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Any tips for avoiding being trigger happy for Sports photography?


TrekRover
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Hey Trek, I had that discussion with some of the pro photographers from other outlets. They actually would be proud you shot a lot. the points I concluded from our conversation is fairly simple. Sports is very fast, and the moments flee in milliseconds. Out of a 100 you get 1 good shot, out of a 1000 you get 10. In the end, the game would have that 1 or 2 moments that you're either lucky to capture or unlucky to miss. And the final element to affect the image is the result. If you got the shot of the best moment, but the team loses, it becomes a normal shot. Therefore, Luck play a big role is sports, and mass shooting becomes necessary after great skills to increase the luck factor. In the end, memory is cheaper now and no restrictions apply.

You might be thinking of post work, and my advice is to review the images during the game when the play is paused for any reason. I have a custom button to star images as I review them, and usually I have a sense of which set of shots would have the best shot and instantly rate it.

This is image from the last women basketball game I shot and was the big moment shot (in my humble opinion). The coach rarely shows his emotions, but not during this game, and especially that this is the first time they beat Louisville since 1995. Only the last sentence (information) makes the image a lot more meaningful.

1303iD86090B248ECA2ED.thumb.jpg.7366e629d69b3e6a2a61116892699468.jpg 

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Thanks for the advice! That makes me feel better. I feel like I need to up my focusing game and try to do center spot focusing area. As I was looking at my photos there were many missed opportunities because the camera ended up focusing the audience instead of the players....😅 Well I just finished processing and editing the photos, down to 38 and of those, 16 were the "best" of them. From 5,000 to 38.... 😭

1305i6BB05E5619B009E6.thumb.jpg.7199e524d23b4b302eb9823777761bfc.jpg

From my first Sports shoot 😄

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On 1/16/2023 at 1:42 AM, TrekRover said:

Thanks for the advice! That makes me feel better. I feel like I need to up my focusing game and try to do center spot focusing area. As I was looking at my photos there were many missed opportunities because the camera ended up focusing the audience instead of the players....😅 Well I just finished processing and editing the photos, down to 38 and of those, 16 were the "best" of them. From 5,000 to 38.... 😭

spacer.png

From my first Sports shoot 😄

Avoid center spot focusing! I've tried every method to see what fits best. There was an article on Alpha Universe, and I bet it was PM-R, that mentioned using medium spot tracking. I tried it, and now it's my go to for sports and anything moving. Give it a try. You would need to figure where to place the box for the best result that suits you.

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Avoid center spot focusing! I've tried every method to see what fits best. There was an article on Alpha Universe, and I bet it was PM-R, that mentioned using medium spot tracking. I tried it, and now it's my go to for sports and anything moving. Give it a try. You would need to figure where to place the box for the best result that suits you.

Thanks! I'll try the medium spot tracking!

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few years ago I was shooting at the Outback Bowl in Florida. I was standing next to a well known former SI  photographer. We had chatted a bit between plays and after a bit he looked at me and asked, "you started shooting with film, didn't you?" Nervous I was doing something wrong, I answered yes. He smiled and said "good", always shoot to get the shot, not just to not miss it. In other words, know the sport, anticipate the moments and where you need to be to get the best angle and shoot with purpose..not out of fear of missing a moment. It will help in post if youre on deadline, and while you may miss a few shots, you'll gradually find you develop and eye that brings you more keepers.

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I would say don't worry about being trigger happy, the difference between a great shot and a ok one can be fractions of a second and if you see it, it's too late to capture. Alternatively, in you can try what Patrick Murphy-Racey has been doing, and shoot 8k video and pull stills 

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I would say don't worry about being trigger happy, the difference between a great shot and a ok one can be fractions of a second and if you see it, it's too late to capture. Alternatively, in you can try what Patrick Murphy-Racey has been doing, and shoot 8k video and pull stills 

I am always worried about missing a moment and there have definitely been some situations where I missed the fraction of a second frame. I think recording the video is a great idea! I think the main solution I need may be just to buy more larger capacity CF Express Type A cards 😭

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A few years ago I was shooting at the Outback Bowl in Florida. I was standing next to a well known former SI  photographer. We had chatted a bit between plays and after a bit he looked at me and asked, "you started shooting with film, didn't you?" Nervous I was doing something wrong, I answered yes. He smiled and said "good", always shoot to get the shot, not just to not miss it. In other words, know the sport, anticipate the moments and where you need to be to get the best angle and shoot with purpose..not out of fear of missing a moment. It will help in post if youre on deadline, and while you may miss a few shots, you'll gradually find you develop and eye that brings you more keepers.

you're absolutely right! I think sometimes get too excited and start snapping at sub par scenes just because I am afraid to lose a moment. For example, I waste a lot of frames on wildlife doing nothing special 😅 when I should be saving the space for an action shot!

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Avoid center spot focusing! I've tried every method to see what fits best. There was an article on Alpha Universe, and I bet it was PM-R, that mentioned using medium spot tracking. I tried it, and now it's my go to for sports and anything moving. Give it a try. You would need to figure where to place the box for the best result that suits you.

Here's the article from AlphaUniverse.com - it's definitely a great reference for setting up for shooting any sport.

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Hey Trek, I had that discussion with some of the pro photographers from other outlets. They actually would be proud you shot a lot. the points I concluded from our conversation is fairly simple. Sports is very fast, and the moments flee in milliseconds. Out of a 100 you get 1 good shot, out of a 1000 you get 10. In the end, the game would have that 1 or 2 moments that you're either lucky to capture or unlucky to miss. And the final element to affect the image is the result. If you got the shot of the best moment, but the team loses, it becomes a normal shot. Therefore, Luck play a big role is sports, and mass shooting becomes necessary after great skills to increase the luck factor. In the end, memory is cheaper now and no restrictions apply.

You might be thinking of post work, and my advice is to review the images during the game when the play is paused for any reason. I have a custom button to star images as I review them, and usually I have a sense of which set of shots would have the best shot and instantly rate it.

This is image from the last women basketball game I shot and was the big moment shot (in my humble opinion). The coach rarely shows his emotions, but not during this game, and especially that this is the first time they beat Louisville since 1995. Only the last sentence (information) makes the image a lot more meaningful.

1303iD86090B248ECA2ED.thumb.jpg.7ef980d1232893b6d4b0995a850477d6.jpg 

I started my career as a sports photographer 46+ years ago before auto-everything. A standard take on an NFL game (I shot for 26 years) was 40 rolls (chrome) per game. That is 1200 images. Don't shoot less, just shoot don't shoot meaningless images. Action and Emotion are what needs to be shot in most cases and you did a great job here of capturing the emotion. If you are shooting with an a1 at 30fps, it's pretty easy to rack up a large number. It will vary from sport to sport. You said it was your first event? Study you edit and see where the "non-keepers" are coming from. You should always be learning through your edits. The will teach you a lot about what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

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  • 1 month later...

First you must understand the sport and how it flows, meaning where should you be for the best angle. Shoot to get the shot, not to miss it. Too many times I see some photographers basically shooting a video of a play with a still camera so they dont miss anything. If youre in tune with the action you should be able to anticipate the play if you understand the sport and shoot to get the shot with purpose. Yes, you'll miss some but you'll also have more keepers and develop the skill. I was told once I still shoot digital like I was shooting film by a former SI shooter. I thought I was doing something wrong but it was actually a compliment...."your shooting with purpose, thats a good thing".

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I typically shoot 4-5,000 images every time I shoot a football game with my a1's.  You're going from 5000 down to 127 is smack-on in terms of keeping only the best from each game you shoot.  Here are a few tips: 

1. 

When shooting, try to get on the action early and press the shutter button EARLY.  Then train yourself to let off faster once the peak of the action is over.  As you look at your images, you will see that you are likely staying on that shutter release too long.

2.  When editing, use Photo Mechanic.  You can download it for free for 30 days which will give you time to figure out you cannot live without it for shooting sports.  Set your contact sheet to see just 6 images at a time on a large monitor and just tag the ones you want to keep.  By looking at only 6-9 images at a time, you will pass on all the imperfect ones and only keep the best.  Once you get through an entire game, go back and delete one more time from your selects.  When you are practiced, you can keep under 100 images per game.

The more games you shoot, the better you will get at this.  KEEP SHOOTING!!!

if you can fit it into your schedule next month, come on down to Tennessee to play all day long at a track meet at my next workshop from April 14-16th 🙂   the workshop is listed on the alphauniverse calendar.

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What ever it takes to get good images is all that matters. You may be able to refine your shooting a little bit but do not sacrifice anything that will have you miss the moment. Also, images that do not seem so important now could be valuable later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First you must understand the sport and how it flows, meaning where should you be for the best angle. Shoot to get the shot, not to miss it. Too many times I see some photographers basically shooting a video of a play with a still camera so they dont miss anything. If youre in tune with the action you should be able to anticipate the play if you understand the sport and shoot to get the shot with purpose. Yes, you'll miss some but you'll also have more keepers and develop the skill. I was told once I still shoot digital like I was shooting film by a former SI shooter. I thought I was doing something wrong but it was actually a compliment...."your shooting with purpose, thats a good thing".

Yes, knowing your sport is critically important.  Be prepared and expect when the critical moments will happen.  If you are asked to cover an event which you are not familiar with, do your best to research ahead of time to get a feeling for how the game flows and locations where key action usually occurs. 

I was not a baseball fan when I first started shooting games.  So I shot everything at first.  I ended up with thousands of images to cull and few keepers.  As I learned the game my total volume of shots taken per game dramatically decreased while my keeper rate increased.  Learn to anticipate events rather than react to them.

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