Chapter 5. On the Move

The Tricks to Shooting Sports and More

The past few chapters have been all about shutter speed, f-stop, ISO, and the other elements of exposure. Now let’s take a look at how we can apply them to some different situations. In this chapter, we will explore how to get the most from your camera when it comes to taking action and sports photos. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to stopping the action or conveying movement, so let’s jump in.

Poring Over the Picture

Usually when I shoot the motocross events at my county fair, I concentrate on the jumping aspects. This past year, though, I thought I would add some different images of the riders aside from their mid-air acrobatics. One technique that I wanted to try out was panning. So as the riders were getting introduced to the crowd and making their first ride across the arena floor, I set up my camera with a slow shutter speed and practiced panning to convey a sense of motion.

Poring Over the Picture

A couple of years back I had the fortunate experience of shooting the International Gold Cup races from the infield. This gave me a chance to get up close and personal with the racing action as the horses and riders made their way across the course. It also meant that I could get some great close-up images without having to use extremely long telephoto lenses.

Stop Right There!

If you are going to be proficient at capturing moving subjects, then you are going to have to make friends with the shutter speed dial. Shutter speed is the main tool in the photographer’s arsenal for capturing great action shots. The ability to freeze a moment in time often makes the difference between a good shot and a great one. To make the most of the relationship between shutter speed and movement, you will need to develop an understanding of how the speed of the shutter affects your image. When you press the shutter release button, your camera goes into action by opening the shutter curtain and then closing it after a predetermined length of time. The longer you leave your shutter open, the more your subject will move across the frame, so common sense dictates that the first thing to consider is just how fast your subject is moving. If you are taking a picture of a mountain, you really don’t need to concern yourself with whether or not the mountain is going to move during your exposure. If, however, you are taking a picture of a bird that is soaring in front of a mountain, you will need to consider just how fast that bird is flying and how long your shutter can be open if you don’t want it to appear as a mere blur in your final image. Typically, when you are shooting, you will be working in fractions of a second. Just how long those fractions are depends on several factors. Subject movement, while simple in concept, is actually based on three factors. The first is the direction of travel. Is the subject moving across your field of view (left to right) or traveling toward or away from you? The second consideration is the actual speed at which the subject is moving. There is a big difference between a moving sports car and a child on a bicycle. Finally, the distance from you to the subject has a direct bearing on how fast the action seems to be taking place and how quickly it moves across your field of view. Let’s take a brief look at each of these factors to see how they might affect your shooting.

Direction of Travel

Typically, the first thing that people think about when taking an action shot is how fast the subject is moving, but in reality the first consideration should be the direction of travel. Where you are positioned in relation to the subject’s direction of travel is critically important in selecting the proper shutter speed. When you open your shutter, the lens gathers light from your subject and records it on the camera sensor. If the subject is moving across your viewfinder, you need a faster shutter speed to keep that lateral movement from being recorded as a streak across your image. Subjects that are moving towards or away from your shooting location do not move across your viewfinder and appear to be more stationary. This allows you to use a slightly slower shutter speed. A subject that is moving in a diagonal direction—both across the frame and toward or away from you—requires a shutter speed in between the two (Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1. Action coming toward the camera at an angle can be captured with slower shutter speeds than action moving perpendicular to your position.

Subject Speed

Once the angle of motion has been determined, you can then assess the speed at which the subject is traveling. The faster your subject moves, the faster your shutter speed needs to be in order to “freeze” that subject (Figure 5.2). A person walking across your frame might only require a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second, while a cyclist traveling in the same direction would call for 1/500 of a second. That same cyclist traveling toward you at the same rate of speed, rather than across the frame, might only require a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. You can start to see how the relationship of speed and direction comes into play in your decision-making process.

Figure 5.2. As the jet got closer and was starting to go across my path, it became necessary to raise the shutter speed to maintain image sharpness.

Subject-to-Camera Distance

So now we know both the direction and the speed of your subject. The final factor to address is the distance between you and the action. Picture yourself looking at a highway full of cars from up in a tall building a quarter of a mile from the road. As you stare down at the traffic moving along at 55 miles per hour, the cars and trucks seem to be slowly moving along the roadway. Now picture yourself standing in the median of that same road as the same traffic flies by at the same rate of speed.

Although the traffic is moving at the same speed, the shorter distance between you and the traffic makes the cars look like they are moving much faster. This is because your field of view is much narrower; therefore, the subjects are not going to present themselves within the frame for the same length of time. The concept of distance applies to the length of your lens as well (Figure 5.3). If you are using a wide-angle lens, you can probably get away with a slower shutter speed than if you were using a telephoto, which puts you in the heart of the action. It all has to do with your field of view. That telephoto gets you “closer” to the action—and the closer you are, the faster your subject will be moving across your viewfinder.

Figure 5.3. Due to the distance from the camera, a slower shutter speed could be used to capture this action.

Using Shutter Priority Mode to Stop Motion

In Chapter 3, you were introduced to the shooting modes. You’ll remember that the mode that gives you ultimate control over shutter speed is Shutter Priority mode (labeled as S or Tv, depending on which camera system you are using). In Shutter Priority mode, you are responsible for selecting the shutter speed while handing over the aperture selection to the camera. The ability to concentrate on just one exposure factor helps you quickly make changes on the fly while staying glued to your viewfinder and your subject.

There are a couple of things to consider when using Shutter Priority mode, both of which have to do with the amount of light that is available when shooting. While you have control over which shutter speed you select in Shutter Priority mode, the range of shutter speeds that is available to you depends largely on how well your subject is lit.

Typically, when shooting fast-paced action, you will be working with very fast shutter speeds. This means that your lens will probably be set to its largest aperture. If the light is not sufficient for the shutter speed selected, you will need to do one of two things: select a lens that offers a larger working aperture, or more likely, raise the ISO of the camera. Working off the assumption that you have only one lens available, let’s concentrate on balancing your exposure using the ISO.

Let’s say that you are shooting a baseball game at night, and you want to get some great action shots. You set your camera to Shutter Priority mode and, after testing out some shutter speeds, determine that you need to shoot at 1/500 of a second to freeze the action on the field. When you place the viewfinder to your eye and press the shutter button halfway, you might notice that the f-stop has been replaced by the word “Lo” or some other type of warning in viewfinder. This is your camera’s way of telling you that the lens has now reached its maximum aperture and you are going to be underexposed if you shoot your pictures at the currently selected shutter speed. You could slow your shutter speed down until the warning goes away, but then you might get images with too much motion blur.

The alternative is to raise your ISO to a level that is high enough for a proper exposure. The key here is to always use the lowest ISO that you can get away with. That might mean ISO 100 in bright sunny conditions or ISO 6400 for an indoor or night situation (Figure 5.5). Just remember that the higher the ISO, the greater the amount of noise in your image. This is the reason that you see professional sports photographers using those mammoth lenses perched atop a monopod: they could use a smaller lens, but to get those very large apertures they need a huge piece of glass on the front of the lens. The larger the glass on the front of the lens, the more light it gathers, and the larger the aperture for shooting. For the working pro, the large aperture translates into low ISO (and thus low noise), fast shutter speeds, and razor-sharp action.

Figure 5.5. Sometimes the only way to stop action under the lights is to crank up your ISO.

Using Aperture Priority Mode to Isolate Your Subject

One of the benefits of working in Shutter Priority mode with fast shutter speeds is that, more often than not, you will be shooting with the largest aperture available on your lens. Shooting with a large aperture allows you to use faster shutter speeds, but it also narrows your depth of field.

To isolate your subject in order to focus your viewer’s attention on it, a large aperture is required. The larger aperture reduces the foreground and background sharpness: the larger the aperture, the more blurred they will be.

The reason that I bring this up here is that when you are shooting most sporting events, the idea is to isolate your main subject by having it in focus while the rest of the image has some amount of blur. This sharp focus draws your viewer right to the subject. Studies have shown that the eye is drawn to sharp areas before moving on to the blurry areas. Also, depending on what your subject matter is, there can be a tendency to get distracted by a busy background if everything in the photo is equally sharp. Without a narrow depth of field, it might be difficult for the viewer to establish exactly what the main subject is in your picture.

Let’s look at how to use depth of field to bring focus to your subject. In the previous section, I told you that you should use Shutter Priority mode for getting those really fast shutter speeds to stop action. Generally speaking, Shutter Priority will be the mode you most often use for shooting sports and other action, but there will be times when you want to ensure that you are getting the narrowest depth of field possible in your image. The way to do this is by using Aperture Priority mode (labeled as A or Av, depending on which camera you own).

So how do you know when you should use Aperture Priority mode as opposed to Shutter Priority mode? It’s not a simple answer, but your LCD screen can help you make this determination. The best scenario for using Aperture Priority is a brightly lit scene where maximum apertures will still give you plenty of shutter speed to stop the action.

Let’s say that you are shooting a soccer game in the midday sun. If you have determined that you need something between 1/500 and 1/1250 of a second for stopping the action, you could just set your camera to a high shutter speed in Shutter Priority mode and just start shooting. But you also want to be using an aperture of, say, f/4.5 to get that narrow depth of field. Here’s the problem: if you set your camera to Shutter Priority mode and select 1/1000 of a second as a nice compromise, you might get that desired f/stop—but you might not. As the meter is trained on your moving subject, the light levels could rise or fall, which might actually change that desired f-stop to something higher like f/5.6 or even f/8. Now the depth of field is extended, and you will no longer get that nice isolation and separation that you wanted.

To rectify this, switch the camera to Aperture Priority mode and select f/4.5 as your aperture. Now, as you begin shooting, the camera holds that aperture and makes exposure adjustments with the shutter speed. As I said before, this works well when you have lots of light—enough light so that you can have a high-enough shutter speed without introducing motion blur.

Using Auto ISO the Right Way

You might recall earlier in the book where I said that Auto ISO is a bad thing and that it should be turned off. Well, that’s not always the truth. Sometimes you will need to use the ISO to get a specific result—and by utilizing Auto ISO, you can make life just a little easier. Here’s what I mean.

While shooting a sporting event, you determine that the shutter speed you want to work with to freeze motion is 1/1000 of a second. And let’s say you want to use your largest aperture to help blur the background. The problem is that it’s a partly cloudy day and the sun keeps moving in and out of the clouds, making it difficult to shoot with your desired settings without having to constantly make changes to those settings. Here’s the solution: set your camera to the Manual mode and then dial in the appropriate shutter speed and aperture settings. Then set your ISO to Auto. Now, whenever there is a change in the light, the camera will adjust the ISO by small increments to adjust for the changing light. This will allow you to keep your camera set to the desired aperture and shutter speed.

Let’s look at Figure 5.6 to see what I mean. The motocross jumping event didn’t begin until sometime around 7:30 in the evening, so as I began to shoot, the light levels started to fall. I knew that I wanted to have my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens opened to its largest aperture setting and my shutter speed needed to be at least 1/200 of a second to stop the action at the apex of the jumps. I could have used a different shooting mode but I would have needed to constantly readjust my ISO as the light levels dropped. Instead, I set the ISO to Auto so that it would always give me just the right sensitivity as the light levels changed. Once the sun was completely down, I just set it on ISO 6400 because I knew that the light level would be constant from that point on.

Figure 5.6. By letting the camera choose an appropriate ISO, I can ensure that I have the aperture and shutter speed that is appropriate for my subject.

Keep Them in Focus with Continuous Focus and Focus Point Selection

With the exposure issue handled for the moment, let’s move on to an area that is equally important: focusing. Most modern digital SLR cameras have multiple focus modes to choose from. They all have different names but they pretty much do the same thing. In order to get the greatest benefit from each of them, though, it is important to understand how they work and the situations where each mode will give you the best opportunity to grab a great shot. Because we are discussing subject movement, our first choice is going to be the Continuous focus mode. Continuous focus modes generally lock in the focus when the shutter button is halfway depressed and then continue to adjust focus on the subject until you completely depress the shutter button.

Depending on your camera, you might have a couple of options to choose from when using a Continuous focus mode. Canon users might want to use the AI-Servo mode, whereas Nikon users would select AF-C.

The other focusing option to consider is the focus point selection (Figure 5.7). While the focus mode addresses how the camera focuses, the focus point is about what the camera is focusing on. Most cameras will allow you to choose between a single focus point and a more dynamic auto-point system. When using Continuous focusing, the point selection method you choose will be dependent on the type of subject that you are photographing. If it is a single subject that is going to remain in one area of the viewfinder you will probably have great success with the single point selection (Figure 5.8), but if you are trying to track movement that is unpredictable and might move around the viewfinder, you should definitely practice using the auto-point feature (Figure 5.9).

Figure 5.7. The focus points from a Canon T2i.

Figure 5.8. A large singular subject like this fighter jet was easy to track using a single focus point and Continuous focus.

Figure 5.9. Tracking this horse and rider was made easier by utilizing an auto-point selection paired with Continuous focus.

Manual Focus for Anticipated Action

While I utilize the automatic focus modes for the majority of my shooting, there are times when I like to fall back on manual focus. This is usually when I know when and where the action will occur and I want to capture the subject as it crosses a certain plane of focus. This is useful in sports like motocross or auto racing, where the subjects are on a defined track and I know exactly where I want to capture the action. I could try tracking the subject, but sometimes the view can be obscured by a curve. By pre-focusing the camera, all I have to do is wait for the subject to approach my point of focus and then start firing the camera.

Take a look at Figure 5.10. The riders in the barrel races were guiding their horses around three barrels and then racing back to the finish line. The lighting in the arena was spotty at best and the horses and riders were passing from bright conditions to almost dark shadows. This made exposures and focusing quite difficult. Instead, I chose a point on the course where I knew the riders would come to as they circled the barrel. I used the single focus point method to focus on the exact spot that I wanted and then switched the lens to manual focus. I also determined the proper exposure and set this in Manual shooting mode. Now all I had to do was wait for horse and rider to enter my target zone and take my shot.

Figure 5.10. Pre-focus the camera to a point where you know the subject will be and start shooting right before they get there.

Keeping Up with the Continuous Shooting Mode

Getting great focus is one thing, but capturing the best moment on the sensor can be difficult if you are shooting just one frame at a time. In the world of sports, and in life in general, things move pretty fast. If you blink, you might miss it. The same can be said for shooting in Single frame mode. Fortunately, most DSLR cameras come equipped with a Continuous shooting—or “burst”—mode that lets you capture a series of images at frame rates ranging from around 3 to as many as 11 frames per second (Figure 5.11). You should check your owner’s manual to see what your camera is capable of capturing and how to set up this option.

Figure 5.11. Using the Continuous shooting mode means that you are sure to capture the peak of the action.

Using the Continuous shooting mode causes the camera to keep taking images for as long as you hold down the shutter release button. Think of it like a machine gun. In Single mode, you have to release the button and then press it again to take another picture.

A Sense of Motion

Shooting action isn’t always about freezing the action. There are times when you want to convey a sense of motion so that the viewer can get a feel for the movement and flow of an event. Two techniques you can use to achieve this effect are panning and motion blur.

Panning

Panning has been used for decades to capture the speed of a moving object as it moves across the frame. It doesn’t work well for subjects that are moving toward or away from you. Panning is achieved by following your subject across your frame, moving your camera along with the subject, and using a slower-than-normal shutter speed so that the background (and sometimes even a bit of the subject) has a sideways blur but the main portion of your subject is sharp and blur-free. The key to a great panning shot is selecting the right shutter speed: too fast and you won’t get the desired blurring of the background; too slow and the subject will have too much blur and will not be recognizable. Practice the technique until you can achieve a smooth motion with your camera that follows along with your subject. The other thing to remember when panning is to follow through even after the shutter has closed. This will keep the motion smooth and give you better images.

In Figure 5.12, I used the panning technique to follow this motocross rider as he rode his wheelie in front of me. I set the camera to the Continuous shooting mode, and I used Shutter Priority mode to select a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second while the focus mode was on Continuous-AF. Even though my aperture was f/10, I knew that the panning motion would blur my background.

Figure 5.12. Following the subject as it moves across the field of view allows for a slower shutter speed and adds a sense of motion.

Motion blur

Another way to let the viewer in on the feel of the action is to simply include some blur in the image. This isn’t accidental blur from choosing the wrong shutter speed. This blur is more exaggerated, and it tells a story. In Figure 5.13, I was standing next to a bike trail by the Potomac River one day, just watching the riders go by. I could have taken a shot with a nice fast shutter speed and frozen them in their tracks. Instead I chose to slow down the shutter speed and let their motion tell part of the story.

Figure 5.13. The movement of the riders coupled with the slow shutter speed convey movement as they pass each other on the path.

Just as in panning, there is no preordained shutter speed to use for this effect. It is simply a matter of trial and error until you have a look that conveys the action. I try to get some area of the subject or scene that is frozen. The key to this technique is the correct shutter speed combined with keeping the camera still during the exposure. You are trying to capture the motion of the subject, not the photographer or the camera, so use a good shooting stance or even a tripod.

Tips for Shooting Action

Give them somewhere to go

Whether you are shooting something as simple as your child’s soccer match or as complex as the aerial acrobatics of a motorcycle jumper, where you place the subject in the frame is equally as important as how well you expose the image. A poorly composed shot can completely ruin a great moment by not holding the viewer’s attention.

The one mistake I see many times in action photography is that the photographer doesn’t use the frame properly. If you are dealing with a subject that is moving horizontally across your field of view, give the subject somewhere to go by placing them to the side of the frame, with their motion leading toward the middle of the frame (Figure 5.14). This offsetting of the subject will introduce a sense of direction and anticipation for the viewer. Unless you are going to completely fill the image with the action, try to avoid placing your subject in the middle of the frame.

Figure 5.14. Try to leave space in front of your subject to lead the action in a direction.

Get in Front of the Action

Here’s another one. When shooting action, show the action coming toward you (Figure 5.15). Don’t shoot the action going away from you. People want to see faces. Faces convey the action, the drive, the sense of urgency, and the emotion of the moment. So if you are shooting action involving people, always position yourself so that the action is either coming at you or is at least perpendicular to your position.

Figure 5.15. Try to position yourself so that the action is coming at you face-first.

Shoot in Manual to Lock in your Exposure

Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes are great, but sometimes it pays to just do things yourself. If you find yourself shooting in an environment where the action is moving across backgrounds that will play havoc with your meter readings, you might just do better at setting up your shot in Manual mode.

The image in Figure 5.16 was one that I got after doing some trial and error in Manual mode.

Figure 5.16. To keep the dark background from influencing the exposure, I used the Manual shooting mode.

The sun had gone down completely for the evening so the only light left was coming from the big spotlights that were illuminating the outdoor area. I was originally set up in Shutter Priority mode, but the darkness of the sky kept fooling the camera into trying to overexpose the images. I knew that my light source would not be changing for the rest of the night, so all I had to do was nail the right exposure using Manual mode and then concentrate on capturing the action.

Chapter 5 Assignments

The mechanics of motion

For this first assignment, you need to find some action. Explore the relationship between the speed of an object and its direction of travel. Use the same shutter speed to record your subject moving toward you and across your view. Try using the same shutter speed for both to compare the difference made by the direction of travel.

Wide vs. telephoto

Just as with the first assignment, photograph a subject moving in different directions, but this time, use a wide-angle lens and then a telephoto. Check out how the telephoto setting on the zoom lens will require faster shutter speeds than the lens at its wide-angle setting.

Getting a feel for focusing modes

Probably one of the most important aspects of shooting action is learning how to use the focus modes properly so that you always get tack-sharp images. Experiment using the single and Continuous auto focus modes. Then pair them with the different focus point selection modes so that you feel confident that you know how they work and which is the best choice for the type of subject you want to shoot.

Anticipating the spot using manual focus

For this assignment, you will need to find a subject that you know will cross a specific line that you can pre-focus on. A street with moderate traffic works well for this. Focus on a spot on the street that the cars will travel across (don’t forget to set your lens for manual focus). To do this right, you need to set the camera the Continuous shooting mode. Now, when a car approaches the spot, start shooting. Try shooting in three- or four-frame bursts.

Following the action

Panning is a great way to show motion. To begin, find a subject that will move across your path at a steady speed and practice following it in your viewfinder from side to side. Now, with the camera in Shutter Priority mode, set your shutter speed to 1/30 of a second and the focus mode to Continuous (and try using an auto focus point selection mode if you have one). Now pan along with the subject and shoot as it moves across your view. Experiment with different shutter speeds and focal lengths. Panning is one of those skills that takes some time to get a feel for, so try it with different types of subjects moving at different speeds.

Feeling the movement

Instead of panning with the motion, use a stationary camera position and adjust the shutter speed until you get a blurred effect that gives the sense of motion while still being able to identify the subject. There is a big difference between a slightly blurred photo that looks like you just picked the wrong shutter speed and one that looks intentional for the purpose of showing motion. Just like panning, it will take some experimentation to find just the right shutter speed to achieve the desired effect.

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