Hi everyone, and welcome to today’s video in which I’m going to give a few tips when it comes to sports photography camera settings. The aim here is to get you off any auto setting – including those auto “sports” settings some cameras have – and into using shutter priority or even full manual mode!
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As always, I want to caveat this by saying, while I have been doing this for 7 or 8 years, this is purely my experience and my opinion. There will be some pros out there who do things differently, but this is how I do it and this is how I think you can get shooting sports really quickly when it comes to camera settings.
So, let’s jump into it.
Speed
Okay, first thing is first. When you’re shooting sports, you’re nearly always going to want a quick shutter speed. This is certainly true of action shots in sports such as football/soccer, rugby, hockey, baseball, cricket, tennis, swimming, diving, horse racing, most athletics and pretty much all motorsport.
Why is speed so important? Because you want to freeze the subject in that moment and you want that shot to be as crisp and sharp as possible.
The setting for this is your shutter speed. This is the number you see, usually in the top right hand corner of your display on your camera, which looks like this 1/25, 1/100, 1/500 or even like this 1/5000.
And the higher the number to the right of the forward stroke, the quicker the shutter speed.
Now there are times when you will want to experiment with a slower shutter speed or do something a bit more creative or artisitic, but let’s forget all that for now. If you want sharp action photos, you’re gonna need to get your shutter speed up.
I once read an article – well, I’ve seen it written a few times, that 1/500 is fine for most sports. Seriously, that’s on quite a few beginner articles on the internet and on forums. I disagree.
My starting point for any action sport is 1/1000.
If I can go higher, I will.
If I have to go lower, then I will reluctantly do so. But that’s my starting point.
Light
So, we’re aiming to get the shutter speed nice and high. If you’re familiar with the exposure triangle or just some photography basics (it’s no problem if you’re not), then you may know that the quicker your shutter is the less light is getting to your sensor. The less light, the darker the photo – i.e. your shot will be under exposed
So, you’ll need to compensate for the fast shutter speed by letting more light into the camera. You do this by using one of two things – aperture or ISO.
So, aperture. Also known as your f number. The lower the f number, the bigger the aperture – yeah, confusing at first isn’t it. But the bigger the aperture, the more light you get into your camera.
Also, aperture is what controls the depth of field. So when you see shots with lovely creamy backgrounds, known as bokeh, that’s a nice low f number/ large aperture producing that thanks to a really shallow depth of field.
ISO is your camera sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the brighter the image will be, however, it will introduce noise the higher you go as well, so I try to keep this low if I can. The better/newer the camera, the better noise reduction technology it will have and so the higher ISO levels wont introduce as much nosie.
Anyway, let’s not get too complicated.
So, aim for a balance of quick shutter speed – low f number and then use the ISO to balance the exposure out.
There are two camera settings that I’d use for this.
The first, is Shutter priority – on Canon bodies, this is AV and on Nikon bodies it’s a simple S on the exposure mode wheel.
This setting allows you to pick your shutter speed and then the camera will figure out the aperture and ISO itself, leaving you to focus on shooting.
The other setting you can use is full manual. Now, weirdly, this is my preference. I know I make extra work for myself, but it lets me feel totally in control. Anyway, it’s personal preference like so much in life! There are also all sorts of conditions – such as highly contrasting shadows, when I may reconsider this, but as a rule, I like manual.
So, if I were starting out at shooting sports tomorrow, id probably start with shutter priority mode. If you’re shooting in good light, go ahead and take the shutter to 1/1000 or 1/1600 or something and see what the camera produces.
If the images have a lot of noise, perhaps try reducing that shutter down. You’ll begin to get a feel for what your camera can produce in different settings and at different speeds.
As you get more confident, you can start to experiment with full manual mode so that you can see what impact changing settings has on your photos.
Focus
Focussing is really important. You’re going to want to select AL-Servo focus mode. Check your manual if you’re not sure where to find this. In Canon it’s called Al-Servo, on Nikon it’s AF-C. I’m not sure what it is in Sony, however…
It’s essentially a continuous auto-focus mode. So look for the conintuous autofocus option in your camera if Al Servo or AF-C are not relevant.
What Al servo does it allows you to be continually focussing on a Subject as it moves by holding the shutter button halfway down. So, in football for example, as a player runs with the ball toward you, if you are in Al-servo and have the shutter button pressed down halfway, the camera will continually tweak the focus so the player is also in focus.
Same for any other sports (or anything actually). It’s an invaluable tool and one I definitely recommend. This is what is going to help you get those sharp images in action sports.
As for focus point, I generally stick to a single focus point, often the one in dead centre. I know some people will choose otherwise, but this is what I started with 7 or 8 years ago and it’s what Ive got used to. It allows me to be nice and precise with my focussing and who I’m focussing on.
It does mean for sports that I’m often focussing on a player’s chest. I find that to be absolutely fine and a lot easier than trying to focus on their face or even another part of their body which moves even more. Think of rugby, cricket or basketball for example – the arms and hands can be moving everywhere, so there’s little chance of you focussing on those, especially if you’re new to the sports photography game. So, keep it simple and focus on the chest/body.
You can move the focus point to another if you wish, maybe a touch higher. There are also automatic selections and other options with most bodies, but see what you’re most comfortable with and work from there.
BURST MODE
You’re going to want to make sure your camera is setup for shooting a burst of shots if you’re shooting action. Most camera have a burst mode or similar. I think on Canon, iut’s literally called burst mode.
The number of shots you can shoot per second, as well as how many you can shoot continuously will depend on the camera body you’re using. Generally, those more expensive top end bodies will be the ones shooting anything from 8-10 frames per second up to 30 frames per second like we see on the new Canon R3.
Focussing case
Finally, there is one other thing you can amend if you’re shooting sports which will help you with your auto focus. On Canon, they call these autofocus cases and theyre essentially some presets which determine how your camera focuses on subjects. If you feel ready, take a look in your camera instruction manual to find out what each of these do, but ill record another video shortly to explain those in more detail!
So as far as settings go, they are my recommendations if you’re just getting into sports photography.
Please, let me know how you get
