Sports Photography Tips for Beginners in 2021

Capturing the thrilling sports actions is the dream of every sports photographer. You can also capture the desired photographs by following the sports photography tips for beginners.

These tips will help you out in capturing the stunning sports actions. You just need the DSLR camera with the best lens for sports photography. If you don’t have the proper equipment, it will be difficult for you to capture the high quality photos.

Make sure you have proper permission to capture the sports events. Sometimes, the management doesn’t allow photographers to capture professional photography without permission from broadcasting and media groups.

If you have the permission and proper equipment to capture the sports events, follow the sports photography tips for beginners given below.

Sports Photography Tips for Beginners

1. Know the Sporting Event

First of all, you need to understand the sporting event. There are different types of sports events like Football, Cricket, Hockey, Soccer, Baseball, etc.

Each sport has its own charm and actions. All you need is to go through proper research about the particular sports.

You can check the portfolio of professional photographers. Check out how they utilize different angles for different types of sports events.

For example, if you are covering the football event, you can easily focus the ball and expression of players. But when talking about baseball and cricket, it is difficult to focus the ball and player expression simultaneously.

You need to practice more to capture the perfect photography for every sports event.

2. Choose a Perfect Location to capture the Events

Sometimes, the ground staff and security doesn’t allow you to move all around the ground. In this case, you need to choose a specific place to capture the event.

Find a location that covers the entire ground. In most cases, the corner area of the ground it the best option but you can choose what best suits to your camera.

The best way to choose your location is to watch out the portfolio of photographers who have already covered the particular ground.

You can choose the same angle but you have to capture the images from unique angles.

3. Buy the best Camera and Lens

Equipment plays a significant role in capturing high quality photos. If you are planning to capture sports photography you need the best equipment available in the market.

Here are some of the best cameras for sports photography:

• Nikon D5 BEST DSLR
• Canon EOS Rebel T6i FOR BEGINNERS    
• Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR Camera
• Nikon D500 FOR PROFESSIONAL
• Sony a7R Mark II

If you are interested in capturing the thrilling sports actions, go for lenses that have fast Auto Focus. The Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS is one of the best camera lenses for sports photography. It has a very fast AF.

4. Use Manual Mode

Most of the photographers make this mistake. In most cases, the beginner photographers use the auto mode the capture the events. You need to use get expertise in manual mode to stand out from the crowd.

The manual mode helps in capturing the expressions of players and it will take your photography to the next level. 

5. Utilize Fast Shutter Speed

You need to use the fast shutter speed to capture the quickly moving objects. Football, Cricket, Marathon race, etc need a camera with fast shutter speed.

You need a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second to freeze the movement of the player. If you are using a camera with low shutter speed, you will end up with low quality images.  

6. Take lots of Photos

You need to capture the maximum number of photos when talking about sports photography. To capture a fast moving object, you have to click the button several time in a second. 

Once you have the object to capture, half hold the shutter button to focus and hold down the button to start capturing the photos.

You can immediately check images on the screen of the camera. Delete the rough images to get more memory in your card.

‘You should have the maximum number of photos at the end of the event. Try to capture the images in the RAW format. If you capture in RAW format, you can easily edit photos according to your requirements. 

Conclusion

There are many other tips. You will keep on learning once you start your career in sports photography. Follow the top photographers on social media. 

Check out what strategies they are using to capture the sport events. The one last tip I can give to beginners is to be consistent. 

Without consistency, you can never be a great sports photographer. Take as many photos as possible. Improve your skills by sharing your photos in different Facebook groups and ask for improvements. 

I hope these Sports Photography Tips for Beginners will help you out in capturing the perfect sports photos. Share with the community around you if you find this article helpful.

More Sports Photography Tips on Reddit

Here are some extra sports photography tips I got from the Reddit Photography community.

I really want to upgrade to 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens someday, but if you’re just starting out, go with the f/4 version. You’ll still get good shots and it’s about $400 cheaper than the 2.8.

You need different techniques and equipment when shooting indoor sports like basketball or volleyball. Unless you’re shooting in a top tier college or professional stadium, the lighting is always gonna suck.

I typically shoot at 1/1250 with 3200 ISO at the basketball stadium near me. Although if you get the 2.8 lens from above that’ll help things out a little bit.

Knowing the sport is very important to getting good shots. Some sports you will do well by just following the ball to get good shots.

Other sports (like football) you might be better off picking one individual player at a time and following him throughout the play.

If you know the game well and know who to follow, you can get some great shots, like in the football example you can get the ball mid air inches from the hands of the receiver.

Don’t stop shooting a player once the ball leaves their hands. This is more for like baseball or basketball when someone is making a shot, but keep shooting for a few more seconds, because that’s usually how you’ll get some great emotions and reactions.

In a similar vein, keep an eye on the bench. The women’s basketball team I shoot has a very expressive and reactive bench, so I have gotten some great emotional reactions from them after a big play

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