Professional sports photographer

Sports photography can be one of the hardest types of photography, even for an advanced sports photographer. Even the smallest mistake can ruin a photo. On the other hand, it is also important to keep in mind that with sport you have many chances to get a photo with great impact. A good sports photographer is able to capture more drama than in any other field of photography I have come across.

One of the biggest obstacles for beginners is equipment. You have to be very strict here – it is truly extremely difficult to take good sports photographs without a DSLR and long lenses (possibly with teleconverters as well). It also helps if these long lenses are fast too. And that means quite a big investment.

Let us say the basic lens a sports photographer uses is a 70–200 mm F2.8. It costs 1,500 euros for Nikon or Canon, or you can pay 1,000 € for a Sigma. Add to that a camera body that must shoot in fast bursts, say 10 frames per second, and be able to buffer them while you hold the shutter. The best ones can buffer up to 170 frames. That is 17 seconds of continuously holding the shutter!

Do you now understand why this is not a field for amateurs? 🙂

In sport there are two main shooting conditions: good light and poor light. Examples of sports with good light are motorsport, beach volleyball, tennis, football and athletics. Examples of sports with poor light are ice hockey, basketball, indoor volleyball and anything at night. Artificial light is simply not as good as the sun.

A professional sports photographer has the right equipment. A professional sports photographer has invested a lot of money in equipment. Not only in a quality camera, but also in a whole range of lenses, filters and lighting options to get the best possible photos.

Capturing the action at its peak is the ultimate goal of a sports photographer – and it takes planning and skill.

It is exciting and demanding to capture sporting action, and a split second can be the difference between capturing a shot and missing it. Photographing sport means mastering many different aspects of photography so that the sports photographer gets the perfect shot. A sports photographer must consider factors such as light, weather, speed and the subject, and the impact they will have on the shot.