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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 400, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000 |
This past weekend I watched a lot of football getting ready for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl that I will be shooting on December 31st.
The game continues to evolve and each team has it’s own unique characteristics. This year I will be photographing Houston vs FSU.
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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/1000 |
I started this season of football at the Georgia Dome shooting the Chick-fil-A Kickoff between Auburn and Louisville.
While once you master a skill you don’t ever really lose it you do become rusty if you do not keep those skills up.
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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/400 |
Two weeks before the Kickoff game I was out practicing at my daughter’s high school shooting the Roswell HS Hornets. By the way Roswell plays this Saturday in the the state championship game Class AAAAAA at the Georgia Dome facing defending champion Colquitt County.
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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 4000, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000 |
The week after the Roswell game and week before the Kickoff I went to another local High School game at Blessed Trinity. Again I was just trying to put oil on those skills and getting myself lubricated for the game.
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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 1000, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000 |
Then just a couple weeks ago the weekend before Thanksgiving I flew to Richmond, Virginia and covered the Richmond Spiders. My wife went there and they had their 125th meeting between William Mary and them that weekend. Many of the past coaches and players came to the game. My wife worked in the sports information office through college and also after graduating, so many of these were her friends.
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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 400, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000 |
I was able to practice not only getting peak action, but to incorporate signage into the photos. I must do this when shooting for corporations that sponsor these games. They want to see that their sponsorship was clear to those who saw the game.
Why Practice?
- One reason practice our craft is so that we are not subject to living the day out of haste but rather out of calm.
- Camera Setting for Auto Focus – My camera has three categories for auto focus: 1) AF-C Priority Selection, 2) AF-Area Mode, & Focus Tracking with lock-on. You need to test out those settings and get the camera set for the best setup for the sport you are shooting.
- Lens choices – Just renting or buying a lens without understanding how it factors into the coverage can be a huge mistake.
- Rules – You cannot just go wherever you want on a field during a game. These restrictions can impact your lens choices and impact where you shoot from during a game.
- 1/10 of a second isn’t all that fast when it comes to stopping action. Even 1/500 isn’t as great as 1/2000 or 1/4000 for freezing that action. Freezing the action also improves your sharpness in photos.
- Choosing the right aperture – while you may want to blur the background to get really smooth BOKEH if you are shooting for a corporate sponsor this may not be a good idea. Sometimes you need more depth-of-field to bring in the background. What apertures work best and how will you need to adjust to make this work?
Over time I realized that I needed to create settings profiles on my camera because it was taking a long time to set the camera up for sports. I ended up creating custom profile settings on the camera for: 1) Normal Shooting, 2) Video, 3) Studio Strobes & 4) Sports.
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| Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 560, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000 |
No matter what type of photography you are doing take the time and practice before the assignment. If you do portraits then have someone model for you while you check out a location or check your lighting.