Digital Sports Photography – Do’s and Dont’s
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 26, 2010
Digital sports photography is all about capturing the emotion and feelings behind the sports that you are photographing, and gives you a real chance to get right up close and personal with the sports as though you are part of the action.
When photographing sports, the main thing you want to achieve is close and sharp photographs with no background clutter. Most sports are watched from a distance such as football, baseball, motor sports and many others which mean a good telephoto lens is essential to pull up the image nice and close so you can see what is going on. Most digital SLR cameras have a standard lens mount e.g. Nikon and Canon have a standard mount and are compatible with many lenses from previous model film camera’s. Have a look on an online auction site if you do not yet have a telephoto lens as you may be pleasantly surprised at what a bargain you can get. The main thing here is to have a telephoto lens, it doesn’t have to have all bells and whistles, as long as it gets the result that is all that matters. For many years I used an entry level Sigma telephoto lens before I could afford to replace it with a better Nikon lens, but am I glad I bought the Sigma because it got me some stunning photos I otherwise would not have got!
Once you have got a telephoto lens sorted out, the next stage is to make sure your shutter speed is going to be nice and quick. Now depending on the lighting available and the type of sport you are photographing, you may want to play with some different settings. By increasing the ISO, you will get a quicker shutter speed, by reducing the depth of field (widening the aperture), you will get a quicker shutter speed. WIth a telephoto lens, there is always a chance of camera shake because you are pulled in much closer to the subject so it would be a good idea to invest in a beanbag or a monopod / tripod so you have some form of support, if you cannot afford a tripod, or it isn’t convenient then you can wrap up your jacket and put it on a fence / wall or other solid support in order to get a stable position which will result in much sharper photos, trust me. To get a nice sharp photo with moving sports, you should ensure you move with the subject (as above), not holding the camera still and have the subject zoom through the photo and try and capture them, this will result in a sharp background, and blurred action… Not what we want. You should use a technique known as ‘panning’ which is basically following the subject with a point in the viewfinder, the middle works best and locking onto where they are moving. Now you may think that’s all good and well but what about focusing, my camera cant keep up with the speed of the subject? Well, that is where focus lock comes into play, most camera’s even the cheapest compact digital cameras have focus lock – when you hold the shutter release half way down, that locks the focus unless it has been manually changed to continuous focus. The benefit of focus lock is that you can pick a point where you want to take the final photo, focus on that point and lock the focus and then still holding the focus lock move the camera with the subject, and when they pass though the area you originally focused on you can take the photo, resulting in a nice sharp image focused on where they were moving through (whilst panning with them of course).
I hope you have an improved result with digital sports photography following this article and should you wish to ask any questions, please comment this post or send me a message via Twitter, you can follow me too to keep up to date @masteringdp
Thanks for reading, Simon.
Mastering Digital Photography Exposure
Posted by on Sep 25, 2010
Mastering digital photography exposure is one of the most difficult things to get right if the light is not in your favour. Wherever there is a lot of contrast or shadows in direct light it is more important you ensure your exposure is correct. I recommend taking a few photos in manual and choosing the best looking out of the photos as a benchmark exposure to use in the same scenario (unless there is a lot of changing light eg. clouds blocking sunlight). By using a constant exposure for the given light in a situation, you can ensure the photos will be evenly exposed every time, so long as you don’t change the aperture / focal length (zoom) or ISO (film speed) or alternatively use a non-zoom lens and leave all other settings the same.
Here are some example situations where this technique is particularly useful:
Somebody standing against a dark background e.g. a hedge or dark building.
Photos of a scene where part is in shade and part in bright light (the best way around this is to go into the shade OR light to get an evenly exposed photo, as the range on many camera’s cannot handle this and you will end up with the shade showing details and washed out highlights where there is too much light.
To make sure you get to grips with mastering digital photography exposure, set your camera to manual and practice with different tricky scenes where you know your camera has come against difficulty in the past. The reason I suggest this, is because often your camera can find a situation difficult where another camera finds it easy and vice versa. For example I used to have a Nikon D70 which struggled to focus on any plain subject such as the sky or a wall, but other camera’s found this an easy task, although the D70 did have some features where it excelled many of it’s competitors.
Here is an example photo of where mastering digital photography exposure has paid off
Mastering Digital Photography – What You Need To Know To Get Great Photos
Posted by on Aug 25, 2010
Mastering digital photography is about learning what you want people to see and being able to take such a photo that people can see straight away what you are trying to portray. There are so many different types of photography that in order to become a master, you must focus on an individual style and learn and practice that until you have improved your skills to a better level, then you can move onto the next style.
I am going to reveal to you today some incredible tips that will get your photos oozing with creative glory and splendor. Many people do not realize what mastering digital photography is really about, but for me it is about enjoyment of a hobby that I love and I hope I can share some of this with you today.
Tip 1 – Learn your camera – Photography is about recording light and your camera is an instrument that records light. In order to get better photographs you should first know what your camera is capable of and learn all of it’s features. It’s no good just reading through the manual once, you should be coherent with all of the features as you never know when you might need them! Especially some of the features you don’t use very often, e.g. aperture preview (many people don’t know what this is, let alone put it to good use). For the purpose of this article, you should read your camera manual at least once, and then start to really explore your camera. Take it out wherever you go and take photos of interesting things even if you think it may not come out very well, the more you practice the better you get. As time goes on you will develop your style and your creative eye will capture more and more beautiful scenes and subjects. Learning your camera is also about knowing its limitations e.g. how sensitive the ISO (or film speed) is, and how dark a scene you can shoot without getting too much grain, also you may have a camera with a lens that stabilizes movement and reduces vibrations when you are taking hand held photos, or if you have a standard camera with a normal lens, you need to know what the limitations are. By knowing the limitations of your camera, you are one step ahead of everybody else because if you know you can’t capture a scene in a particular way, you can always tweak a few settings to capture a perfect photo in a different way.
Tip 2 – Fill your frame - You should make good use of your frame and even with a high mega pixel camera, ensure you make use of the available pixels. Cropping equals loss of quality, therefore the less cropping you have to do when editing, the more pixels you have available and the better quality the photo will be. One great idea when taking photos of people is to glance around the edges of the viewfinder or screen and check everybody is within the photo, no feet or arms are chopped off and then check the photo after if possible to ensure you have got a full frame photo and not cut out anything that may mean the photo is not as good as it otherwise may have been. The other thing when filling your frame, is to ensure good use of foreground and background subjects, if there is a distracting background, zoom in or go closer to your subject so the background cannot be seen or is cut down so it is no longer a distraction, this is especially true with photographs of busy subjects like a carnival or fairground where there may be distractions behind the subject you want to draw the focus onto.
Tip 3 – What settings to use and when to use them – Tip 1 was to learn your digital camera controls, Tip 3 expands on that so you know how to take advantage of the features you have explored and can get some amazing photos you would have missed out on because you know what you can do with your camera now. For example, if you want to take a photo of a fast moving subject and there isn’t too much light around (e.g. evening / overcast), the shutter speed will be slower than in bright light. Something you can do to ensure you get a quick shutter speed, and therefore a sharp photo is to change the aperture (F Stop) of your camera to a wider aperture, something like f2.8 and this means more light can get into the camera, so a quicker shutter speed is achieved. Also you could increase the ISO (sensitivity) of the camera to get a quicker shutter speed – this can be useful but be careful because if you turn it up too high you can lose detail and get a posterised looking photo with loss of details, however most modern cameras have fantastic processing capabilities and reduce the noise to a level that it is not noticeable. This is especially useful for hand held shots in the evening or inside, e.g. if you have gone to a theatre and been told not to use flash photography, you can increase the ISO to around 1,200 and take a photo inside, with no flash and get a really nice atmospheric photo with all the emotion and characteristics the same as when you were there. And as the shutter speed is quicker than with a fine ISO (e.g. 200) you will get no blur on the photo and an end result that looks professional and you will be proud to have on your wall. Another setting you should get to know is the different modes on your camera, most cameras have an aperture priority, shutter priority, automatic, program and other modes e.g. portrait, sports etc. This is very useful and the one I personally prefer is aperture priority, because you can focus on getting the depth of field right (creative use of blur) and get a quicker shutter speed if needed and monitor the other settings as they automatically change.
I hope this has been a useful article for you, and that you will be able to take better photos as a result.
Simon E Henry.
What colour profile should I use?
Posted by Simon Henry on Jun 29, 2010
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm
Great article about what colour profile to use and why with your digital camera (the choice is still yours). Seems like Adobe RGB is not all it’s cracked up to be… time to switch to sRGB now and not fear losing clarity when emailing photos 
Who Else Wants Photos They Can Be Proud Of?
Posted by Simon Henry on Dec 8, 2009
There are many reasons why you may want to learn digital photography, perhaps you want to get some photos of loved ones or maybe of your pets. Whatever your reason, we have some digital photography tips to help you on your way to taking great photos.
Tip 1: Focusing
Even though most cameras have an auto-focus function, it can often mis calculate the best area to focus on? Spot focusing can be an effective way to improve EVERY photo you take, it gives you more control over what the auto-focus chooses to focus on, whilst taking the hassle out of manually focusing. Whether you use a compact camera or an SLR, the option to choose spot focusing is very common just look in the menu or consult your user manual. There is one much overlooked, but great method when taking photos of people. This is to make sure the persons eyes are in focus. After setting the camera to use spot focusing, aim the centre of the focus area over the persons eyes, there is usually a small indication in the viewfinder to show the area where the camera is focusing. Hold the shutter release button half-way down so the focusing adjusts to bring the eyes into focus. Then re-frame the photo whilst still holding the shutter release button half-way down so you have a nicely composed image and take the picture. The eyes will be more in focus, the image well composed and overall have more quality!
Tip 2: Fill-In Flash
Most of the time people don’t think to use the flash when taking photo’s during daytime. This can drastically improve your results immediately! Let’s say, for example, you’re taking a photo of
someone with their back to the sun, most cameras will auto adjust to have the brightest area evenly exposed, leaving the person’s face very dark and under-exposed. This is when you need to turn the
flash onto manual override (usually when you see the lightning symbol on the screen of your camera), and take the photo – the exposure still measures the same as before so the sky isn’t too bright and over exposed but the fill-in flash provides some extra lighting and brings out the good detail in the face without looking too artificial. This is excellent also when photographing someone wearing a hat and their face is in shade.
Tip 3: White Balance
Many people find that after they’ve taken photographs indoors or in certain conditions outdoors, the results are disappointing because of an overall orange, blue or green colour cast. This is because the white balance is set incorrectly. To prevent this, set the camera’s white balance to the appropriate setting e.g. flash, cloudy, shade, sunlight etc. Most of the time the auto white balance is sufficient, but when results are not entirely accurate it is necessary to use the manual settings. This offers many benefits including creative use of white balance e.g. a warm looking photo for a sunset or low evening light. Have a play around to find what settings work best and when but the options are there to be used.
Tip 4: Picture Quality
All digital cameras store the image as a digital file, the most popular of which is a JPEG file or .JPG extension when viewing on a PC. The most appropriate and useful setting is the highest quality and largest picture size so for example if you have a 10 Megapixel camera there is little point in taking photo’s in 2 Megapixel resolution. The other setting is the compression, which is how much space the same size image occupies on a memory card. If the compression is set to low (high quality) it will use more space per photo but this gives the best image quality and is the best setting to use. Memory cards are very cheap these days so there is no reason to shoot poor quality if your camera can shoot better! The benefits are when printing you will get a much better result and if you need to email the photo’s most email programs e.g. Outlook express support re-sizing of photos (select photos to send and right click, then send to mail recipient) this will bring up a dialogue on most PC’s to resize for emailing and will use less space, but the original file is still at maximum quality. If you prefer, you can use a re-sizing program such as the FREE Microsoft Windows XP add-on called Picture Resizer which you can download now from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/learnmore/tips/eschelman2.mspx
Tip 5: ISO Settings (also known as film speed)
The ISO setting determines how sensitive the digital sensor is to light and can be adjusted for many purposes. If you want atmospheric photos in low light without using the flash, then shooting at a high ISO will enable this, the only downside however is the amount of grain on the image, added grain however can be used for creative purposes. For bright light or daytime photography then a low ISO (ISO 100 to 200) will give a smoother image with a fine detail. If in daylight and shooting fast movement then a higher ISO can be used (400 to 800) and this will enable a faster shutter speed.
Tip 6: Shutter Speed
Shutter speed can be set as a priority on some camera’s, however if it can’t be there are other ways to force the shutter speed to change. An evenly exposed photo consists of correct ISO settings, shutter speed and depth of field (aperture). If the ISO setting is increased the photo will be brighter and if it is decreased the image will be darker. If the shutter speed is increased the image will be brighter and if it’s decreased the image will be darker, if the aperture is set to a shallow depth of field (low f-stop) the image will be brighter and if set to a deep depth of field (high f-stop) the image will be darker. Using this knowledge we can have an appropriate shutter speed for what we want to take a photo of.
Tip 7: Choose the Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio is the ratio of the height of a picture to its width, expressed in a form such as these actual examples: 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, or even 1:1. Some cameras offer a variety of options for aspect ratio. The benefit of this is that you can select an appropriate setting for what you want to do with the picture. If you want to watch a slideshow on your widescreen TV (some TV’s allow you to plug your memory card straight in!) then choose 16:9. If you want to edit on a standard PC monitor then 4:3 is best, for printing 3:2 is a good setting and will allow you to print 6×4 prints or 12×8 if you want larger prints without losing the tops or edges (with film, 7×5 cuts off part of the photo!).
I hope you enjoyed these digital photography tips and now have a better understanding of digital photography and can get some great digital photos the next time you pick up your camera! For a complete guide on learning digital photography covering the above and more click here.
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