A Guide To Capturing And Editing Sports Photography

Sports photography is a great way and potential source of revenue for the photography business. If you are planning to be a successful sports photographer, then the good news is, there’s plenty of opportunities for you to generate a good income through sports photography.

Hence, the opportunities for sports photographers aren’t limited as they have so many scopes to gain from their photography skills. Here comes the most important thing, which is to achieve the skills & techniques of sports photography. To flourish the success, all you’ll need to do is to achieve these skills & techniques.

To make your journey as a learner of sports photography easier, we’ve brought you the best guide for sports photography and editing. Before we get into that, let’s have a clear-cut definition of sports photography.

What is Sports Photography?

Sports photography refers to the genre of photography that covers only sports, games, and any kind of athletics-related events.

Sports photographers typically work in newspapers, magazines, and TV channels. But their working area is not limited to media outlets. Freelancing is another prominent work area where they can sell their photos.

Sports photographers shoot photos while running the game, which is pretty challenging. Photographers take their shots from a particular distance depending on the sport. But typically they are given their position between the sports field and gallery.

Strategy for Capturing Sports Photography

It has never been an easy job to capture sports photography. To do this successfully, you’ll need to be prepared enough to capture the right moment instantly. Because in sports photography, there is very little that you can control.

Even sometimes, everything can be out of your control, and you are required to shoot the photo at the perfect time. That means most of the time you’ll have no chance to reshoot or retake.

So firstly, you always need to keep this in your mind. All of your success depends on how you can manage everything in this critical situation. It can be impossible to successfully capture sports photography unless you have a strategy plan and complete preparation.

Here I am going to explain all the strategies that you must apply to capture sports photography.

Choose the Right Camera Settings

Your strategy should be built based on the proper camera setting for sports/action photography. Go early to the venue before the game starts with the all-set camera settings. Do homework and study about the sport/game that you are going to cover. Because the proper camera setting depends on that.

The camera setting differs depending on the type of sport. Make sure that your camera setting is right for the sport that you are about to cover. To do this, make an analysis of the game and how dynamic the game is? Do you need fast action shots or slower ones? What is the schedule of the game? Is it morning, noon, afternoon, dusk, or night?

The answers to these questions will determine your camera setting which is possibly the right camera setting for the game you want to cover.

Harmonize ISO Setting with shutter speed 

Your camera setting needs to be harmonized by the ISO setting and shutter speed. Shutter speed is the most important factor in action photography. Higher shutter speed is commonly used to capture action photography/sports.

To work with a higher shutter speed, you will have to harmonize that with a higher ISO setting too. Otherwise, photos can be blurry. Typically, sports photographers use around 1/1000 shutter speed of a second to capture a fast-moving subject. Choose Shutter Priority (S) option to focus on the shutter speed.

But you may also start with a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second for comparatively less speedy actions.

Now let’s talk about the ISO setting. As you’re using a fast shutter speed, you’re supposed to raise the ISO setting. However, you need to try to set the ISO as much lower as possible to get noise-free images.

When you have no way to reduce the ISO level for a higher shutter speed, don’t compromise with the shutter speed and keep raising the ISO. Because high-speed situations like a marathon race or soccer game need a high shutter speed to freeze the moment.

In proper light, ISO 100 to 200 suits perfectly. But with extremely fast shutter speed, you’ll be forced to go above 600. That will make the image noisy, but nothing can be done so. Because remember one thing that a noisy image is better than a blurry one.

Open the Aperture Wider

When you are hardly struggling to harmonize the ISO level with the shutter speed, the aperture can be the best shield for you. Because aperture allows entering light through the camera lens. It helps greatly to reduce the ISO level.

We already know one thing that higher shutter speed is a precondition to capture fast-moving subjects such as the quick-moving bodies of the players or athletes. To use a higher shutter speed, you’ll need to open your aperture wide.  If there is more light in the camera, it allows a faster shutter speed.

Besides, reducing the ISO level for a noise-free image, a wider aperture is very helpful to catch a sufficient amount of light. So, you will need a good-quality lens that offers a wider aperture. You should have a lens that allows f/2.8 and f/4 for satisfactory output. And this is an ideal lens for professional sports photographers.

Uses of Camera Lens

The camera lens is the most crucial thing that determines everything when you are shooting sports photography. So this is very important to consider which lens you are using for sports photography. Does it allow a wider aperture and higher shutter speed?

So this is a great strategy to be prepared with advanced quality weapons! Right? I would like to mention five amazing camera lenses that are best for sports photography. Try to manage any one of the following lenses for a professional outcome.

• Canon & Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses
• Canon & Nikon 400mm f/2.8 lenses
• Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 OS Sport lens
• Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS II USM
• Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6

Knowing the Game Rules

Sports photography isn’t only about shooting images of players, athletes, and their playing. You need to know everything about the game that you are supposed to cover. Because without knowing the rules, you won’t understand what are the crucial moments that need to be captured. Plus, you’ll be so confused in every step if you don’t have a complete idea about the game. So Knowing the game rules is a must!

Timing Is So Important

We have mentioned earlier in the article that sports photography isn’t an easy job. Because this work area requires an extreme level of punctuality. So you need to be very dynamic with your camera in hand.

Newbies face more complications and ambiguities. Pay extra attention and keep focusing on the game so carefully and never lose concentration in the game. Always keep one thing in mind that once you miss any part of the game, that won’t be back again!

Sports Photo Editing Tips and Tricks

Post-production service is so important for sports photography. Because among all the shots, you’ll need to choose the best shots to make them flawless. And in this post-production spell, there’re a lot of things that you can develop and manipulate which are so helpful for sports photography.

As the photo editing companies are now available online and offering professional photo editing services at a low cost. So why don’t we take advantage of that? So, you can easily hire digital photography editing services for your sports photography business. You’ll love these photoshop services online that have a lot of things to do to increase the value of your images.

You can also edit your images on your own. A few simple photoshop tools can be so helpful to improve the quality of your sports photos. Now let’s discuss these editing tasks one by one, which are very effective for sports photography.

Crop Images to Remove Distractions

Sports photography often has so much background noise & distractions that you’ll need to remove using the crop tool in photo editing software. Photoshop allows cutting the background noise & distractions to focus the main subject of the photo.

Lighting & Exposure Editing

Sports photographers struggle too hard with lighting while shooting the image. Sometimes photos become disappointing for the lack of proper lighting. The good news is, you can adjust the lighting & exposure level in the post-production spell. Through editing lighting & exposure perfectly, you can get an unbelievable result.

Add a Vignette Effect

Adding a vignette effect to sports photography is a great idea. Because a subtle vignette effect can directly help the focal point of the photo where it is needed. So, add a vignette effect.

Using the Pen Tool

To edit sports photographs,  always use the pen tool, one of the most powerful tools in Adobe Illustrator. With this tool, you can create shapes with freeform curves and paths. Sports photography needs a fine kind of editing where a pen tool is the best friend for you.

Retouch the Photos

Retouching the photos is another essential part of sports photography editing. With this type of editing, you can greatly improve an image. Any defects like an unwanted spot or objects can easily be removed by a professional retouching service. So retouch the photos that you choose to use. You can also hire retouching services. Nowadays, it has become so available at an affordable price.

Colour Correction

Colour correction is one of the most vital sections of photo editing. This is highly effective for sports photography. Because in sports photography you’ll have little things to control. The rest of it is just out of your control. So the colour correction is so essential for sports photography because you get the chance here to adjust the colours of the image to make them as accurate as possible.

Final verdict

Here we’ve discussed all the things that you needed to know about sports photography. Try to follow all the tips and make your strategy to achieve success in this special field of photography. Experience is the most precious item to be a successful sports photographer. To be patient and keep doing it with extra care. Good luck!