Three tips that I wanted to share while going through some basketball photos. The first tip is have the appropriate equipment. You need to have equipment that will help you actually photograph the sport that you want to shoot. I highly suggest that every sports photographer (and photographer in general) invest in a good 70-200 f2.8 lens. Its a highly versatile lens that can be used for both sports and other types of photography. The other thing is to have a camera that can handle low light situations. The majority of high school sports are done in low light (either indoors or at night). You need a camera that can handle that
The second tip is know the sport and know the rules. Youtube is a great resource for watching games and for videos that explain the rules. If you know the sport and the rules it will help you better anticipate what is going to happen during the game and help you capture the peak action.
The third tip is slow down. There are so many times I see people saying they take thousands of photos during a game. In a college football game there are 3600 seconds of game action. If you take 4000 photos that means you are taking at least one photo for each second the game clock is running. That means you are either motor driving (aka spray and pray) or you don’t know what you’re trying to shoot (see tip two). My suggestion is to “reset” your thinking by switching to single shot and making a conscience effort to compose your shots and only release the shutter at the peak of the action.
If you know the sport you are shooting and you practice eventually you will start nailing the peak action in single shot nearly every time. This will not only help you out when you go to edit the photos but it will make you a better photographer because it forces you to think about what you actually want to shoot and not spray and pray hoping you got something good.
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