Sports photography is the branch of photography that is occupied with taking still shots of athletes, both professional and amateur, as they are engaged in their respective sports. This type of photography is mainly used for purposes such as visual support for newspaper articles, magazine covers, and other editorial functions. Sports photography is also widely used for advertising a wide variety of products and for building and developing major company brands.
Professional equipment for sports photography includes a number of telephoto lenses, a monopod, and of course a camera with a shutter speed that is a lot faster than most everyday cameras. A camera with a sustained burst rate is also a must for this kind of photography.
There are a variety of lenses used in sports photography because of the fact that different sports require different lenses. For example, outdoor sports need longer lenses because the action in these sports is usually farther from the photographer than the action in indoor sports. Additionally, outdoor sports usually have generally brighter lighting than indoor sports; this requires the lenses for cameras taking shots at outdoor sports to have slower aperture speeds than the lenses for cameras taking shots at indoor sports.
The aperture for sports photography is usually wider than those used in other kinds of photography. This is because sports photography needs to make the background images totally out of focus so as to make the main subject of the photo more prominent. Furthermore, a wide aperture lens is also useful in sports photography because it can focus on the subject a lot faster than other lenses used in other kinds of photography. Wide aperture lenses can let more light enter the lenses a lot more quickly, thus making taking shots at fast moving action a lot easier. f/2.8 apertures are usually preferred for most sports photography uses. However, higher apertures such as f/4 are sometimes used for game days which are brighter than the usual.
Zoom lenses are widely used in sports photography. These are usually in the 100-400 range, although some may prefer 75-300 and 70-200 range lenses. Prime lenses are sometimes used as a substitute for zoom lenses. Prime lenses are cheaper than zoom lenses. They are also lighter and more optically superior to zoom lenses. The framing capabilities of prime lenses though pale in comparison to zoom lenses. Zoom lenses have a far better range of framing options than prime lenses.
Positioning is a very important part of sports photography. Knowing the best place to take pictures from is just as important as having the right equipment to take the pictures with. This is very obvious in professional sports photography. You can usually see the professional sports photographers with a reserved area from which they can take their pictures. They are given a prime location that gets them closer to the action than regular fans and spectators. Without this designated area, the photographers might end up inadvertently disrupting the game because they would all be hustling for the best position to take their pictures.
