Sports Photography

I have done a lot of different styles of photography over the years. From landscapes to macro to sports, I feel like I’ve done most of the styles. But by far the most difficult to master has been sports photography. The idea that sports photography consists only of aiming and clicking the shutter is common among people who don’t know much about photography. This isn’t to say that they are entirely wrong but there are hidden issues that aren’t easy to overcome sometimes.

The first of many issues is equipment. When you are taking sports photos, you’re sort of stuck if you don’t have the right equipment. The lens is by far the most important aspect of the equipment because without a good lens, your camera body will be practically useless. Although the right lens depends mostly on what sport your shooting, most likely you will be dishing out about a thousand bucks to cover the cost of a good enough lens.  The reason behind this is that the camera needs to capture light fast enough to stop the action. With a cheaper lens, the camera will not be able to capture enough light quick enough to get a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action dead in it’s spot. If money is not an issue, then this is the easiest problem to overcome. The hardest obstacles to overcome are still to come.

Let’s take a photograph that I took of a soccer game to explain the next issue that needs to be overcome.

Here we see a photo that although looks interesting with the ball forming around the head of the player, we don’t have a good photograph that would be used for anything of value. The reason… Who are these people? There are no faces to show who the players are! One unwritten rule with sports photography is that you always need to capture the face in the photograph (the eye especially). You can’t connect with the player if you don’t know who they are! Now, sure you have a number but where is the emotion? If the face was included on this photo the image would be 1000x better. But that’s the nature of sports photography. You think you have a good photo but in reality something major is missing and it cause the picture to just be okay.

The next problem is one of the hardest to overcome sometimes. Let’s take a look at another soccer photo and break down why the image is not good enough.

Let’s recap with this photo to see if it’s a good photograph… Stopped the action, check… Captured faces, check… So far so good, right? Well here is the next and for me the most difficult part of sports photography. Who is winning? You see, I was shooting this game for the white team (Warner University). But in this photograph you’ll see the green team (Thomas University) winning the ball. The challenge that arises most for me is capturing all of the elements needed for the image to be good while still maintaining the look that the right team is winning. Who likes a photo of their team loosing?

What about the ball? Every sport that I have shot has some sort of ball in it. Is the ball that important?

If you’re shooting a sport with a ball in it, one of the most important part to get into the photograph is the ball. We can clearly see that this is going to be an easy catch so that gives us the feeling that the team is winning. We have a face that is intensely watching the ball come all the way to the glove. We even have the image take sharp. But where is the ball? The image has no power behind it because the ball is missing completely. If someone who literally has no idea what the sport she is playing is, would look at it and wonder why she is looking up. Why does this person have a glove on? What on earth is she looking at? But with a ball in the picture all of these questions would be cleared up. So, the importance of a ball in the frame is extremely high.

The last obstacle that I will talk about is distractions.

We’ve got faces, the winning team (white) with the ball, stopped action, the ball… But who is that in the background? One thing that a lot of the time arises is someone in the background making the peak action shot look not so action. The two girls fighting for the ball is a great action shot but the girl in the background is literally just standing there. What kind of action shot is it when someone is literally doing nothing? Now, obviously the ball is nowhere near that girl but it doesn’t change the fact the the lack of action on her part practically ruins the “action packed” photograph.

There are plenty more obstacles that a photographer has to overcome with sports photography but these in my opinion have been the most difficult to overcome for me. Next time you see a sports photograph somewhere, look at it a little bit harder and see if that photographer has overcome all of the problems that come with sports photography and if so, then imagine how many photographs it took to capture that one moment.

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Marko Brutus Photography

Top Ten Photographers

I would like to compile a short list of my top ten favorite photographers and links to their portfolio.

10 – Scott Kelby is one of my favorite sports photographer but that is not the only thing I like in his portfolio. I think that he has a vast amount of good photos in nearly every genre of photography. I also think that he REALLY has the business end of the photography world on lock.

Scott Kelby’s Portfolio

9 –  Þorsteinn H. Ingibergsson, an Icelandic photographer who wonderfully captures some of the most beautiful landscapes in all of Iceland. He really is capable of capturing the real beauty that is Iceland.

Þorsteinn H. Ingibergsson’s Portfolio

8 – Justin Black, amazing work with portraits but even more amazing are the exciting self portraits that he does of himself. Some of the wonderful work that he does is simply incredible!

Justin Black’s Portfolio

7 –Janine Edmondson,  also known by some as the flower lady. Her photographs of flowers are stunning to say the least. Very clean and easy on the eyes to look at yet interesting enough to keep your attention for long periods of time. But flowers are not the only thing that she photographs, she has a wide variety of photos to look through.

Janine Edmondson’s Portfolio

6 – Ben Groossens, a interestingly artistic photographer who takes the ordinary and makes them into something a little strange but nice to look at. Very good with post process work but much of it has to do with the ideas behind each and every photo.

Ben Groossens’ Portfolio

5 – Roz Batten, although has many photographs of many different styles her most exciting style in my opinion is her macro’s of insects. Some of the things that she can pull off with her camera is unbelievable.

Roz Batten’s Portfolio

4 – Irene Müller, one of the first photographers that I ever followed. She is a wonderful macro photographer who does a great job of showing how something simple can actually be extraordinary!

Irene Müller’s Portfolio

3 – Bjorn Van Sinttruije, street photographer who lives in the Netherlands and is well known for his black and white photography with Leica brand cameras. I’ve talked to him plenty of times and each time is a great experience.

Bjorn Van Sinttruije’s Portfolio

2 – John Agar, a well received street photographer who always seem to capture the most impeccable moments and portray them in such a perfect way. He’s a good person and well respected by me and so many others.

John Agar’s Portfolio

1 – Christophe Kiciak, is a French photographer who until just recently wasn’t into photography. He picked up a camera in June 2009, but his ability to learn the tricks so quickly and seemingly effortless has inspired me to keep going with my own photography. He is a humble man who I’ve had the privilege to talk with about some photography related things.

Christophe Kiciak’s Portfolio

Does size matter?

When talking about photography and more specifically equipment, does size matter?

When I first started getting into photography I thought “the bigger the better.” I still sometimes think this… Here are a couple reasons why!

Let’s first look at a scenario that starts with 3 photographer and a potential customer.

Let’s look at the photographers first…
Photographer “A” may only have a Nikon D40 with a 50mm f/1.8 and Photographer “B” has a Nikon D40 equipped with a battery grip and the same 50mm f/1.8 While Photographer “C” has a Nikon D40 equipped with battery grip but this time with a larger lens like the 55-200mm f/3.5-5.6. 

Now let’s look at the customer.
When an average person who knows nothing about photography sees these 3 photographers, they will think to themselves, “Photographer ‘C’ looks like he knows what he is doing with all that stuff!” This leaves Photographers “A” and “B” out of a potential job. Photographers “A” and “B” now go look for a new costumer and chases are, photographer “B” will get the next job from the next model. Photographer “A” is out of a job now.

This little scenario is something I thought up when I started wanting to advertise myself. I felt as though I am being “out classed” by the people with bigger equipment. Now, does this mean I am not as good as a photographer as someone with a bigger camera? No! I feel as though I am not a great photographer but that does not mean the guy next to me with that big camera knows what he is doing.

Confidence that comes with a large set-up. 

Having a small camera has its perks for some things sure, but do they really outweigh the perks of having a big camera? Street photographers enjoy small cameras so that they can be discreet when they are taking a photograph of someone walking by or something similar to this… But, what about non-street photographers? What about the photographers that takes photos of models to put food on the table? Or the wedding photographer? The level of confidence you get when you walk into a photo-shoot or wedding with a large camera and large equipment is much greater than if you were to walk in with something tiny. This is the case even if the camera that is smaller is better than the one that is bigger.