With the World Cup now just weeks away and Wimbledon fast approaching, sport is uppermost in many people’s minds and there’s never been a better time to get into sports photography.

While you may not be snapping the likes of Wayne Rooney or Andy Murray in action, there’s no reason why with a bit of work and a decent camera you can’t take sports photographs worthy of the pros – even if they’re just at your local hockey club or daughter’s football match.

Sports photography is a challenging art to master as the moment has passed as soon as you’ve captured it. More than any other genre of photography, timing is everything.

A few important elements to consider before you start shooting are:

1 Lighting. You will want your subject to be well-lit – especially the face. Choose a spot where the sportspeople are side or front lit so you get good lighting on the face. This is particularly important for events where headgear is worn – equestrian on cycling events, for example.

2 Background and frame. This is tricky with sports photography because your subject will be moving. Pick a simple background where your athlete will stand out – sky, sea or trees, for example. Objects such as signs or race officials in fluorescent jackets will mess up your composition and distract the eye from your subject. Take a few shots and if there’s a distracting object or person in the background, change your position. As for the frame, be wary of messing up the composition by chopping off your subject’s feet.

3 Perspective. Try to show perspective in your shot with a road line, kerb or fence that runs from the foreground to the background.
If you have a decent compact such as the Panasonic Lumix G1, it will have a Sport mode. With the G1 you have four different Sport modes – Normal Sports (the easiest mode, controlling ISO sensitivity while freezing movement and using a high shutter speed); Outdoor Sports (for football etc outdoors in good weather; fast shutter speed); Indoor Sports (badminton etc; increases the ISO sensitivity and shutter speed to stop blurring); and Creative Sports (advanced; giving you control of the shutter speed).

4 Shoot loads. Take lots of shots – with such a fast-moving subject, you’re sure to have a lot of wasted shots. Professional photographers have exactly the same problem. The more shots you take, the more decent ones you’ll get.

For a limited time, Castle Cameras can offer up to £75 cashback on the Lumix G1 and products in the Lumix G series.

Visit the online store or telephone 01202 526 606 for full details, and good luck with your sports photography!

Image credits – CCA: Paul O’Connell – Ireland Rugby by Paolo Camera; Dodgeball by Silly Army

Tags: cashback, Lumix G1, Panasonic, sports photography

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Photography news, Photography tips, Special Offer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.