How do I shoot sports?

Many of us want to shoot sports for one reason or another. We either have kids who play or we want to shoot sports to earn money. I am going to discuss what I've learned about shooting sports. This is not a technical discussion about fast glass, high ISO, etc. but a practical discussion of what you want to think of while shooting sports.

Honestly, shooting sports is one of the most challenging types of photography I can think of. The lighting (usually) sucks (too dark indoors and lots of shadows outside). You don't always have access to the prime shooting spots. People are walking in front of you constantly if you're not in one of those prime spots. Add to that the fact that the gear needed to get GREAT shots is quite expensive and you'll understand it's just plain HARD to shoot indoor sports well.

Let's look at the things you need to keep in mind when shooting sports...

Composition - Shoot for the Crop
Yes, as with any other photo you take, composition is important. However, you need to keep in mind there is a lot of action in most sports (obviously, this goes for indoor and outdoor sports). This means you need to shoot a lot wider than you might normally. I say shoot for the crop. Of course, this means you need equipment which is capable of handling heavy cropping since (at times) you will do heavy cropping. So much is happening so quickly you need to make sure you get as much of the action as possible. If you're zoomed in tight, a little movement on the subject(s') part may move an important body part out of the frame. Shoot wider to avoid this. Here's an example of, what could be a much better photo that I shot a little too tight.

I love it, has everything I like in a fight photo--the fighter who's just been knocked out and the referee over him ensuring he's ok. You even see the winning fighter walking off, happy he won but maybe not so happy he may have injured his opponent--you decide. Unfortunately, the referee's head is cut off!!!

Here's (almost) the same shot but without anything cut off.

An excellent image for sure but it lacks the other fighter walking away. I think that would have made this an awesome shot.

Don't be afraid of the center!
Ok, one of the first things about composition we're all taught is the rule of thirds. Don't shoot with your subject in the center, etc. Well, just forget about that when shooting sports (indoors or outdoors). With sports it's not just about your subject, it's about what's happening to your subject or what he/she is doing at the time.

Besides, you don't have the time to worry about your rule of thirds but, even if you did have the time, you'll notice the rule of thirds can ruin an otherwise good sports photo. You want ALL of the focus to be on your subject(s). You don't want distractions and, when shooting sports, you rarely get a good, clean background. It's almost always distracting.

As you can see here, my subjects are in the center. Because they are the center of attention this doesn't cause a problem like it might other types of photos.

Focus young grasshopper!
Focus is probably the hardest thing to learn about sports photography. Things are moving so quickly, you need better equipment which is capable of focusing accurately and quickly. Unfortunately, this usually means more expensive gear (but not always!). You want to use whatever focus mode on your camera which locks onto moving subjects. This is called AI Servo on Canon cameras. It's called AF-C on Nikons. I don't know what it is on other brands but you can look it up if you don't use Canon or Nikon. This mode will help you focus so much better once you get some practice with it.

Basically, you want to keep your focus point in the center (just makes it a lot easier). You then focus on your subject by pressing the shutter button down halfway until it locks on. Keep it pressed and follow the action pressing the shutter all the way down to snap shots. Because the camera is keeping the focus locked on what's moving, you're much more likely to get in-focus shots.

Here's an example where my subjects were moving quite a bit (considering I was shooting at f2.8). Notice the photo is properly focused.

I don't have to tell you how an out of focus photo cannot be salvaged. It's quite frustrating to get the shot you want only to find it's out of focus. Took me a lot of practice to get focus correct--even with AI Servo on my Canon. You just have to practice. But it's worth the effort.

Anticipation
Ok, you've probably heard sports photogs telling you to make sure you know the game when shooting a sport, etc. What they're really telling you is be able to anticipate when interesting action is likely to happen because that's when you will usually get the best shots.

You'll find your best shots can come just as the action is about to happen or just after it started. Often, if you wait too long after it starts, it's hard to get a good shot (in fighting sports especially) because you just get a mass of bodies. So you want to get it just as they're doing something (or in the act of doing it). Here's an example.

The fighter on top is just starting to throw a punch (a little motion blur in the hand). You can see his face as he wants to punish his opponent. The other fighter is already reacting to the punch and is covering up. This photo tells a lot about what's happening at that moment in time.

So how do you get the shot? I mean, things happen real fast in some sports--especially professional sports. So how do you capture them. You're probably not gonna press the shutter at exactly the right moment, right? Well...

Shoot in Bursts
Most dslrs have some form of burst mode, meaning, they'll shoot a quick burst of photos for a short amount of time (the speed and the amount of time they'll shoot varies based on many variables). My Canon 50D, for instance, can shoot up to 6.3fps, which means, it can take up to 6.3 photos per second. Seems fast but, keep in mind, a movie is shot at 24fps so I'm still only at about 25% of a movie. Other dslrs can shoot faster but most will be slower than that. The more pro-oriented gear you get, the more likely you are to have a higher shooting rate.

So what does this mean? Well, as I mentioned, you need to anticipate what is going to happen. Have your focus locked on your subject(s) and press and hold the shutter for a short burst to capture the action. Two things happen when you do this, first, your camera will be much more likely to get in focus shots (sometimes the first shot may be out of focus but the rest are usually fine) and second, you'll get a sequence of action and (hopefully) you'll get that great shot.

Of course, the downside is you will burn through a memory card quite fast if you shoot too many bursts. I usually shoot in bursts of 4-6 photos depending on what's happening. I've found this works for me. The more important thing is to anticipate when to shoot. Sometimes you time it correctly, many times you don't.

Don't forget about what's going on around you!
One thing we all tend to do is get fixated on the prize--the great shot of the action. However, there are a lot of interesting things going on around you which you shouldn't forget about. Often times you'll get better expressions on the people around the event than the actual participants. Fans tend to get happier when their person/team wins than the person/team does. Same thing for them losing. Fans tend to take loses harder than the participants.

Coaches also tend to be very animated about their people. You can really catch interesting things if you look around every so often.

Put it all together!
Keep practicing all of these things and you'll soon get some great sports shots. It's not as easy as portrait photography because everything is moving and dynamic. You have to know your gear and how to switch between settings quickly and efficiently. If you can't, you will miss shots.

You have to almost unlearn some things which have been ingrained in our heads such as composition, etc. But, once you break out of that, you'll find yourself getting some great stuff.

Thanks for reading!

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It's about the referrals man...

If you're like me, you hate running around and cold-calling looking for business. You may have also noticed some of the most successful photogs (and other people in other kinds of businesses) rarely cold-call. How do they get their business then? Why, referrals of course! Referrals are the lifeblood of any successful sales person. If you're reasonably good at what you do, you'll get referrals from the people you've already done business with. The problem is, you've got to build your business without referrals before you actually get referrals. Kinda hard to do, right? Well, that's why you want to stop looking for business and start looking for referrals.


A long time ago (way before my photography bug took hold), I changed the way I sell the product(s) I sell. I used to do the normal sales person thing (I've been in sales 17ish years now), I'd go and try and sell the product. Seems like the right idea, right? Well, I was successful for a long time. But what I found was, I was always having to sell my product(s) over and over again. Sure I developed referral business over the years because I took care of customers but never as much as I wanted. I was still humping down the street to find more business.

Then I went to a seminar on referral-based marketing. Excellent seminar, lots of statistics, etc. However, you don't need to numbers so much. It's a very simple concept. You actually change the way you get business by not trying to sell your product(s) to people but try to gain more contacts which are all potential referral sources. Seems strange but stick with me on this...

So, let's say you run into someone at one of your kids' school functions. You get to talking and that person finds out you're a photog. Maybe they check out your portfolio and really like it. You say something along the lines of, " Glad you liked my portraits, how about we do some portraits of your kids for you? Mothers'/Fathers' Day is coming and that's a great gift!" Now, you've not done anything wrong at this point, I used to do the same thing actually, however, and this is the change I made, instead of trying to close your friend on this one deal, wouldn't it be much better if this person referred you a number of people (over the years) rather than just doing business with you and that's it? So how do we do this?

Well, the first thing you want to do is have a contact list (you do have one, right?). If you don't have one, create one--I use Gmail to manage my contacts because it's easy, I can get to it from anywhere and it also syncs on my Android-powered phone. There are plenty of other ways to do it if you don't use Gmail and/or Android-powered phones. Either use an existing email program you already use or create a list in Excel or Word or something you can easily cut and paste email addresses in the Bcc: field when sending an email. (Use the Bcc: field so you're not sending out ALL of the emails to EVERYONE on your list and nobody can reply to all and reply to EVERYONE on your list.)

So how The next thing you do (if you're using an email application to manage your contacts) is create a group (or whatever it's called in whatever you use for contacts) just for people you meet---everyone you meet (in theory anyway). Now, let's go back to your friend at the school function. Here's what you might say, "I'm glad you like my portfolio, as you know I can do these kinds of shots--and others--for anyone. Would you mind if I added you to my email list? I send out updates on what's happening with my photography business. It's not spam (I promise) and it's only about once a week. I send out tips and tricks on how you can use your point and shoot--or any camera--to get better shots. Everyone I email to finds something interesting. It's also free."

Now, why did we not try and ask for the business? Well, because we sort of did ask for the business in saying we could do that kind of work for anyone. Obviously, that means your friend as well. People are smart enough to know you can do it for them as well. More importantly, you didn't try and sell anything really (if you don't consider asking for an email address to be selling). Most people are put off by being sold to. They want to buy on their own terms, not yours. In not trying to get them to say yes, you're not making them uncomfortable and not forcing their hand on the spot. It's a much more gentle way of handling potential clients.

So, now we have this person's email address and other people--the person at the deli, at the coffee shop, your friends and family, etc.--anyone you spoke with long enough so they might know what you do. What do we do with all of this. Well, you do an email blog of sorts. No, you don't have to write long-winded emails (like this blog post) or anything like that. You can send out an email to everyone in your list which shows some nice shots you got during a session you shot last week. You can send them tips on how to shoot with a point and shoot camera (you know, when shooting the kids, get down on their level, etc.). You send out useful information people will want to see but may not hunt out on their own. Do this about once a week (no more than twice I'd say) and rarely make it about trying to solicit business. I say rarely because it's ok to throw an email in there every so often saying you've got a special going on (maybe a free 8x10 or free sitting). But don't make it about trying to get direct business from people, keep it informal and light.

The reasoning behind this--other than not making people uncomfortable--is really quite simple. Ask yourself, how many photo jobs can you do for that friend you met at the school function over the course of our lives? Maybe 3? Maybe 5? Maybe 10? I don't really know. But ask yourself, how many people that friend knows/runs into who may need a photog? Again, I don't know the answer but I can tell you it's way more than the number of times that person might use you in the future. The business may not be quite as immediate but it'll come and come for a long time.


Another thing to keep in mind is, with all of the competition (we all have competition) you want to stay in their mind so, when they come across someone who would need your skills, they think of you and not someone else or, worse, they say they don't know anyone. We say you want to touch your list regularly to stay in their minds. In the old days people used to send out postcards. With the Internet and email, you don't need to spend the money on post cards.

You'll find, after you've marketed this way for a while, more people will contact you out of the blue or after one of your emails. Given more time still more people will contact you--as long as you continue to add contacts to that list and keep emailing. Eventually, you'll have 100% referral-based business coming in and it'll be much easier for you.

So how do I go about doing this? Well, wou already have a database of people even if you don't have them in any kind of electronic form. The first thing I'd do is start looking at people you already know--friends, family, etc. and add them to your list. Then look at past customers, add them to the list. You'll find you already have a nice list of people to email to. Set goals for yourself to continue to grow your list. What I often do is set a goal for myself during a week (or a number of weeks). I might say I want to add 20 people to my database in a week (4 a day if you work on a 5 day work week). If you do this for a few weeks, you have just significantly increased the number of people who may refer you business.


Building the database is the easy part. What do you do once you have this nice database? Well, this is when you start to send out emails occasionally (preferably once a week--you can do twice a week every so often but not too often). These emails are not to be you selling yourself. Don't put out a bunch of, "Call me to book your portrait session!" These are ok every so often (no more than once a month if that) but, if you start doing that you'll just look like spam to people and they're mark you as spam or ask to be removed from your list.


What you're after is giving them a reason to open your email. Think about it, how many emails do you get from (name a retailer) each week telling you about some special? How often do you actually open these emails? This is exactly how people will view your emails if you try to sell to them too often.


However, send them some great shots of that portrait session on the beach you did with those cute kids. Or some shots from the wedding/reception you shot last weekend. How about the awesome bird in flight (BIF) shot you got last week at lunch? Anything like that which showcases what kinds of shots you can get are great for this. Don't worry  about sending the wrong type of photo out--i.e. if you send that BIF shot, don't worry about the fact that you're a wedding photog. Remember, you send these out weekly and you'll have plenty of time to get your wedding shots out. But people like to see different things in these emails. If you always send just wedding shots, why do I need to open the email? If you send different things, I want to open the email to see what you've been up to.


Take it a step farther and offer tips to people on shooting photos. The, "get down on the kids' level when shooting kids," is always a winner and one nobody thinks of. But, when you show it to people the lightbulb comes on over their head and they get it. They're then thankful for the awesome tip you just sent. You're in their mind at that point. As I said, you want to touch the people in your list regularly.


You can send any number of things not just tips or photos. Use your imagination. Think about it from their standpoint. What might be of interest to them? Could be a review on a point and shoot camera or a link to an interesting article on something. There's really no limit to what you can send out in these emails.


I also do (occasionally) send out a solicitation. I might send out something reminding people I do pre-prom photos in March or April. But I make it very short and to the point. I don't try to sell it this way. I'll just mention something about me doing these kinds of photos.


I hope you've got the idea of what I'm talking about here. It's not rocket science, it's really quite easy and it absolutely works. You'll be amazed at the increase in activity you'll have once you've done this for a few weeks. Activity equates to sales in every kind of sales job I've ever had. If people are talking about you or asking about you, business will come next. Personally, I like the business to come to me rather than me going out to find the business. This is the only way I know of to bring business to me.




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Portraits on the Beach

So I've been meaning to shoot some portraits of our sons for my wife so she'll have them for Mother's Day but have just been too busy. We caught a nice (although hot) day and we had some time so we put some decent clothes on the boys and hopped in the car and headed to Sandy Hook in NJ to get some shots on the beach. I'm more of an, "on location," kinda guy rather than a studio guy even though there are a lot of variables which need to be accounted for when on location. The problem is, these variables tend to be dynamic when outside due to things like lighting conditions. But that's half the fun!

We couldn't go early in the morning due to previous engagements so I figured we go in the afternoon and let the boys play on the sand a bit while we waited for better light. Luckily, there was no traffic--something you must endure if you want to go, "down the shore," as we say here in NJ--because it was all on its way out of the park. Just the way I like it! No problem parking either since everyone was on their way home by the time we got there.

Unfortunately, we still got there a little too early for the light. I decided to snap a few shots anyway, just to play around and keep from, well, getting bored. The sunlight, as you will see in the photos, was just too harsh. I was able to over-power the sunlight with my flash but it's very hard on the subject since they're looking into the sun as it was to my back. Got a lot of squinting shots...not very good for portraits I think you'll agree.

Here are a couple of shots from when the sun was too harsh:

However, this just shows you how nice a job an on-camera flash can do in such a situation. The sun was bright. Lots of extra light reflecting off the sand as well. A lot of people don't shoot flash in this situation because, well, it's bright. The problem is, as any photog knows, this harsh sun throws unflattering shadows everywhere...especially on your subjects in the face. The flash gets rid of those shadows and gives a much more flattering photo.

So we packed up and drove to another beach area in Sandy Hook. Killed a little more time so the light was getting better. This beach had some nice rocks stacked up which I thought would help make an interesting photo opportunity. So we trudged down the beach to find the, "right," rock. Of course I drove the wife and kids crazy as they just figured any old rock would do but I knew better.

Again, even though the light was better at this point, a flash should still be used for the same reasons I mentioned above. Flash is your friend, not a foe whom you must beat into submission. I started out (in my hobby days) shunning flash. I didn't like flash or how it looked. Always washed out my photos. If it was took dark to shoot, I just didn't shoot. However, that was because I didn't know what I was doing. A flash--or flashes--when used properly, really enhance photos. When you're shooting with a DSLR like so many of us, you have a lot more control over your exposure, which is something you can take advantage of with a flash--even the little built-in flash on so many DSLRs.

In this situation, I'm not using my flash as my main light source. My main light source is the sun in this situation. In fact, I have no less than three light sources in these photos (and the ones above). Yes, I said three...the sun is one, my flash is another and the reflected sun off the sand is a third. Actually, this is a form of over/under lighting which is used in fashion photography where they have a light up high and one down low. It's extremely flattering lighting--when not too harsh that is.

When using a flash in this situation it's called using it as a fill flash. Now, there are lots of different techniques you can use in order to do proper fill flash but I'm not going into that today. Just suffice to say, fill flash is used quite a bit by photogs in order to enhance available light. It's also not terribly hard to do once you understand the basics of flash photography. Again, I'm not going into that in this blog entry but will in a future entry. Just letting you know about fill flash so you can learn a little about it and see how it's used in a situation where many people would never think to use a flash.

So, back to the rocks...

Once I fount the rock for my subjects, I took a few test shots to make sure my exposure was correct and started snapping away. Of course, shooting children can be challenging at times--especially my younger son as he just wants to do his own thing. Very difficult to get him to look at the camera even though he loves to be photographed. Also next to impossible to keep him still but these are the hazards of shooting a 4 year old.

I also got mom in on some shots. Luckily, she was an easy model to work with. Anyway, after all of that, here's what I captured:

Still a little hint of squinting on this one unfortunately.

Hope you enjoyed this entry. Will get more informative in future entries...I promise!

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