This post is meant to hopefully answer some questions and help educate folks who either want to learn sports photography or learn how we get some of the great action shots.
One question that crops up is how do we get photos that look the same way the scene appeared when you were there seeing it live? We've had the opportunity to shoot in a lot of different environments and lighting conditions and through these experiences we've learned when to use natural light and artificial lighting. For most of our sports related action shots we prefer natural lighting which captures the scene the way it appeared to you watching it. This allows us to capture action sequences in bursts that are sure to capture a special moment versus clicking the shutter once in "hope" of timing it correctly and trust that if you see it with your eye it's already too late to capture it with the camera! As with any mechanical device a flash is subject to failure at calculating exposure especially in fast paced subject matter. To shoot natural light we use pro level lenses with an aperture of 2.8 or "lower" which is referred to as fast glass among the photography world. These lenses normally costs into the thousands of dollars which prohibit most normal folks from investing in while us camera buffs and those that depend upon it as a living make the investment to set ourselves apart from the crowd. Check out the difference between flash sports photography versus natural light and you'll see a significant difference in the appearance and consistency of the shots taken. With Digital Storm Photography you don't have to worry about red eye, flash burned, or blurry photos!
What settings are best for sports is another common question among people learning photography or trying sports for the first time. There is no quick and easy answer except in the fact that it depends on what you want for the end result. Usually an aperture of 2.8 or faster will give you out of focus backgrounds that make the subject stand out from the clutter of the background. A shutter speed of 1/250 is usually an ideal starting point if you want to freeze action but again it depends on how fast your subject is moving in relationship to your camera. A high school football player running for instance can be "stopped" with 1/250 shutter speed but his feet or hands may be a blur as they are moving faster than his torso as noticed in these photos.
You can also use other methods such as panning to make your subject stand out. This requires moving with the subject with precision and following it through the entire shot. This will make your subject focused but background blur such as this picture.
Thanks for taking the time to read and we hope this helps explain what it takes to get some good action shots! We also want our patrons to rest assured we can give some of the highest quality, most consistent and unique images around with a combination of excellent equipment and thorough knowledge of it's use.
