Shutter Speed in Sports photography

[packshotcreator]

Shutter speed is really important in sports photography...you can decide if you want mobility in your photos by choosing a slighting slower shutter speed..or if you want a freezed action through rapid shutter speed...

Anyone can share their experiences??

Is shutter speed the most important thing to know in sports photography...

Well, a large depth of field is also important in such types of photography...

[AndyStevens]

I've done some rally driving photography and have experimented with shutter speeds to get a range of images from static cars to blurred backgrounds that give a sense of speed. The fast shutter speeds/static looking cars don't work really - panning with the car using a slower shutter speed to keep the car sharp but background blurred is the best way really - gives a good sense of speed. And manual focus helps here too as the lens will hunt while looking for a car going sideways at 100mph!

Depth Of Field isn't really an issue in rallying - unless you wanted to show the car small in the frame with the woods/track/course behind it - then a wide angle would be useful which would give you better DoF anyway.

[pavman]

In the Oct issue of Photoplus covers motor sport (bikes) the Apprentice section

[packshotcreator]

Ah okay, thats nice...I wonder which shutter speed to used when para-sailing...or parachuting...Any idea?

[pavman]

All depends if you want to capture sense of movement/speed in your images or to freeze the action
for motor sport to capture a sense of speed/move I will use shutter speed from 1/90 to 1/180 plus panning
here is an example as you can see the background is blurred and the wheels show movement whilst the bulk of the car is in focus



to feeze the action I use a higher shutter speed in this example you can see there is no movement in the wheels and the background is not blurred this was taken at 1/1500



Hope this helps

both images shot with Canon EF 70-200 F2.8L IS USM Lens on a Canon EOS 40D

[DigiDiva]

Im just a beginner, and Im scared of missing an action shot so I revert to the pre-setting on my camera....I really need to experiment as this restricts me to a fast shutter speed for the sharper picture and the d of F the camera chooses. Need to attend an event to experiment.

[Cathus]

It really depends on the sport.

Sports photography is one of my biggest interests in photography. My main areas are American Football, soccer & rubgy all of which demand a fast shutter speed to capture the action, particularly if you want the photo to appear in the sports sections; there isn't much room for arty - slow shutter speed shots (though I do these sometimes for my own enjoyment) I usually keep to shutter speeds around 1/800 to 1/2500 if light levels allow & of they don't I up the ISO until they do. (I was shooting under floodlights this weekend at ISOs of 8-12,000

Motorsport, on the other hand usually looks better when the vehicles aren't frozen sharp & have lots of movement in the background, if you get your panning technique down you can go quite slow & induce lots of blur in the background & wheels & even on the extremeties of the vehicle.

That's my approach, anyway

[pavman]

Originally Posted by DigiDiva

Im just a beginner, and Im scared of missing an action shot so I revert to the pre-setting on my camera....I really need to experiment as this restricts me to a fast shutter speed for the sharper picture and the d of F the camera chooses. Need to attend an event to experiment.

That's what I did I went with a friend to Silverstone and believe you me whilst I knew how to handle my camera's dials etc taking motor sport images is an art in itself with panning/focusing/correct shutter speed to deal with. my first 100 or so images were absolute rubbish but I kept at it and by the end of the day I managed to capture a few "keepers" trial and error is a good method in this day of digital! thank goodness for that!
Enjoy Peter

[MarkD]

One more tip when panning is to keep panning for a short distance after the shot is taken. This way your body doesn't tense when you fire the shutter and your less likely to have a blurred or half shot of the bike/car etc