Digital Camera World » sports photography

Motorsport photography tips from start to finish line

jmeyer — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:01:34 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post our professional photographer takes our apprentice into the rough and tumble world of motorsport photography to shoot a leg of the British Rally Championship.

Meet our professional photographer

Jakob Ebrey runs Silverstone-based Jakob Ebrey Photography, the UK’s leading national motorsports photography agency. He’s the official British Rally Championship photographer and also shoots many other high-profile motorsports events. See more of his work at www.jakobebrey.com

Meet our apprentice

Trucker Dave King hails from Essex. He’s been taking photos since he was 15, and used to help out pro photographers at Arena Essex Raceway shooting all sorts of motorsport photography in the ’80s. Now using a DSLR, he asked for our help to improve his sports action shots.

Technique Assessment

Set Shutter Priority Mode
“Taking control of your shutter speed is critical when shooting motorsport photography,” advises Jakob, “so I got Dave to use Tv (Shutter Priority) mode, so he could set his shutter speed while his camera takes care of the aperture. I generally want a shutter speed of 1/250-1/500 sec to freeze the action in my motorsport photography, unless I’m panning for motion blur.”

Manage your ISO
“To make sure Dave’s DSLR is letting him set a good and fast shutter speed I got him to manually increase his ISO,” says Jakob. “It was a dull day, so we were shooting at ISO400 and 800 for most of the day. If you don’t increase your ISO, even shooting on your lenses widest aperture (such as f/2.8 or f/5.6) won’t achieve a resulting fast enough shutter speed.”

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Motorsport photography tips for during the shoot
PAGE 3: Final tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

Photo Anatomy: why Dan Chung used a tilt-shift lens to capture Usain Bolt

crutter — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:00:14 +0000

In our Photo Anatomy series on Digital Camera World we select pictures by famous photographers and explain point by point what makes them work.

In our latest instalment award-winning press photographer Dan Chung reveals how he captured Usain Bolt’s 100m final victory at the Beijing Olympics using innovative tilt-shift lens effects.

Freezing the action
“I handheld my Nikon D3, which was fitted with a Nikon PC-E Micro-Nikkor 85mm lens,” Dan says. “I used an exposure of 1/500 sec at f/2.8 with the ISO set to 800.”

‘Toytown’ effect
Dan used his tilt-shift lens to create a narrow depth of field, making the runners stand out from the blurred background as if they were a group of miniature-scale models.

Decisive moment
This frame was captured just after the runners had crossed the finish line, and Bolt’s holding out his arms in celebration. The display board shows his record-breaking time.

Alternative viewpoint
“I’m always looking for a different perspective on an event,” says Dan. “This photo was part of a series of tilt-shift images I took during the Games.”

Press ethics
As a press photographer, Dan had to create this effect entirely in-camera. “I was shooting for The Guardian and wouldn’t have been allowed to use software to simulate it,” he says.

We Say
“Tilt-shift lenses have a variety of technical and creative uses and are great fun to experiment with, but they’re expensive.  As an alternative, the miniature-like appearance shown here can be created at the post-capture stage.
Chris Rutter, Technique editor

Professional Photographer to the Rescue: ski photography tips for dramatic action

jmeyer — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:01:19 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post our professional photographer takes our apprentice to the slopes in Switzerland for an Alpine adventure in ski photography.

Meet our professional photographer

Ross Woodhall originally trained as an electrician, but discovered he could make a living from photography while working as a caretaker in a ski resort.

Having started out by taking pictures of punters on the piste, he is now a top commercial photographer specialising in extreme sports. You can check out his adrenaline-fuelled portfolio of pictures at www.rosswoodhall.com

Meet our apprentice

Chris Harden is from Rochdale and spent six years in the army, where he trained as a mechanic and learnt to ski. He works as a truck driver, and wants to learn to improve his action photography. We took him to Valais in Switzerland to brush up on his parallel turns and his high-speed DSLR shooting skills.

Technique Assessment

After a couple of warm up runs on the La Fouly blue runs, Ross took a timeout to show Chris how he could set up his D3000 better for action shooting…

Check the manual! 
Chris had been using the Sports Scene mode for his previous action pictures. But I told him that he had to use Manual if he was going to survive in the snow!

Focus on the turns
For tracking shots use the AF-C continuous autofocus mode, and set the AF Area to Dynamic. This gives you the best shot at keeping a high-speed skier sharp.

Keep shooting
A motorwind is the sports photographer’s best friend. Use the fastest continuous release mode your camera offers – Chris’ Nikon D3000 offers 3fps (frames per second).

Bright light blues
Ross says… We shot in Manual with the same settings, but Chris’ shots appeared darker than mine. Turning off the LCD Auto Dim option in his menu soon solved this discrepancy.

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Ski photography tips for during the shoot
PAGE 3: Final tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

Motion Blur: what shutter speed should you use?

jmeyer — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:02:25 +0000

It’s often said that you need to use a shutter speed of 1/60sec to 1/125sec when panning to create motion blur. But is this the case for all subjects? Below we’ll share one of our best DSLR tips on how how to set up your camera to capture effective motion blur, whatever your subject may be.

Shutter speeds of between 1/60sec and 1/125sec sec work well with fast-moving targets, like cars and motorbikes, especially when you’re using a long telephoto lens.

However, if what you’re shooting is moving more slowly, you’ll need a slower shutter speed to give the effect of motion blur in the background.

This is even more true if you’re using a lens with a shorter focal length, like an 18-55mm zoom lens. Shutter speeds as slow as 1/4 sec may be required at the wide-angle end of the zoom range.

Very slow shutter speeds make it hard to keep the subject sharp. However, if the target you’re tracking is quite close in the foreground, use a flashgun in conjunction with a slow shutter speed.

The short pulse of flash will freeze foreground objects, but the background, which is effectively out of range of the flashgun, will have motion blur.

Set up your camera for effective motion blur

01 Slow-sync
Slow-sync flash helps to balance the flash with ambient lighting. This is set by default in Av shooting mode in Canon cameras. Even so, unless lighting is dull, the shutter speed may not be slow enough.

02 Shutter priority
You can slow the shutter speed right down in Shutter priority mode, but avoid over-exposed images even at the lens’s smallest aperture, shown by a blinking aperture display in the viewfinder.

03 Second-curtain
When panning with slow exposures and flash, it’s often preferable to have the flash fire at the end of the exposure rather than at the beginning. This is called second-curtain or rear-curtain flash.

Usain Bolt grabs photographer’s camera, takes better photos than most of us

jmeyer — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:00:09 +0000

Image copyright Jimmy Wixtrom

Usain Bolt has confirmed what many N-Photo readers have long suspected: the sprinting legend prefers Nikon.

Image Credit: Usain Bolt / Aftonbladet

Moments after his historic win in the men’s 200m at the London Olympics, Bolt strolled past the track-side pit of sports photographers and snatched a Nikon D4 from pro snapper Jimmy Wixtrom (seen grinning in the image above).

Wixtrom, who shoots for Aftonbladet, Scandinavia’s largest newspaper, happily handed over his D4 and watched as Bolt snapped photos of fellow Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake and of the track-side photographers, themselves.

Image Credit: Usain Bolt / Aftonbladet

Bolt, who passed by at least five Canon DSLRs to get to Wixtrom’s Nikon, had previously declined to pose for Wixtrom and instead promised the photographer he would get his picture after the final, Wixtrom said.

Image Credit: Usain Bolt / Aftonbladet

You can watch a video of the amazing moment over on Aftonbladet’s website.

Bolt, who showed surprisingly (and perhaps annoyingly) good prowess with the Nikon D4, has not confirmed whether he plans his own career in sports photography after his final Olympics in Rio in 2016.

Via: PetaPixel, DigitalTrends

9 Creative Photo Ideas for August

jmeyer — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 01:00:00 +0000

As part of our ongoing series to help you get more creative with your digital camera, each month we publish some fun, seasonal, creative photo ideas to help inspire your imagination.

Along with some amazing images, we’ve also provided some quick photography tips by photographers who are experts in these fields.

In August, unsurprisingly, many of our photo ideas take inspiration from the ongoing Olympics in London.

But we’ll also have you snapping your holidays, weddings, bugs in your back yard and more.

Remember: don’t forget to come back at the end of the month and share what you’ve done on our Facebook wall.

01 Capture a bug’s life

Photograph the world at close proximity and you’ll be amazed at the results,” says retired microbiologist and keen macro photographer Brian Valentine. “99.9% of my macro shots are taken in my back garden.”

Brian took this shot of a 4mm Chironomid midge early one morning when the dew on the ground had yet to dry off. “I found the midge on top of my compost bin,” he explains. “It wasn’t moving anywhere, so I set up my camera with my Canon 65mm f/2.8 macro lens attached, and rested the barrel on the side of the bin.”

To ensure the midge was captured in sharp focus, Brian used so-called focus-stacking. “Softening due to diffraction can be a problem at narrow apertures,” he explains, “so I often shoot in this way.”

To get his finished image, Brian took a sequence of eight different shots at f/7.1, but with each one focused on a slightly different part of the midge.

He then merged the sharp bits from each of the images together using Zerene Stacker software, to produce an image that’s pin-sharp from front to back.

In order to light the midge, Brian used his Canon Speedlite 430EX flashgun set to auto, and to soften the light from the flash he attached a homemade diffuser.

“I also placed a blue milk-bottle top behind it, as I wanted the image to have a blue sheen that enhances the crystal water drops.”

Get started today…

Head to your garden or local park. Early morning is the best time to get out and look for surfaces where bugs like this may be drying out.
A macro lens is best for pro results, but if you haven’t got one, an extension tube attached  to a normal lens is the next best thing.
Stack the focus by turning the focus ring one small step for each frame. Use a tripod or rest the lens on a steady surface to keep the camera in the same position and set the aperture to around f/8 (check out these great tips for how to hold a camera steady when you don’t have a tripod).
To process the image, use Zerene Stacker software. A free 30-day trial can be downloaded from http://goo.gl/oX7oD.

PAGE 1: Capture a bug’s life
PAGE 2: Shoot a summer wedding
PAGE 3: Capture moving action
PAGE 4: Capture action with drama
PAGE 5: Line up a summer beach shoot
PAGE 6: Photograph sea fowl
PAGE 7: Photograph your summer holidays
PAGE 8: Capture the colour of summer flora
PAGE 9: Take advantage of stormy skies

Gallery: Some of the most action-packed sports photography you’ll ever see

samanthacliffe — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:00:59 +0000

Warning: You might want to sit down before viewing this gallery as it’s likely that you’ll be exhausted by the end of it! This collection of photographs shows people pushing themselves to the limits of their physical endurance.

If after viewing these you’re feeling motivated enough to go out and shoot some action-filled sports photography of your own, we’ve got the tips to help you. In the meantime, grab hold of your seat and take a look through these incredible sports action shots!

Untitled © Ayie Permata Sari

Gravity © Fredrik Lonnqvist

Jump Free © Philip Hoheisel

Flying over Barcelona © Pilar Silvestre

Clear Dive © Patrick Smith

Determination © Peter J

Not Planned © Keith P

Handrail in the Dark © Dan Carr

Flying over Barcelona © Pilar Silvestre

You might also like:

10 burning questions even pro sports photographers still ask themselves
The best lenses for sports photography (and ideal focal lengths to use)
Shoot sharper sports photography: pro techniques and the settings they use
Free action photography cheat sheet

Sports photography: tips for setting up your camera to shoot anything

jmeyer — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 02:00:05 +0000

When shooting sports photography and fast-moving action, you don’t have time to change many settings or worry about which mode you’re in. There are several basic settings, such as the autofocus, exposure and drive modes, that can be set up before you start shooting, but there are also other settings that can transform your hit rate.

The first is to change the AE/AF-lock button on the back of the camera so it activates the autofocus. This means instead of having to press the shutter release to activate the autofocus, you press the AE-L/AF-L button.

This makes it much easier to track moving subjects, pressing the shutter only when you want to take photos.

5 great tricks to advance your sports photography skills

jmeyer — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:38:38 +0000

One of the best ways of giving yourself a fresh challenge is to try photographing sports you have never shot before. But, whatever the event, trying a new photographic approach can work wonders for your sports photography portfolio. Here are five great tricks to try…

1 Zoom blur
This is a brilliant and pretty simple way to add impact to action shots. Colourful subjects work best as the blast of colour and blur emphasises the sense of movement.

Set a slow shutter speed of around 1/15 sec and choose a standard zoom lens (learn some of the common mistakes at every shutter speed – and the best settings to use).

Zoom in and focus on your central subject, start zooming out before smoothly pressing the shutter button and zooming smoothly through the exposure.

An alternative to creating this effect in-camera is to add the effect to your action shots in post-production using Photoshop’s Radial Blur command.

2 Get creative with black and white
Action photography doesn’t need to be all about bright colours and motion blur. Try your hand at creating a moody black-and-white photo instead.

Think about your composition (learn the 10 rules of composition – and why they work); perhaps go for a wider shot that shows your subjects in context and tells a story, rather than a tightly focused shot.

Shoot in colour and convert your images to black and white in Photoshop, boosting the contrast if you like (here are 8 great ways to convert to black and white in Photoshop).

Mono conversions work well on shots taken on dull days when the skies lack detail or tones.

NEXT PAGE: Tricks 3-5

10 burning questions even pro sports photographers still ask themselves

jmeyer — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 02:00:59 +0000

With the Olympics set to kick off later this week, sports photography enthusiasts of all backgrounds and abilities will be descending on London. And that’s not to mention the legions of professional sports photographers who will be populating every venue with their mammoth lenses to capture all the action in staggering detail.

Though they make it look slick and easy, these professional sports photographers still have to work hard and think constantly about what they’re doing in order to achieve great shots. To help you along with your own sports photography, we’ve compiled the 10 questions even pro sports photographers still ask themselves.

How do I choose the right shutter speed for sports photography?

When it comes to sports photography, there are two approaches you can take. You can either try to freeze the moving subject in the frame so that it is as sharp as possible, or you can get it to look nicely blurred to create a strong sense of movement.

With such contradictory approaches, it might seem that it doesn’t matter what shutter speed you use – because if the shot is not frozen sharply, it will by definition be blurred (learn some of the common mistakes at every shutter speed – and the best settings to use).

But setting the shutter speed is not that simple. With sports photography, getting your pictures almost sharp just won’t do.

If the shot is just a bit blurred it looks like a mistake. For these reasons, whether you want super-sharp or artistically blurred images you need to choose your shutter speeds carefully.

Sometimes it’s a creative choice, but often you choose slow shutter speeds through necessity. A blurred effect is a tempting option in low light, when fast shutter speeds are hard to achieve.

But the approach can also vary with the subject. In the shots of marathon runners above, a fast speed works well with the top athletes striding out at the head of the pack, while the slow approach (see next page) proves more suitable for the slower-paced charity runners.

PAGE 1: How do I choose the right shutter speed?
PAGE 2: How slow should I go for motion blur?
PAGE 3: Do I need the motordrive?
PAGE 4: When should I switch to manual focus?
PAGE 5: Why should I keep both eyes open when using the viewfinder?
PAGE 6: How slow should I go at night?
PAGE 7: How do I set up for low-light events?
PAGE 8: What shutter speed do I use for zoom bursts?
PAGE 9: When should I switch on the flash?
PAGE 10: When should I use second curtain sync?

Digital Camera World » sports photography

Motorsport photography tips from start to finish line

Meet our professional photographer

Meet our apprentice

Technique Assessment

Photo Anatomy: why Dan Chung used a tilt-shift lens to capture Usain Bolt

Professional Photographer to the Rescue: ski photography tips for dramatic action

Meet our professional photographer

Meet our apprentice

Technique Assessment

Motion Blur: what shutter speed should you use?

Set up your camera for effective motion blur

Usain Bolt grabs photographer’s camera, takes better photos than most of us

9 Creative Photo Ideas for August

Gallery: Some of the most action-packed sports photography you’ll ever see

Sports photography: tips for setting up your camera to shoot anything

Read more from our Olympic sports photography series

5 great tricks to advance your sports photography skills

10 burning questions even pro sports photographers still ask themselves

How do I choose the right shutter speed for sports photography?