EQUIPMENT
Camera. If you’re new to photography and have little knowledge about manual settings, use your "sports" setting (usually an icon showing a runner) or shutter priority. The sports button makes it easy to capture your daughter’s first wack at the ball on a tee or your son’s first kick of the soccer ball. My first digital was a Nikon D50. Early on, I found that I got just as many good shots using "sports" mode as I did on manual. Sports mode tells the camera that it’s looking at action and works to stop that action. For the more seasoned and adventurous photographer, I’ll address manual settings further down.
Lenses. Choosing the correct lens to be used during a sporting event is determined by two things: the lighting and the sport. Different sports require different lenses. Different lighting situations require different lenses.
Outside/Daytime. Field sports require reach. You need a lens that reaches at least 200mm. My absolute favorite lens for daytime sports is the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6. I use it for well-lit baseball, softball, football, and soccer games.
Indoor/Nighttime. Regardless of how good a photographer you think you are or how good you are at "tweeking" images in Photoshop, the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 will not work in low light situations. For this you’ll have to use a faster lens. My biggest lens investment for low light photography was a Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8. I use it for nighttime baseball and football. It’s a pretty heavy lens, so it is married to my monopod during night games. For basketball, I use the lighter prime Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 (this is a perfect portrait lens too).
Memory/Compact Flash Cards. The size of your memory card is a matter of taste. Some photographers prefer to use several 1GB or 2GB cards, switching them out throughout a game. Using multiple cards has its advantages, the biggest of which is the chance of losing more images should the card become defective. My personal preference is an 8GB ScanDisk Extreme IV Compact Flash which gives good speed and performance and generally enough memory to cover more than one game. Tip: Instead of deleting images, always format your card each time you use it. But make sure you format it using the camera and not your computer. This will help correct any disk errors that may have occurred during its last use.
CAMERA SETTINGS
Image Quality. I shoot everything in RAW, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SPORTS. RAW tells the camera to collect a lot of data that can be manipulated more readily during post-processing, but RAW also clutters the camera’s processor. It slows it down. Shooting in JPG helps avoid processor or shutter lag, which can cause you to miss the shot.
Exposure Settings - ISO. ISO is the camera’s sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO, the higher the light, which is a good thing; but the higher the ISO, the grainer (more pixilation) the image quality too. It’s always a battle to get the right settings. My objective during any game is to keep the ISO as low as possible. If I’m shooting a day game, I try to begin with an ISO of 200 or 400. As the light fades or skies become cloudy, it’s necessary to increase the ISO. A nighttime or indoor game usually requires an ISO of 3200 (or higher). Tip: One wonderful secret I’ve learned is Auto ISO. Games are never static, they are constantly moving and changing, as is daylight. I’ve gotten into the habit of using Auto ISO during daytime sports especially because it allows automatic lighting adjustments as players run from shadows into sunshine. No photographer can make those adjustments when shooting a burst, but the camera can. Auto ISO allows the camera to adjust the ISO based on lighting conditions while maintaining a constant shutter speed/aperture combination. It’s great for sports photography.
Exposure Settings - Shutter Speed. The main concern in shooting sports is shutter speed. Your shutter has to be fast enough to stop the action. Shutter Speed is how long the camera shutter remains open to allow light onto the sensor. Rule to Remember: If your shutter speed is slower than the reciprocal of the focal length of your lens, you must use a tripod. For example, if you’re using a 300mm lens to photograph a landscape, your shutter speed must exceed 1/300 per second (it should be 1/320 or faster), if not, you should use a tripod. If your subject is moving (sports), you should double the shutter speed (1/600 or faster). If your subject is fast moving (boat or plane), you should triple the shutter speed (1/1000 or faster). You also need faster shutter speed to compensate for any camera shake. I generally triple my shutter speed to at least 1/1000 because we have some pretty fast players at Leroy and I move a lot.
Exposure Settings - Aperture. Aperture refers to the size of the opening of the lens that the light must go through to reach the sensor. It is measured in f-stops. The numbers represent the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the lens diaphragm opening. That's why it's called an focal number. The designation "f/2" means that the diameter of the aperture is 1/2 the focal length of the lens. The designation f/32 means that the diameter of the aperture is 1/32 the focal length of the lens. The aperture controls the depth of the image (f/2 will soften everything around the subject and f/32 will sharpen everything around the subject). Increasing aperture (lower f/stop) will decrease depth of field. Decreasing aperture (higher f/stop) will increase depth of field. I generally like using the lower f-stops (f/4 is a good) because it decreases the depth of field and gives that creamy background, isolating the subject, but a shallow depth of field is not always practical in sports. There’s a balance. For example, if I’m shooting a baseball game and focusing on the batter or pitcher, I want a smaller f-stop in order to keep the background unfocused and uncluttered, BUT, if the ball is hit to the outfield and I want to capture the rightfielder diving for it, I’m going to have to increase the f-stop (to at least f/6.3 or f/7.1) in order to have a deeper depth of field. That happens in an instant, so you better be ready to increase the f-stop by knowing your camera well enough to make a quick adjustment. This takes a lot of practice, but is well worth it when mastered.
Spot Metering. While I generally use Matrix Metering, there are times that I have to change to Spot Metering, especially if the players are dark skinned, wearing white jerseys. Spot metering the face will generally pull out the facial features from shadows, especially if the player is backlit.
White Balance. White balance is always tricky, but I’ve found that Auto works best 90 percent of the time. If you find your photos are too orange or blue, they are probably being influenced by the lighting. Try playing around with the Kelvin Scale. Sometimes it’s easy just to ask the videographer standing next to you what settings he/she is using.
Focus Adjustment - Release Mode. Make sure your camera is set to continuous shutter. My Nikon has two continuous settings, CL (continuous low speed) and CH (continuous high speed). CH allows me to take up to 6 frames per second (fps), which number can be increased to 8 fps using a multi-power battery grip.
Focus Adjustment - Focus Mode. Make sure your focus mode is set to C (continuous servo AF), which focuses continuously while the shutter-release button is pressed halfway. If the subject moves, the camera will engage predictive focus tracking to predict the final distance to subject and adjust focus as necessary.
Focus Adjustment - Area Mode. When using Continuous Servo AF, I generally select 21 focus points and use Dynamic Area AF. If my subject briefly leaves one of the selected focus points, the camera will focus based on information from surrounding points.
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