I occasionally read Photography Bay and found two tips in a recent post I’d like to pass along to you about taking great pictures. Many of us take a broad photo of a scene — the subject we want and all the scenery around that subject. Sometimes just zooming in tight on the subject creates a better photo. Here are two points from Chris Gampat’s post, “7 tips for shooting sports and action.” I think these tips are valuable for most any kind of photo subject.
Frame it Tight
The above photo could be tighter depending on the photographer’s preferences. However, this framing shows an exciting moment, that this is a spectator sport, emotions, etc. While these two infantry men were dueling, the knight wearing red knocked the sword out of the hand of his combatant. This image captures that exact moment right before he fell.
Ensure that your framing shows what you want to get across and nothing more. That’s very important in sports photography as we usually see lots of wide to telephoto shots when watching the game from the comfort of our living rooms.
4. Capture the Emotions
Emotions are everything in a game and every athlete displays them. Shooting these emotions during exciting moments can work out well to your benefit because it will help you with portraiture, street candids, weddings, etc.
In sports, it’s all about the players. Basketball and tennis players always display emotions and it’s easy to see because their faces aren’t obstructed. In a game like football, it can be harder to capture these moments and it requires more from the photographer because body language has to be read. The photo above shows off the distress in the green knight as he’s dangerously close to his opponents axe.
Personally, I like to fill my camera screen with the shot I really want, rather than cropping later. That means taking closeups, zooming in on the face and personality of the subject or capturing the “meat” of the action as Chris Gampat explains above. Forget the background if it’s not vital to the shot you want to get. Here’s a link back to a post I wrote about how a professional photographer captures the personality of her cats by using some of these techniques. I think you’ll enjoy her photos as well.