action well enough to have an idea of when the action will occur at just the right moment. The second part to timing is knowing what is happening on your subject. If it is sporting action having knowledge of the sport and when great shots might occur. For auto racing, or other less predictable sports, you may need to develop a sense of where the most action will occur and when. Luck also helps.
Sports aren't the only source for action photos. Kids, pets and wildlife are also great opportunities for action photography.
Position Yourself for the Right Photograph
Another important component of action photography is being at the right spot. Some of that is a matter of simple luck and a lot of it is knowledge of your subject.
Like any marketer will tell you success is firstly based upon location, location, location. Where you position your camera is the view that your photograph will display Pick a camera position that gives you a clear view of the action, is safe, and has a background that compliments, or at a minimum, does not detract from the action.
An important part of position is to know where the light is coming from. If outdoors, the sun is generally the main light source. You don't want to pick a location where you will be shooting into the sun. While backlighting can be dramatic, it's not ideal for most action shots. Watch a few subjects pass through your selected shooting area, and see how the lighting looks.
Practice
You can master focusing and tracking a subject with the camera at home or anyplace where there is movement. Practice makes perfect. Use any event as a venue to hone your sports photography skills.
Shooting Techniques
Shutter speed is what freezes action. The shutter speed setting required to get that great picture depends on the speed of the subject, its distance from the camera, direction of travel, and the focal length of the lens you're using. (Focal length is the amount of magnification of the lens.) The faster the subject, the closer it is to the camera, and the longer the focal length, the faster the shutter speed needs to be to "freeze" the subjects motion. A subject moving directly across the field of view will require a faster shutter speed than one moving directly toward or away from the camera at the same speed.
Check out this guide page for a starting point. The best way to learn the best shutter speeds is to experiment and keep notes.
An effective way to show motion is to use a slow shutter speed and pan the camera to track the subject while you shoot. Here is how to “pan”.
- Face the spot where you want to shoot the subject, and rotate your body from the waist up while pointing the camera toward the approaching subject.
- Smoothly move the camera to track the subject. This means that the subject remains in one spot in the viewfinder
- Gently press the shutter as the subject reaches the desired spot, and continue to track the subject until the shutter has opened and closed.
If done correctly, you get a sharp image of the moving subject while the background is blurred. With the correct shutter speed the subjects hands and feet will be blurred which further increases the movement effect.
Panning will seem difficult when you first try it, but with practice, you will become good at it.
Focusing on Moving Subjects
Focusing on rapidly moving subjects can be difficult. One pro trick is to pre-focus on a point that they believe the shot should be taken and then shooting the action when the subject arrives at that point. This is much easier than trying to focus on a rapidly moving subject while trying to smoothly pan the camera. Pre-focusing works well with auto races and baseball games and is less useful with more random-moving sports like football and soccer.
Autofocusing can make action shooting easier. But you have to keep the subject in the AF target area in the viewfinder, or the camera won't autofocus on it. Depending upon your camera you may have various Autofocus modes.
Many photographers will say that the best AF mode for action shooting is continuous predictive AF. On some cameras this is called AI focus. With predictive AF, or AI, the camera takes successive focus readings of the moving subject, and from these, calculates its speed and direction. The camera then adjusts the focus for the subject's predicted position at the instant of exposure. The idea is to compensate for the distance the subject moves during the brief delay between the instant you depress the shutter button, and the instant the exposure is actually made. If your camera just has single-shot AF, you can still shoot action, but you'll get fewer sharp pictures, because the moving subject might not be at the same distance when the picture is taken.
When using predictive AF, track the subject with the camera, press the shutter button halfway down to activate the AF system, then press
the shutter button all the way down when you want to take the photograph. This approach gives the AF system time to acquire the subject and do its predictive calculations. Suddenly pressing the shutter button at the instant you want to shoot, the AF system might not have enough time to focus on the subject before the exposure is made.
Another mode on your camera may be continuous focus. Continuous focus tells the camera to continue to focus as long as the shutter button is depressed.
The more you practice action techniques, the better you'll get at shooting action subjects.
Practice Practice Practice
Go to the local park and photograph any action. If you are at an amusement park try photographing the rides at different shutter speeds on the rides. Go out and photograph the action subjects you want to photograph (your kids' sports activities, or whatever you like).
Equipment Notes
To photograph action like a pro, you need an SLR camera and a good telephoto lens. A “good” telephoto lens will have a low minimum aperture. F4 or faster. Remember, when we are talking about f-stops the smaller the number the better the lens. These lens are expensive.
Fortunately, you don't need the best equipment to get great shots. A fast lens will help you get better shots, but even an inexpensive lens will often deliver great shots with a photographer who knows how to use it.
A tripod or monopod is always a good idea. This accessory can hold the camera steadier than you can.
Good Luck