Sports photography

Sports photography is a special and very interesting genre of photo art. However, the photographer must have a certain skill in order to be able to catch the necessary moment, which most fully shows the intensity of the struggle or the delight of victory in the photo.

Sports photography is especially dynamic. Even if we are talking about shooting a chess game – the photo will carry powerful emotions, moods, tension. Pictures are obtained not only aesthetic, they convey a real sports spirit, lively and rich: the joys of victory, the bitterness of loss, the dramatic moments, the struggle. Most photographers dream of being in major sports, where the stars of big sport are born.

The process of sports photography
The main difference of such a photo is dynamism. It is obtained due to the instantaneous “registration” of what is happening. At each frame, the photographer has only a split second.

To get great shots you need not only to love and understand sport, but also to know it. Good knowledge of the rules and techniques of all kinds of sports helps to create spectacular and amazing pictures. If you are going to shoot any sporting event, you need to get acquainted in advance with the main provisions of this sport, take care of equipment and pick up the necessary photo accessories.

A large number of equipment can only interfere with work, and the speed of what is happening does not leave time for changing the lens or changing the location of the shooting.

Technique itself plays a very important role. Fast autofocus is very important (a suitable plot for a photo very often arises spontaneously), tracking focus (objects of our shooting are almost always in motion), good and high-aperture optics (it is necessary for blurring the background or reducing exposure), high-speed shooting mode (helps to catch the most successful phase of the movement), shutter speed (thanks to him we do not miss the moment we need).

Features sports photography
Sport is not only what happens on the court. Sport is also a team and individual training of both athletes and cycling clubs, for example. These include various games and extreme sports such as kiting, downhill skiing, skydiving or road jumping.

Of course, there are such sports where skills are completely optional, but they still assume that the photographer understands what is happening in front of him. It is impossible to make a high-quality photo report without understanding the essence of what is happening, and most importantly the photographer will find it difficult to navigate – where it is better to be, and where, on the contrary, you cannot stand.

Most of all each photographer is interested in the athlete himself, and only then everything else. “Everything else” here refers to judges and numerous spectators, emotions that are very often much more interesting than the sporting action itself, and also the surrounding reality (landscapes and scoreboard with results, the stands of the stadium and athletes awaiting their turn).

The most difficult subject – athletes. They require maximum effort from the photographer. Competitors can very quickly move around the stadium or the sports field, they almost do not stand still and do not allow the photographer how to “aim”. Reporting competition shooting is a constant search for the optimal balance between aperture and shutter speed, a constant battle for the best sharpness.

Each sport is rich in unique moments. There is a general principle: the photographer should be in the right place at the right time, and in addition – have time to press the button, releasing the shutter. Everything is solved in thousandths of a second. It is important to photograph genuine, vivid, bright emotions. Nowhere else, except perhaps for a reportage photo, can one meet so many emotional, interesting and saturated shots.