As many of my peers know, I photograph sports for my school yearbook. At games, there are usually 2-4 serious photographers (I’ll define that as anyone with a DSLR and lens of 100mm +.
Here is an example of the WRONG way to take sports photos.
I have seen here at a few sporting events now. She uses what I is either a Canon Rebel XS or XSi. The max ISO on it is 1600. The lens is a 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6. This is a very slow lens. Overall, this is terrible for shooting sports in low light. I was shooting at f/2.8 at 3200-6400 ISO later in the night. That shot of this photographer is even shot at 5000 ISO. Here is what is wrong – slow camera, slow lens, but most of all…. Flash! With a full size football field, there is no way an on camera flash will reach players 25 yards away let along across the field. In addition to that, the Rebel cameras only have a flash sync of 1/200th or 1/250th, thus making impossible to get sharp action shots.
Here is an example to the RIGHT way to take sports photos.
I don’t know her name, but I had a few words with her. She takes photos for the Citizen Times, a local newspaper of Asheville. I did not see exactly what camera it was but I think it’s a Nikon D700, D300 or D300s. She told me the lens is a 300mm f/2.8 (just over $5500 new). Of course, only those on a professional budget can get that kind of lens. The monopod is a good choice, and even a must with larger lenses like that one.
Here is one photo I took with my 70-200mm.
Info: 6400, ISO f/4, 1/750th
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