Sports photography demands practice but can be rewarding.
Sports photographers need to catch athletes at their best. Oftentimes, only a few moments best sum up a specific sporting event, and it is a sports photographer's job to capture that.
Function
Practice is important. Take pictures at indoor and outdoor sporting events. It is also important to know the sport you are shooting. Know the rules and when the circumstances make a big play probable. A sports photographer needs to be ready and use fast sport action to his advantage, not his detriment.
Camera Features
It is important to use the correct shutter speed relative to the amount of movement and light you are shooting. For high action night events, you will need a camera and lens that can shoot at 1/500 shutter speed or more, a high ISO and a wide aperture. The shutter speed associated with someone walking is around 1/30; running athletes and flying balls demand shutter speeds in the hundredths of a second.
Equipment
Snapshot digital cameras usually do not work very well to photograph sporting events because of their delay in focus time and relatively low pixel count. Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras are a good choice because you can change lenses and the camera is more functional. Also, because most sports have fast movement, a tripod can be important to use.
Tags: shutter speed, sporting events, sports photographer