Catching The Action: Photographing Youth Sports

Using a faster shutter speed ensures stopping the motion of the ball as it hits the bat.

The next issue to contend with is the backgrounds.  Youth sporting events take place in parks, at schools, or in other places where the background is less than pleasing.  It could be a parking lot, a building, or you may just have  a lot of spectators in the background that can cause your subject to get lost in the mess. Photographers have two options here.  The first is to move to an area where the backgrounds are cleaner.  Since that may not be an option, the second becomes much more important.  Shoot your images at the widest aperture possible with the lens you are using.

Pro sports photographers typically use wide aperture lenses with apertures of f/2.8 and f/4 for a variety of reasons.  One reason is because they allow  more light into the camera, thus allowing for faster shutter speeds. The second reason is that a wide aperture creates a shallow depth of field- meaning while your subject will be sharp, the background will be nicely blurred, eliminating distractions.

Lens choice is another important part of the equation when shooting sports.  Not everyone will have access to a 400mm f/2.8 lens, but great sports shots can be captured with a variety of lenses- not just the big telephotos.  A 70-300mm zoom lens, which is typically one of the more popular telephoto lenses available, makes a great choice for shooting you sports.  While not as fast as a lens with an f/2.8 aperture, as long as the light is good enough to get a fast shutter speed, these lenses do just fine.  The 300mm focal length will get you enough reach to get closer to the action, but remember to stay disciplined.  Let the action come to you. Shooting across the field will simply result in lots of pictures where the athletes don’t fill the frame, and the dramatic impact is greatly diminished.  For on-field action, typically a lens with a focal length of at least 300mm will be needed. Most pros use anything from 300mm f/2.8 up to a 600mm f/4.

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