Sports photography techniques

[vfilby]

I had my first chance at sports photography this past weekend for a friends ultimate frisbee time. During this time I came up with many questions and problems. The two that come to mind are focussing and how to follow the action.

I started off by following the disc, trying to capture moments. This presented a couple problems: first off focussing I could autofocus (or manual) fast enough to adjust to the new positions. Secondly, because I was limited to the viewfinder I didn't have advance warning about the key moments, often missing the frames I wanted. Should I have been following certain players? What techniques do pros use in this situation?

The next is focussing. I tried to use the AI servo, one shot and manual. I was following the acction trying to get the moments that demonstrate the sport and the AF couldn't adjust fast enough. Also with servo I found that I needed to keep the centre focus point on the target which I often didn't want to do. If I wanted to capture to players the centre focus point would be in the background, and there is where the focus would be. So I tried manual and I just wasn't fast enough (I need more practice there).

Well that is all for now, it was definitely a challenge and I would appreciate all the advice those of you who do sports photography can contribute.

Thanks again,

[IndyJeff]

Vince I see your thinking of following the frisbee but, your asking the camera to do too much. You might find it easier to focus on the guy who is catching the frisbee. He will be changing postions but he will be closer to the position you snap the frame than any focus point the frisbee is. Think about the frisbee moving across in front of you, now think about the guy catching it. Where is the most movement? From the frisbee of course.
Try shooting from the side and a little in front of the guy catching the frisbee. If you see that the throws are consistently landing within a same radius of area, focus on the center of that area. Your camera will have little changes to be in focus. Of course the faster your glass the better your chance are of getting it to focus quickly.

When I shoot race cars from outside the track, I fnd a point where I want to shoot them. I focus on that part of the track and let them come into my field of focus. Actually the first frame will be out of focus, the second will be a little soft and the 3rd will be in focus, the 4th will go back a little soft. The same is going to be true of a guy catching a frisbee if he is running towards you.

If you want to try manually focusing you need pratice. A good excersize is find an interstate or highway where you can park close by in a parking lot. Now focus on a point 100 yards away. Pick up a car and pan with it adjusting your focusing as you go. Try this several times and watch the car and see how your focus is doing, don't fire off a frame. Once you get pretty consistent and think your focused pretty good, start shooting but continue rolling your barrel. If you don't you may be in focus but when you stop, the car doesn't and you will catch the car out of focus.
Hope that helps you