Un millesimo di secondo:tiro sportivo e azione rapida

Che tu sia un appassionato di sport o meno, se sei un fotografo, probabilmente a un certo punto ti ritroverai a scattare foto di un'azione competitiva frenetica.

Se sei abituato a scattare in un ambiente piacevole e controllato, come uno studio, o se sei abituato alla fotografia di strada, dove probabilmente i tuoi soggetti camminano a un ritmo normale e relativamente lento, riprendere un evento sportivo può essere impegnativo.

I tuoi sudditi si rifiutano di stare fermi; l'illuminazione è quasi sempre tutt'altro che ideale e spesso devi cercare un buon punto in cui puoi vedere l'azione migliore.

O forse sei un appassionato di sport, o il genitore di un giovane aspirante atleta negli anni della sua formazione, e vorresti solo sapere come usare la fotocamera che hai ricevuto per Natale per catturare dei momenti fantastici.

Qualunque sia la tua situazione, puoi scattare molti scatti d'azione di qualità, purché tu faccia un piccolo lavoro di preparazione e tieni a mente alcune cose. Per aiutarti in tutto questo, abbiamo messo insieme un elenco di suggerimenti e considerazioni per realizzare fantastici sport e scatti d'azione.

Riguarda la posizione

Arriva abbastanza presto per individuare un buon posto. Cerca i luoghi in cui si svolge l'azione più interessante. Devi essere in grado di vedere l'azione se vuoi fotografarla.

Sii consapevole del tuo background. Cerca di posizionarti in modo che gli sfondi delle tue immagini siano puliti e non distraggano dal soggetto.

Prendi in considerazione la possibilità di scattare alcune foto del luogo stesso. Se ti capita di avere un obiettivo grandangolare nella tua borsa, aggancialo e fai alcuni scatti grandi del campo, del campo, dell'arena, ecc. Sono abbastanza facili da scattare, quindi perché non avere un po' di contesto in più?

Alcune note sull'attrezzatura

Usa un obiettivo zoom. Molti fotografi suggeriscono di avere un obiettivo in grado di ingrandire almeno 200 mm. You don’t want to have to crop your photos too heavily.

Consider using a monopod. I’ve extolled the virtues of the monopod many times before. They’re easy to carry around and move with while shooting. They provide a lot of stability without the mobility issues a full-sized tripod entails.

Set your camera to continuous burst mode, then shoot in short bursts. I typically like to take 3-5 pictures per burst. Bursts longer than that mean you’ll have a lot more nearly identical photos to sift through afterward. If that doesn’t bother you, feel free to shoot longer bursts.

However, if your memory card is on the slow side, your camera will freeze occassionally as the card saves the images. You can use a memory card with a fast buffer, however, to alleviate this issue. Make sure it has a lot of room, and pack plenty of extras. Those images stack up quickly.

If you’re still having issues with your camera freezing up while it processes photos, consider shooting in JPEG instead of RAW. You’ll lose some quality and some post-production options, but your images will save to your memory card faster, and you’ll have more storage space.

Know Your Camera

Know the exposure settings in your environment before the action begins. Don’t waste time checking your images on your camera’s screen. If you have your settings dialed in before the action begins, you won’t waste time looking at the tiny screen on your camera, subsequently missing the action.

If you’re shooting an indoor event, also take some time to check your white balance. Indoor events, especially in gymnasiums, often have a mix of different terrible light sources, such as fluorescent and tungsten lights.

Get to know your camera’s shutter delay. On most DSLRs, this isn’t too much of an issue. But there is always tiny delays that can add up – the delay from your eyes to your brain, the delay from your decision to press the shutter and your finger actually moving, and the delay from when you press the shutter release to when the shutter actually fires.

When you’re shooting fast-moving action, these precious micro-seconds could mean the difference between the shot you’ve always dreamed of snagging and wasting space on your memory card.

Focus!

Use your camera’s zone auto-focus system. Practice with it until you can switch areas with little thought. Set your camera to Continuous Focus. In this mode, as you hold your shutter release button halfway down, your camera will continuously adjust to keep your selected subject in focus as he or she moves.

Practice prefocusing. This means that you predict where your subject is going and focus for that spot. This works best if you have a static object on the same plane as the spot where you expect the action to go down. Prefocusing might be tricky to get the hang of, and it might not prove useful in every circumstance. But knowing how to pull it off can really come in handy.

Shoot with shallow depth of field. Keep the focus on the subject; the person with the ball or the runner who’s out front. The key is to minimize anything that might distract your audience from the intended subject.

Conveying Motion

Action is all about movement, right? So what’s the best way to capture movement? Typically, this means using a high shutter speed. I’d personally keep it no slower than 1/500 to 1/1000. Don’t be afraid of bumping up your ISO if you don’t have enough light for  a high shutter speed. Image noise is typically more acceptable than blurry subjects.

Master the panning shot. This means following your subjects as they move, shooting while you do so. Make sure to match your movement speed to your subject’s and follow through with the motion after you’ve got the shot. You might find a slower shutter speed helpful here. The end result is that your subject is in focus while the background is blurred, conveying a sense of movement.

Other Ideas

Keep an eye out for small, yet emotionally telling moments on the sidelines. Teammate and crowd reactions can sometimes provide some great context for the event.

Change your point of view. It’s often a good idea to get low and shoot up. This can add some drama to your shots.

Find out beforehand what the rules for photographers are. Many venues prohibit the use of flash, and many will have rules about where you’re allowed to be. Do a little research before going to the event to save yourself an awkward confrontation with a security guard later.

Do you have experience shooting sporting events? What are some tips you’ve found helpful? What gear do you use? We want to hear from you in the comments below.