Tag Archives: f/4

Anticipation

NAU quarterback Chase Cartwright releases a pass toward receiver Ify Umodu. Photograph made with Nikon D610, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC at 200mm f/2.8, ISO 4500, 1/1000-second. (Bill Ferris)

Sports photography is one of those disciplines where there is just no getting around the fact that the gear you need to consistently make great photos is expensive. Scan the sidelines at an NFL game and you’ll find twenty or more photographers. Each brings at least two camera bodies and numerous lenses to the game. Many will be shooting either the Canon 1DX or a Nikon D4s. The two most common lenses are long, fast telephotos: 300mm f/2.8 and 400mm f/2.8. If some conniving super thief were to devise a scheme to steal all that gear, they’d easily walk away with over $1 million in kit.

Why is sports photography so expensive? It all boils down to one thing: speed. The sports photographer needs a fast camera and fast lenses. The top Canon and Nikon professional camera bodies have burst rates in excess of 10 frames per second. In a profession where the job is to capture the defining moment and where the players have world-class size, strength and speed, the difference a tenth of a second can make is astounding. In that brief instant, a player can go from diving for the goal line to fumbling the football. The sports photographer needs a camera capable of capturing that moment.

Because of the speed at which the game is played, a sports photographer needs to use very short exposures to freeze the action. Yes, there are situations where a slow shutter speed can allow you to make an image that perfectly captures the astounding pace of the action. But in most circumstances, the objective is to freeze action. Exposures of 1/1000-second or faster are commonplace. To shoot at 1/1000-second, you need lenses that collect available light in big, slurping gulps.

A 400mm f/2.8 lens drinks light with gusto. It focuses in a blink and follows focus even as the player with the ball is doing everything possible to elude both you and the other team. It also delivers images having a very shallow depth of field. The subject is sharply focused but the background has a pleasing, soft creaminess. This creates separation between the subject and background, making for a better photo.

To shoot at 1/1000-second in an indoor stadium or at night, you need a camera body that makes great images with a minimum of light. To accomplish this demanding task, your camera sensor needs to make clean images at ISO’s of 4000 or higher. While the lighting at professional venues is typically pretty good, the light level at a collegiate venue is often much lower. The light levels at high school football stadiums makes you wonder how the players can find the end zone without using a flashlight. There is no escape from this. If you use longer exposures to allow the sensor time to collect more light at a lower ISO, the athletes will be blurred and the detail lost. Even indoors or at night, the sports photographer needs speed.

This level of performance is unavoidable and it’s not cheap. Are you familiar with the old phrase, “Cheap, fast and good; pick any two.” In sports photography, there is no such thing as cheap…not if you want to make great images.

Having the right equipment is only the start. The most critical tool available to the sports photographer is something that cannot be bought. That critical tool is knowledge and there is no substitute. If you know the game, you have the ability to anticipate where the next play is going. If you can anticipate where the next play is going, you have the opportunity to position yourself, to focus on the right athlete or place on the field and to be there ahead of all the other photographers to capture the decisive moment in the contest.

NAU running back Casey Jahn looks to turn a run north-south. Photograph made with Nikon D610, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 3600, 1/1000-second. (Bill Ferris)

I recently had the opportunity to photograph my first NCAA football game. I’ve been a sports fan – particularly football – most of my life and have been working professionally in televised sports coverage for 25 years. In other words, I know the sport and I know what makes for a great sports image.

My photographic equipment can be accurately described as pro-sumer. I shoot with a Nikon D610 digital SLR camera body. Nikon classifies this as an Enthusiast level camera. The 24 megapixel full-frame sensor is among the best available in any digital camera. I’ve shot with it at ISO 6400 and been very pleased with the quality of the images. The 39-point auto focus system is good – not great, just good – and the burst rate is a respectable 6 frames per second. The buffer allows me to shoot at continuous high burst for 2-3 seconds before the camera will start choking on new image files.

Like most of you, I’m on a budget. So, when I made the move to full-frame, I went with third party lenses to maximize both performance and value. The Tamron line of f/2.8 Di VC USD lenses deliver both. I am primarily a landscape photographer who does occasional portraiture. The Tamron glass gives me a range of focal lengths and apertures that meet the needs of both disciplines. Best of all, they deliver excellent image quality at a fraction of the cost of the equivalent Nikon lenses.

I used the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 Di VC USD zoom with my Nikon D610 body to shoot the football game. The D610 was set to aperture priority and I shot at f/2.8 throughout the game. I also used the D610’s auto-ISO feature to configure the camera to use a 1/1000-second shutter speed and choose the ISO that would allow for the proper exposure. Auto focus was set to AF-C (continuous servo), with 9 central auto focus points selected. I did experiment a bit with offsetting the auto focus points to the left or right (top or bottom when shooting in portrait aspect) but invariably came back to the central auto focus point. I also experimented with the D610’s continuous focus lock setting, ultimately choosing a setting that is slightly more responsive to motion than the default configuration.

The first decision I had to make was where to position myself for the opening kickoff and first offensive series of the game. Now, I am an NAU employee and support my Lumberjack sports teams. That said, Eastern Washington entered the game as the 2nd-ranked team in FCS football. They were 7-1 on the season with their only loss being a 52-59 decision against the Washington Huskies. To be perfectly candid, I expected the Eagles to put up a lot of points against NAU so, I set up at the end of the field where they would be scoring. This decision paid off as Eastern Washington’s first touchdown of the game was scored at that end. Unfortunately, while reviewing the shots I’d made of the play, I realized a corridor labelled, RESTROOMS, was the prominent background element in the images. Note to self: always be aware of your background.

As the 1st quarter progressed, it was clear that NAU had come to play. They weren’t intimidated by Eastern Washington and were gradually building momentum. So when the end of the quarter arrived, I decided to stay at the south end of the field to be in position to capture a Lumberjack touchdown. That proved to be the right decision as, early in the 2nd quarter, NAU quarterback Chase Cartwright hit receiver Beau Gardner in the end zone for the Jacks’ first touchdown of the day. For that score, I was positioned to photograph the celebration with NAU cheerleaders and fans in the background.

Eastern Washington’s Cooper Kupp skies over NAU defender Marcus Alford to score a touchdown. Photograph made with Nikon D610, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC at 90mm, f/2.8, ISO 4500, 1/1000-second. (Bill Ferris)

The Eagles blocked the extra point attempt and the two teams battled to a standstill for the next 8:00 as Eastern Washington held a narrow, 7-6, lead. Sensing that the Eagles were slowly reclaiming the momentum, I hustled to the north end zone to position myself for a possible Eastern Washington score. My instincts paid off as Cooper Kupp found the land of milk and honey on a 14-yard pass from Jordan West. I was positioned at the back corner of the end zone and had a great view of Kupp leaping over the pylon for the score. NAU battled back, scoring two field goals in the final 5:00 of the 2nd quarter to cut the EWU lead to, 14-12. Recognizing the shift in momentum, I moved to the south end of the field and made some nice photographs of Northern Arizona’s final drive of the half.

During halftime, I weighed the question of which team would come out of the locker room having made the correct adjustments. I gambled on NAU and set up at the north end zone. Almost immediately, I was questioning the decision as Eastern Washington marched right down the field. But the Jacks held them to a field goal and, on their next possession, Northern Arizona quarterback Chase Cartwright led the team on a drive that culminated on a 1st & goal from the 3-yard line. Seeing receiver Ify Umodu breaking out to my side of the field, I rolled the dice again, isolating on Umodu on the next play.

As a result, I completely missed a touchdown pass to NAU’s Alex Holmes. In hindsight, I should have continued employing the technique that had been working throughout the day of focusing on the quarterback, reading his body language after the snap and breaking for the receiver on the throw. I also decided I had been over thinking the game since the start of the half. So, I returned to a mode of trusting my gut instinct on where to go for the next series and then being smart about following the development of the play.

NAU’s Eddie Horn grabs a handful of facemask to prevent Eastern Washington’s Quincy Forte from reaching the end zone. Photograph made with Nikon D610, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC at 112mm, f/2.8, ISO 5600, 1/1000-second. (Bill Ferris)

This strategy paid off on EWU’s next possession. I had gone back to the other end of the field, setting up on the Eastern Washington side. Running back Quincy Forte powered his way to the 1-yard line before being tackled by the face mask. I had a perfect angle on and view of the face mask tackle. On the very next play, Forte forced his way into the end zone right in front of me.

Eastern Washington had a 24-19 lead and the teams battled back-and-forth, trading field goals over the next 15-minutes. It was during the 2nd half that I identified the spot where I wanted to be when the game ended. The location offered two great options for backgrounds. One, was the NAU bench on the opposite side of the field. The other option was the NAU cheerleading squad along the back of the south end zone. Either would make a perfect background, if the Jacks were able to score a late touchdown to win the game.

When the Eagles took possession of the ball with 4:37 on the clock, I sensed a game-clinching score coming and worked my way through the EWU bench to the north end of the field. Facing a 4th & 4 at the Northern Arizona 23 yard line, Eastern Washington burned two timeouts in succession before going for it. A conversion would have allowed the Eagles to run out the clock but Jordan West’s pass to Cooper Kupp fell incomplete.

The final seconds were setting up exactly as I’d hoped: Northern Arizona had the ball on their own 23 with no timeouts and :47 left on the clock. They needed a touchdown and would have to be aggressive in their play-calling. So, I hustled back to my spot at the south end zone and waited for the magic to happen.

With 12-seconds left in regulation, NAU’s Dan Galindo hauls in a Jordan Perry pass to score the game-winning touchdown. Photograph made with Nikon D610, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC at 70mm, f/2.8, ISO 8063 (Hi 0.3), 1/1000-second. (Bill Ferris)

On NAU’s second play, backup quarterback Jordan Perry completed a toss to Alex Holmes who sprinted 54 yards before going out of bounds at the Eastern Washington 20 yard line. On the next play, Perry took the snap and immediately looked to his left and my side of the end zone. As he cocked his arm and released the ball, I instinctively panned to pick up true freshman Dan Galindo breaking open across the goal line. Galindo was right in front of me as he cradled the ball, rolled across the turf and sprang up in celebration. With :12 left in the game, Galindo had just scored the go-ahead touchdown.

A huge celebration ensued as Galindo was surrounded by teammates. Team mascot, Louie the Lumberjack, even joined in. Cheerleaders and fans were frantic with joy. The Skydome was filled with the roar of fans who knew they were witness to something very special. Northern Arizona was about to defeat the number two team in the country. But there was more work to be done. NAU went for a 2-point conversion and failed. They squib kicked on the kickoff and Eastern Washington’s offense took the field with just :07 remaining. Their final desperation play ended when NAU defensive back Darius Lewis intercepted a backwards lateral and ran with the ball until time expired.

I immediately ran onto the field to capture the bedlam and ecstasy of the win. After making a few exposures with the 70-200, I ran over to my camera bag to exchange the telephoto zoom for the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR. I used this wide angle zoom to document the post-game celebration.

Jerome Souers, acknowledges the crowd after the comeback win versus Eastern Washington. Photograph made with Nikon D610, Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR at 30mm, f/4, ISO 5000, 1/1000-second. (Bill Ferris)

In hindsight, there are two lessons I took from this experience. The first is the importance of knowing the sport you’re shooting. Understanding the game and having the ability to anticipate what will happen next are critical to getting great photos. This is particularly true if you are limited to shooting with a relatively short focal length. (200mm is pretty short for football and other outdoor sports.) The second lesson is the value of choosing a location that allows you the opportunity to make a great photograph. Envision the scenario you would like to capture, go to the best spot for capturing that moment and allow the game to come to you. Of course, there is no guarantee things will play out as you want. That’s where your talent as a photographer comes into play. You’re there to document the event as it happens so, do your best with the cards you’re dealt.

Whatever your sport, whatever your photographic passion, today is a new day. It’s time to get out and shoot.

Bill Ferris | October 2014

Reflections

The warm morning light of a midsummer day illuminates Hallett Peak’s reflection off the mirrored surface of Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. (Bill Ferris)

The reflected image is a common compositional element in photography. When effectively employed, it adds something special to an image. In macro photography, this technique is often used to reveal the surrounding world as reflected in a single dew drop. In portraiture, the image of your subject reflected against rain-streaked glass adds drama. A reflection in a landscape photograph can make an image more compelling to the eye.

What is is about a reflection that draws our attention? Well for one, a reflection presents the world in a new and different way. In the above photograph, Hallett Peak is seen reflecting off the glassy surface of Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The reflection turns everything upside down, delivering an unusual perspective on a twelve thousand foot mountain. A reflection can imbue a scene with a strong element of symmetry. If you block the lower half of the above image, the upper half is irregular in form, hue and texture. In short it is not symmetrical and that is very common in nature. Rarely does nature produce a straight line, a perfectly round circle or a perfectly balanced scene. So, when we find such a thing, it tends to get our attention.

A reflection draws our attention to the seam where the reflected and direct views join. In this image, the seam coincides with the junction between the pine forest and the water’s edge. Typically, this would not be a leading line or a particularly strong element in the composition. The mountain would be the dominant element. However, as the brain seeks to understand this oddly symmetrical pattern, it naturally seeks and identifies that transitional area of the image. Finding the seam or fold allows the brain to determine that the unnaturally symmetrical form is not a singular artificial construct. It is simply a reflection of an otherwise normally irregular landscape scene.

The first light of day paints the Continental Divide as seen from the shore of Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. (Bill Ferris)

Finally, a reflection plays on the inherently voyeuristic nature of visual perception. The act of looking at something establishes a clear distinction between you, the observer, and the subject, that which is observed. On the morning I made the above photo, I hiked about 3/4-mile along a trail to the east side of Sprague Lake. During that walk, I was in nature. I was within and part of the place. However, the act of setting up my camera and observing the scene as a subject to be photographed established a distinction or separation between me and the natural setting. That act transformed me into an outside observer.

A person can observe someone or something either directly or indirectly. The act of observing indirectly is inherently voyeuristic. Some element of the observation was unintended. This can result from observing in secret without the subject’s knowledge or permission. It can also result from an observation that reveals some unintended quality of the subject. The reflected image is not natural. It is not how the subject normally appears to others. It is a bit like jogging down the sidewalk on your morning run and having your neighbor walk out the front door in his bathrobe. It’s 6:00 AM and he figured the rest of world would be asleep as he went out to fetch the morning paper. Surprise, surprise.

So to summarize, a reflection skews our perspective, presenting the subject in a way we are not used to seeing. A reflection triggers the human brain’s natural tendency to recognize symmetry and patterns, and to analyze such appearances to determine if they are natural or artificial. A reflection can also trigger feelings of being a voyeur. Because we see the subject in an unusual or unexpected manner, there is a sense of being privy to something that is either uninvited or unintended.

Of course, it is quite natural to respond in unexpected ways to these visual, mental and emotional stimuli. You might be momentarily confused, even questioning the authenticity of the scene. There may even be an emotional response. Seeing something again for the first time can produce strong feelings. Whatever the response, it is the very fact that seeing something in reflection can be a catalyst for intense thoughts or feelings that makes it such a powerful element of composition. As artists, we photographers feel joy when others take pleasure in our work. We may feel pain when others are critical. But the greatest sadness comes when others simply dismiss our photographs as not worthy of notice.

Now, get out there and shoot.

Bill Ferris | September 2014

Sports Photography

Wide angle zooms reach infinity focus within 2 to 3 meters, allowing you to freeze motion and achieve good depth of field even at the widest aperture. This image was shot with a Nikon D600 full-frame DSLR using a Nikon 16-35mm wide angle zoom lens at 16mm, f/4, ISO 4000, 1/500-second. (Bill Ferris)

Sports and wildlife photography are extremely demanding of you, as a photographer, and your equipment. You are often shooting in low light, farther from your subject than you’d like–when it comes to wildlife, sometimes too close for comfort–and trying to capture a moving target. These are situations where your photographic technique and your equipment’s ability to make good images are pushed to the limit. In this blog entry, I’m going to focus on sports photography, offering some tips on how to capture compelling, dynamic images under challenging circumstances.

Battling for position beneath the basket. This image was captured at 70mm, f/2.8, ISO 2500, 1/800-second

Battling for position beneath the basket. This image was captured with a Nikon D600 and Tamron 70-200mm zoom lens at 70mm, f/2.8, ISO 2500, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

Basketball is a sport which allows photographers to be relatively close access to the action. This doesn’t make the sport easy to shoot but it does make basketball easier to photograph than other sports. I used a Nikon D600 to capture all the images in this article. Sports photography is one area where a full-frame sensor, such as that in the D600, can give you an advantage over a digital camera with a smaller crop-sensor. The pixels on a full-frame sensor are larger than those on a crop-sensor DSLR body offering similar resolution. Larger pixels are more efficient. In other words, they do a better job of capturing light than smaller pixels. As a general rule, A full-frame DSLR will deliver at least a full stop of improved high ISO performance in comparison with a similar resolution crop-sensor body.

Why is this important for sports photography? If your objective is to capture a moment, your objective is often to freeze motion. (Please, note that freezing motion is not required for good sports photography. It is, however, a common practice.) To freeze motion, you need to take really short exposures, typically using shutter speeds between 1/500 and 1/1000 second. To make a good quality image at such fast shutter speeds, you’ll need two things: a fast lens and a camera with good high ISO performance. (Since flash photography is prohibited on the field or court, you’ll need to rely on your lenses and sensor to make the most of the available light.) Most sports photographers shoot with lenses offering fixed apertures of f/2.8 or faster. ISO settings are typically in the 1600 to 6400 range…sometimes faster.

In the above image, I was shooting at 70mm, f/2.8 using an ISO of 2500 and a 1/800-second exposure. If you zoom in to 100% on the full-size version of the image, you’ll see a slight touch of blur on NAU player’s right eye. Also, the reflected lights on his cornea are slightly elongated. Even shooting at 1/800-second, the image does not completely freeze the motion.

This image was taken with a Tamron 70-200mm zoom at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/800-second

This image was taken with a Nikon D600 and Tamron 70-200mm zoom at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

Another advantage of a full-frame sensor is its comparatively shallow depth of field. This advantage is due to the fact that crop-frame sensors effectively extend the focal length of a lens. Nikon’s DX format sensors have a 1.5X crop factor. In other words, any lens used on a DX format body will have an effective focal length 50% longer than it will on a full-frame or FX format Nikon body. The lens I used to take the above image was set to 70mm on my full-frame Nikon D600. On my crop-sensor D90, that same lens would have an effective focal length of 105mm and a correspondingly greater depth of field. The pleasing bokeh in the above image would not be as dramatic in images made with the D90. Objects in the distance would be more in focus, reducing the separation between the subject and the background.

This photograph was taken with a Tamron 70-200mm at 135mm, f/2.8, ISO 3600, 1/640-second

This photograph was taken with the Nikon D600 and a Tamron 70-200mm at 135mm, f/2.8, ISO 3600, 1/640-second. (Bill Ferris)

Here’s an image that does a nice job of freezing the action. If you zoom in to view the image at 100%, you’ll see the NAU player’s eyes are in focus. This is the number one rule of good photography: focus on your subject. When shooting basketball or another sport where the athlete’s face is in view, you should focus on the eyes. How do you know if you’ve succeeded? Look at a 100% view of the the eyes in the original image. If light reflected off the cornea is sharp and well-defined, the image is in focus. If the eye is soft or fuzzy, the image belongs in the recycle bin.

A technique I use to achieve good focus is called, Back Button Focus. Back Button Focus (BBF) moves the auto focus function of your DSLR from the shutter release button to the Auto Exposure Lock/Auto Focus Lock (AE-L/AF-L) button, typically found on the back of a DSLR body. Why do this? Most DSLR shutter release buttons allow you to activate auto focus with a half-depression of the shutter release button. To take a picture, depress this button fully to actuate the shutter. When shooting sports, there is an advantage to separating auto focus from shutter release.

Taken at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

In the above photo of NAU men’s basketball head coach, Jack Murphy, he was squatting while speaking to his team. The distance from him to my camera wasn’t changing. In that situation, I used the AE-L/AF-L button to set focus on his eyes, then waited for him to turn and face me before taking the exposure. If the Shutter release button also triggered the camera’s auto focus function, taking the picture may have reset focus on another person in the frame, ruining the picture.

Another advantage of moving auto focus to the AE-L/AF-L button is the potential to extend the battery life of your camera. If you shoot with vibration reduction (VR or VC) lenses, that half-depression of the shutter release button will activate the vibration reduction motors. The VR motors draw additional power from your camera’s battery. Using the AE-L/AF-L button for auto focus allows you to wait longer before engaging VR, which will extend your battery life.

D600 with Tamron 70-200 at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 5600, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

So, how do I set up my camera for a sports photo shoot? First, I put the camera in full Manual mode. Why? Well, I know there are two factors over which I want total control. The first, is aperture. I want to use my lens’s widest aperture. This maximizes the amount of light falling on the sensor, which allows me to make a good image using short, fast exposures. A wide open aperture also delivers images with beautiful bokeh, creating clear separation between the subject and surrounding environment. The second factor I want to control, is shutter speed. If I’m trying to freeze the action, I’ll choose an exposure of 1/500-second or faster. You’ll notice many of the images in this article were taken with exposures of 1/800-second.

Having selected the aperture and shutter speed, I will then engage a setting I rarely use: Auto ISO. When doing landscape and portrait photography, I generally select a low native ISO setting of 100 or 200 to reduce noise in the resulting photograph and maximize image quality. Sports photography is one of those scenarios where you need to use–and trust–the camera’s high ISO capability. Selecting Auto ISO allows you to concentrate on framing, focus and when to push the shutter release button. You can choose to manually control ISO and, to be honest, many photographers are able to make ISO changes on the fly without missing a shot. Personally, I prefer to keep things simple and Auto ISO reduces the number of critical variables I have to monitor. Of course, this technique is only as good as your DSLR’s ability to meter and select a proper ISO.

D600 with Tamron 70-200mm at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

With the manual settings in place, I’ll then double-check my camera’s auto focus setting. For landscapes and portraits, I use Nikon’s Auto Focus Single-Servo (AF-S) mode and choose a single auto focus point. In a nutshell, the AF-S mode tells the camera to set focus just once and lock that in place until the shutter is actuated. Landscapes don’t move and, in many portraiture settings, your subject is not moving. So, AF-S is a mode that allows you to precisely set and hold focus. Choosing one auto focus cross-point gives you further control over these critical factors.

Sports photography is a different animal, altogether. Since your subjects are moving, it’s generally better to select Auto Focus Continuous-Servo (AF-C) and a cluster of cross points where your subject is most likely to be within the frame. With AF-C selected, my D600 offers options of 9, 21 or 39 cross point clusters to predictively track and follow focus. This illustrates another advantage of assigning auto focus to the AE-L/AF-L button. With my right fore finger resting atop the shutter release button, my right thumb is able to depress and hold the AE-L/AF-L button to engage continuous auto focus. When I’m ready to take an exposure, I press the shutter release button.

D600 with Nikon 16-35mm at 16mm, f/4, ISO 5600, 1/640-second. (Bill Ferris)

Burst rate is another setting I’ll adjust prior to the game. Again contrasting sports photography with landscapes and portraiture, shooting constantly moving subjects is a scenario where your camera’s high speed burst rate is a real asset. Over the course of one or two seconds, a basketball player can go from the top of the key to leaping and finishing with a layup kissed off the glass or a monster dunk. My D600 has a maximum continuous burst rate of 5.5 frames per second. That’s one frame about every 0.2-second. If you have any doubt about how much can happen in two-tenths of a second, review a short burst sequence. In that collection of 5 to 10 images, there may be one where the player’s face is visible, the ball is visible, focus is pin sharp and framing is perfect. The other images may be soft in focus, poorly framed or have some object obscuring the subject’s face. I don’t recommend holding down the shutter release for seconds on end. But a well-timed, one-to-two second burst at your DSLR’s fastest rate can go a long way towards ensuring you get the shot.

Nikon D600 with Tamron 70-200mm at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

Let’s talk about subject matter for a moment. Certainly, the primary objective of your photography will be to capture the critical moments and plays in the game. But sports are about more than just the action on the field or court. It’s also about what’s happening on the benches, in the stands and on the sidelines. The above image has nothing to do with the final score. But it captures a genuinely personal moment among the players on the Northern Arizona bench. If you didn’t attend the game, you probably don’t know what the final score was. However, seeing this image, may give you a clue. NAU dominated. They led by twenty or more points throughout the second half and won by that same margin. Hence, the players on that bench felt comfortable sharing a light moment–a bit of humor–before the final buzzer sounded.

200mm, f/2.8, ISO 4000, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

Finally, I’ll share a few thoughts on lens selection. I brought three lenses to this shoot: Nikon 16-35mm, f/4; Tamron 24-70mm, f/2.8 and Tamron 70-200mm, f/2.8. All are zoom lenses with vibration reduction. The two Tamron lenses are fast, with fixed f/2.8 apertures throughout their zoom ranges. The Nikon 16-35mm is one stop slower at f/4, which would normally be a significant limitation in this setting. However, the excellent high ISO performance of the Nikon D600 body allowed me to freeze the action with this ultra-wide angle zoom.

Of the three, if I had to choose just one to bring to a basketball game, it would be the 24-70mm, f/2.8. It’s wide enough to frame players, head-to-toe, beneath the basket and long enough at the 70mm end to isolate a player from the waist up. The 70-200mm, f/2.8 would be next in my bag. The reach of this lens allows me to get up close and personal, filling the frame with the face of a coach or player. It also allows me to follow action on the far end of the court. In fact, if I were limited to just one lens for all sports shooting, it would be the 70-200, Sports like football, baseball and soccer are played on larger fields that demand a longer zoom range to bring the action closer to you, the photographer.

This photo was taken with a Nikon D600 and Tamron 70-200mm combo at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 4500, 1/800-second. (Bill Ferris)

In summary, the key to successful sports photography is freezing the action. The tools that allow you to do this are a camera body with very good high ISO performance (advantage: full-frame sensor), fast lenses (f/2.8 or faster), and an auto focus system that accurately tracks and predicts focus on moving subjects. Shooting in manual allows you to control at least two critical settings: aperture and shutter speed. Using the camera’s Auto ISO feature can simplify things for you. Using your camera’s continuous auto focus setting and moving control over auto focus to the AE-L/AF-L button are an asset to achieving accurate focus. Focus on the eyes of your subject. If the eyes aren’t in focus, the image belongs in the recycle bin. When you’re ready to shoot, a well-timed short burst will help to ensure you get the shot. And finally, capture images that tell the full story of the event, including action around the court.

Now, get out and shoot!

Bill Ferris | November 2013

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Tips for the Digital Imaging Enthusiast

Tag Archives: f/4

Anticipation

Reflections

Sports Photography