This high jump photo was good in it's original all-color form. But it really comes alive with the jumper and high jump bar in color while the background is in black & white. There are various ways to accomplish this post-processing feat. If you're Mac user, however, I've found Color Splash Studio to be powerful and very easy to create selective color photos.
Check out this YouTube video describing Color Splash Studio for Mac.
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Getting good shots of runners can be challenging (distance runners in particular). It's not hard to get any shot. It's very hard to capture compelling shots. There's just not a lot of obvious emotion or action that's engaging in the most of the shots you capture. Here are a few tips:
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Of all the sports I photograph, I find volleyball one of the more challenging. It's normally shot indoors which is always a challenge due to less than optimal lighting. And following volleyball action is always very challenging. A fast-focusing camera/lens combination along with a high frame rate camera helps immensely with volleyball.
This photo was shot at the Indiana Convention Center which has decent lighting for sports. It was shot using a Nikon D700 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens attached. With the vertical grip attached the D700 can shoot at 8 frames per second. The camera was set in manual mode: Auto ISO (ISO 6400), 1/1250 shutter speed, f/2.8 aperture. I was also sitting on my duff close to the net.
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To me, the best sports photos are those that capture the intensity of the game. If you take enough sports photos, you'll discover that the importance of the game matters to the level of intensity expressed by the athletes in your shots. Athletes (even young ones) step it up a notch or two when the outcome of a game has real benefits for them.
The photos below were taken last weekend at the Jefferson Cup in Virginia. This specific game meant the difference between playing in the championship game later in the day or going home.
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If you're serious about sports photography, good lenses are your best investment to capture dramatic images. But even with the best lenses attached, the camera plays a significant role as well in getting usable images. For example the image below was shot using a 300mm lens set at f/2.8. The shutter speed was 1/1000s. Yet even with this very good lens attached, the camera's ISO was automatically adjusted to 6400 to properly expose the image. Notice there's not much grain in this image. The grain in this image was not cleaned-up using any post-processing software. The Nikon D700 used to capture this image performs very well at high ISO settings like 6400. Some lesser camera bodies don't perform as well from a grain perspective when shot at high ISO settings. These other cameras might be perfectly suitable for stills. But to capture action in less than ideal lighting conditions, the chosen camera can have a dramatic impact on the quality of your images.
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I know it's tough to be out in the cold, or rain, or mud, capturing sports photos. But inclement weather conditions allows you to capture some pretty dramatic shots. So suck it up. The kids are out there playing. Get off your duff. Come out of the minivan. And take some pictures of your kids in bad weather.
A snowy soccer day in Kentucky
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Don't be afraid to crop your photos with your post processing software to hightlight the subject matter most important to your shot. There aren't very many photos that I post on this blog or my customer site that aren't cropped. It's very difficult to frame a photo perfectly when capturing sports photography. Let the crop function be your friend.
Original photo
Single player subject
Two player subject
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As described at Yahoo Answers, your camera's ISO setting controls how sensitive the camera is to light. A lower ISO requires more light to properly expose a photo than a higher ISO. Thus, a setting of ISO 200 needs twice as much light to properly expose a photograph as ISO 400. Your camera's ISO setting is important for sports when there's not a lot of light to maintain the fast shutter speeds necessary to clearly photograph action. Boosting your camera's ISO to 800, 1600, 3200, or even 6400 can dramatically increase the ability to properly expose your sports shots with a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action. The downside to higher ISO settings is the introduction of more noise in your photos as ISO increases. Regarding noise, not all camera's are created equal. Some camera's introduce unusable noise at ISO settings as low as 1600. Others produce very good photos at ISO 6400. If you want to take action shots indoors or in other low light situations, having a camera that performs well at higher ISO settings can be very useful.
The photo below was shot at the Pontiac Silverdome (the old home of the Detroit Lions). While the lighting in the Silverdome is very good, this shot still required an ISO setting of 4000 to properly expose this photo at aperture f/2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/1250s.
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Why have all of that gear if you're not prepared to use it. If you shoot sports, you know that one lens doesn't cover every situation you'll encounter during a shoot. That 300mm prime lens is great for capturing the action far away, but terrible when the action moves closer. But it's not so great when the action moves closer. That 70-200mm lens allows you to capture the action closer to your position, but doesn't quite meet your needs for the quickly assembled team photo. Yet it doesn't quite meet your needs for the quickly assembled team photo. Of course you can always change lenses. But why change lenses if you have some old camera DSLR bodies sitting around.
The photographer below, was shooting a professional soccer match recently. You can't completely tell from this photo, but he carried 300mm lens (attached to the monopod), a 50mm lens (on his shoulder), and a 70-200mm lens (not seen in the photo) on another DSLR body.
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Well I took the plunge. I recently ordered Nikon's newest DLSR, the D800. Interestingly, it might not be my primary sports camera. My D700 will continue to serve that duty (at least that's my present thinking). At 36 megapixels, the potential image storage challenges could be substantial (particularly for lots of sports photos). It only shoots at 4 frames per second in FX mode versus 8 frames per second with my D700 and vertical grip attached. ISO low light, low noise performance should be about the same as the D700.
So why order this camera? I can still use it for sports photography (I will as a second body attached to my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for soccer). In fact it has a few crop modes that can extend the reach of my 300mm f/2.8 lens. There's no law that says I have to shoot a maximum resolution (which for sports I absolutely will not). And it's still much cheaper than a D3s body (used) which I almost purchased while at B&H in New York recently for $4200.
Check out this early preview.
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