Want To Become A Sport Photographer?
So, you want to become a sport photographer? It's definitely possible if you have the drive and the right equipment. The personal skills and actual camera and gear needed for sport photography are actually quite unique within the various professional photography fields. That is, even an accomplished studio photographer might struggle when it comes to taking photos at a live sporting event. This article explains some of the things that make sports photography unique, and what equipment you should invest in if you're trying to get started.
Know What You Are Shooting
Whether you are photographing pee-wee football, high school football, or the NFL, you need to have an eye for what you are shooting. So, it is helpful, but not necessary, to have an understanding of the sport you are shooting. This is extremely important because athletes are not going to take any direction from you. So, if you can predict where there going to be, what direction they're going to be facing, where the lighting will be ideal, and a number of other uncontrollable factors, you can end up with far better results. A professional soccer photographer might show up at ice hockey game and not be able to get any good shots if he doesn't understand the game.
Fast Auto-Focus
There are couple of things you should definitely look for when shopping for cameras and lenses for sports photography. Perhaps the most important thing is having a camera and lens combination that has fast auto-focusing. First of all, you usually get the best results if you buy lenses that are the same brand as the camera body. So, use a Sony land if you have a Sony body.
High Frames Per Second
You also want to camera body that shoot continuous frames per second (fps) at a high rate. Anything above 10 fps is great, but some newer cameras boast over 20 fps. This high rate will allow you to capture the perfect moment. Since things happen in a blink of an eye in live sporting events, you will have the ability to choose the perfect frame. It is also important that you have memory card that can support such fast shooting. Remember, the faster memory cards are, the more expensive they are. Also, since you will be shooting so many more images, you will need larger cards.
The best way to familiarize yourself with sport photography is to go out there and start shooting.