Tips for beginners in sports photography

Catch the right moment!

Easier said than done in a discipline like sports photography, where speed is most important. In this case, the possibility of taking pictures in series helps immensely. Many cameras allow you to take many pictures automatically by pressing the shutter release button once. Tip - see the instructions on how to set this in the camera and where the limit is. Some smaller cameras, especially compact cameras, can only take a few shots in succession - other cameras can do this best with the format JPG and not with RAW shots. Other cameras make sounds similar to a machine gun.

Here is the second tip - make sure the memory card is fast enough. There is a danger that the camera may offer great support for continuous shooting, but the memory card is too slow to store and the continuous shooting will be interrupted after just a few shots. Check the memory card to see which class it offers (Class 10 is better than Class 3). On some memory cards, the speed is directly like 80 MB/s - here it is better (as long as the digital camera supports it). If you have significantly less than 80 MB/s this can be the reason for problems with continuous shooting.

Sharpness for sports shots - many cameras have a sports mode for selection. Nothing else happens here except that a short shutter speed is set. Often (and depending on the sport) a manual adjustment is advantageous. The shutter speed setting (TV or S - depending on the camera manufacturer) is used here. Try here what fits for the sport. Sometimes a "short" shutter speed, such as 1/800 second, is sufficient for sharp pictures (see photo series soccer at https://www.foto-kurs.com/sportfotografie.php) - but there are even faster sports like tennis. Here it is possible to take a sharp shot of an impact in more than 1/1000 seconds.

The disadvantage of fast shutter speeds is that under low light conditions (i. e. bad weather, old gymnasiums,...) the pictures become too dark, even if the ISO number is appropriately adjusted (more in the section https://www.foto-kurs.com/iso-empfindlichkeit.htm).

Here, a good lens helps with cameras, one that can capture a lot of light (i. e. an aperture of 2 or less can provide).

However, blurriness is sometimes desired. Often you get particularly impressive images due to blurred backgrounds.

pull your camera with you!

Let us take racing as an example - here you can get a blurred background by dragging the camera along and not stopping the dragging motion even while triggering. You have to practice. The first prize is an impressive photo, where all concentration is focused on the sharp object as the background is blurred and blurred. It is called practicing, practicing, practicing in this area.

Sharing perspective creatively!

Go deep into your knees and turn this position into a sports shot. Here, the position creates even more tension in the photo because this perspective is unusual. Try it! Especially impressive with football (which of course works out better with a "village kick" than with a full-grown soccer tournament, because you cannot get close enough there.