Shooting Sports Action!

It’s lacrosse season again!



I haven’t quite finished the article on “What makes food photography look natural”, but in the mean time, girl’s lacrosse season started, and since I am a professional photographer, people expect me to shoot a few games. And since I’m shooting these games, I thought take the opportunity to share with “yous guys” what little I know about shooting sports photography. I’m surely no expert at shooting sports, but I have had quite a bit of experience, being that one of my kids is an amazing athlete and has played several sports over the years.

Rule #1 – Have the right tools. For me, that’s pretty easy since I get to write off all this expensive equipment. I usually shoot with a Nikon D2x. I prefer that over my D3 because the chip is smaller, which make the lenses longer. I’d like to brag and tell you that I own a 500mm f 2.8 lens, but I don’t. I do own an 80-400mm VR lens though, which was expensive enough… I bought the lens just for shooting my kid. I may have used it at work for a shot or two, but it’s basically for shooting sports. Unless that is, you work at the IRS… Then, it’s an essential tool of my business. :+)

Like I said, I usually use my D2x for shooting sports, unless that is, it’s a night game. Then the D3 stands head and shoulders above the D2x, with regards to low light capability. I’d gladly sacrifice a few millimeters of lens for beautiful grain.



Rule #2 – Shoot with the light. Good light is good lighting, whether you’re in a food photography studio or at a lacrosse field. When possible, have the light enhance your photography. Whenever possible, I like to have the light behind my back. This tends to evenly illuminate the players and is the most forgiving and flattering lighting situations. If you shoot with the light behind you, you will find that the success of your photos will depend more on the action and composition. You will get more acceptable photos under this type of light, and this is definitely the safest way to go.

Like in many rules, the rule about shooting with the light is sometimes meant to be broken. Having the light off to one side, usually makes for a more dramatically lit photo. The problem is that your subject needs to be facing the right direction. And since you’re at the mercy of the action on the field, you will only be able to get good photos when your main subject is facing toward the light. In a sport like soccer or lacrosse where the players face every which way at any given second, this means that your target subject will be facing the light only about half the time and you’ll be missing some good action at the expense of good lighting. This is good and bad. You’ll be missing some shots, but the shots you get will be even better with the more dramatic lighting. Hey, life’s a compromise…



Rule #3 – Go with the action. Great lighting of boring action doesn’t do you any good. Your job as a photographer is to capture the best action possible with the best lighting possible. To do this, sometimes you have to think outside the box a little. When the action dictates that I face the sun, I try to directly face the sun. What this does is to “rim” the entire person in sun and not burn out anything but the rim of the person. You usually need to go with manual exposure doing this because your meter often times gets fooled by the high contrast of light in your viewfinder. The ideal situation is having the background behind the subject in shade, just as the subject’s face is in shade. This effect makes for some pretty cool photos. Another tip here is to drop your camera angle so that you eliminate as much grass from the photo as possible. The grass (field) will appear brighter than normal and usually is a little distracting in the photo when your exposure is made for the subject’s face.



Rule #4 – The tighter the crop, the better the photo. Action is usually more dramatic with a tighter crop. Why waste all that space in your picture for unrelated data such as the school bus in the background. There are times when some of the background elements support the story of the particular photo, but for the most part, The closer you get to the action, the more dramatic the image.

Rule #5 – Variety is the spice of life. One thing I have to always fight in my own photography is to vary the crop of my images. While tighter is better than looser, when it comes to cropping, sometimes a little looser or even too tight a crop makes for a good thing, if your intention is to show several photos. For example, I figure that my shots will probably end up on the team’s web page, so that if I don’t vary the crop a little the resulting web page will appear boring. Mix in some close-ups and a few looser shots if your intention is to walk away from your shoot with several photos. If you want to walk away with only the best photos possible, then tighter is still better.


Another place where variety is important is in camera angle. When shooting field sports like Soccer or lacrosse, the photographer can’t vary the vertical axis all that much, even though I have been know to lay in the grass for some shots. A good way to get some variety is on the horizontal axis. Change your point of view. I know that I will probably get the best shots from behind the goal, but after a while, all the shots look very similar. There are nice shots to be had from behind the subject too. A shot of someone shooting on goal from behind is sometimes a welcome variation when you already have a hundred shots fro the opposite angle.

Rule #6 – Don’t forget the defenders. It’s easier to shoot the offensive players because their action is usually facing you and they’re usually closer. Defenders like photos too.



Rule #7 – Shoot high traffic situations. I try to shoot as many photos as possible when the target subject is in high traffic situations. Having the opponent in the shot brings more tension and purpose to the photos. It illustrates the struggle of the sport and makes everything more purposeful. It adds drama too.



This point reminds me of a photo I took of my daughter’s soccer game when she was nine years old. The shot was pretty cool. She was sort of hopping over a defender and you could see that she had just scooted the ball post the opponent and there were several girls in chase. It was definitely a keeper photo, but what made is really special years later, was that the opponents in the photo ended up being good friends of my daughter’s, that she hadn’t even met yet! It was like capturing a part of history that we didn’t even know would be significant.

Rule #8 – See faces. Sure, a dramatic pose is one thing, but if you don’t see the eyes of the player, it looses just a little. If possible, try to get the player’s eyes visible in the photo.


This is my kid. She's an amazing player and a pretty damn good person too.

Rule #9 – It’s about drama! Compositionally, you want some flow to the picture. If you can get the players with their hands, legs, and sticks forming an interesting shape, you’re much better off. A leaning body is more interesting then a straight up and down body and a falling body is even more fun to look at.

Rule #10 – Simplify the backgrounds – While action around the subject usually adds to the shot, “stud going on” way behind the subject, is usually nothing but distracting. Whenever possible, try to shoot with simple backgrounds, with as little in focus as possible. If you’re confident in your camera’s focusing ability, shoot wide open. That’s one of the tricks to making the viewer concentrate on your photo’s subject. Have only your subject in focus and there’s nothing else to look at, right?



If you are able to have the focus trop off so that the background is not distracting, it’s sometimes interesting to select a background that has some interesting colors. You don’t want to pick colors that distract too much or conflict with your subject. You don’t want a red background if your school’s uniform is red. Contrasting or neutral colors are good background colors, similar colors to your subject’s predominate color, do not make for good background colors.

Rule #11 – If possible, have the ball in the shot. Somehow, having the ball in the shot makes for a better shot. It brings relevancy to the photo. It’s not just a picture of two kids running down the field, it’s a picture of one kid trying to do something relevant while another is trying to prevent the success of the opponent. It helps tell the story. You will be able to have some decent photos without the ball, but you’ll find that the ball brings some excitement that just isn’t there without it.



Okay, so there you go… This is pretty much what I know about and use in my sports photography. Hopefully this will come in handy when it comes to shooting your own kids or maybe when you get to opportunity to make a few bucks on the side shooting the local teams.

Good luck