Sports Photography 1 - Considerations

Sports photography is a challenging field to work in. On a technical level, the lenses required for most sports are very expensive, and to add to the difficulty, amateur photographers are likely to have only very restricted access at a professional event.

For most professional sports, an amateur photographer will have to confine themselves to the crowd along with everyone else. This can cause all manner of problems:

• The photographer is unable to move around freely
• Key moments may be interrupted by people moving around in front
• It is impossible to set up a tripod, and even a monopod may prove difficult
• The photographer may be too far back from the action, beyond the capabilities of their equipment
• Indoor lighting will be uneven and focussed on the play area

Most sports require the crowd to sit some way back from the action. Therefore, to get a shot of a player in action will require a telephoto lens with a reasonable zoom. Now the problems begin:

• Freeze-frame action requires fast shutter speeds to avoid motion blur
• Fast shutter speeds require wider aperture settings
• Telephoto lenses generally don't go wider than f5 without the cost skyrocketing

These problems can be made even more acute with indoor sports, where the artificial lighting indoors will be uneven and not suited to photography. Dimmer lighting conditions will also require lengthier exposures - but remember the problem with the tripod? With most standard kit the only solution is to crank up the ISO sensitivity, but with this comes a loss of picture quality.

Professional sports photographers overcome these difficulties by having top-quality telephoto lenses with enormous zoom capabilities, or a range of fixed prime lenses (rrp £6000 - 16000) along with access to press areas and freedom of movement around the event. They also have room to set up tripods, monpods, etc. In simple terms, they are not hampered by the many difficulties faced by the amateur photographer.

Yet it is possible for the amateur photographer to take very credible and pleasing sports shots. Over the next week or so, I will post more in this series with ideas and examples of my own work.