Sports & Action Photography For Beginners: Part 1

1. Promo Video For The Class: What if I told you that for about the price of a nice lunch, the generous tip thrown in, I could teach you how to take photos like these, you know, in spite of what the name says. This is not about just sports. It's a course about how to take pictures of people engaged in dynamic activities. I'm Don McPeek and I am a summer retired sports photographer with over 10,000 photo credits in popular sports magazines and major sports websites, and I accomplished all that without so much as a single minute of formal training. That's right. I was just a dad with a camera on the sidelines of my son's football games, and I basically learned by doing and watching and observing some of the best pro sports photographers in the business. So not only do I have the knowledge to be able to teach you, I have been where you are. I have been who you are. I know very well what it is that you need to learn from this and future courses. The vast majority of tutorial videos about sports and action photography will teach you about settings and gear, but this course takes you well beyond that. I'm gonna give you the insights in how to take photos like these. And you can take photos like these, and I'm gonna teach you how. But before we learn how you have to learn what and why, I know that's new thinking, but that's what separates this course from so many others. You know, it's not enough to know how to turn on the wipers of the defroster. At some point, somebody's got to teach you how to drive, and I'm here to teach you how to drive. The course is designed in three major sections. The first section is around technical mastery. It's understanding the camera as a tool. Second section is more of the artistic composition, peace and understanding what it is. You want a photograph and why we're going to train your brain, how to think like a pro so you can get better shots. The third section combines the technical mastery from the first section with the understanding about what it is you want and why, from the second section and combine those into understanding how to get the shots that you're after. So, while I can't promise you that you'll have cover shots on Sports Illustrated. I can promise to make you a better photographer, so I'd love to have you in my class. Grab your gear and let's go shoot. 2. The 'Flyover' (An Overview): Well, at this point, you're either doing a sampling of the lectures or you've made the decision to join my class if it's the latter. Welcome to sports and action photography for beginners. This type of photography is a form of storytelling. In fact, that's the meaning of the word photojournalism. And in effect, really, whether you're taking pictures of your child playing sports on Saturday morning, or you're an aspiring sports photographer wanting to work for a newspaper or magazine, you really are telling a story through pictures. And that's a big part of the message of this class. That's part of the training that I'm going to give you is to help you think differently, think along different lines about what you're doing and why. That's a departure from a lot of types of photography that don't take that into account. For example, landscape and portrait type photography. You are looking at the photo, and it's showing you what you're looking at with photojournalism and the type of photography that we're talking about in this course. It's more about who are we looking at and what are they doing? So there is a story there, and it's really To a certain extent, it's your job to tell that story through pictures. So the whole idea of the sports and action photo being part of, ah story is evident by the fact that you've probably very rarely ever seen a sports or action photo in a magazine or website that isn't accompanied by a caption. So it's a part of a larger narrative. Is a part of, Ah, another story that's going on. So it's just a piece of that. So whether you're on the sidelines at a football game or on the front role of a concert, or even, maybe it's a lecture Siri's or awards presentation ceremony, a parade who knows these air, all action oriented subjects, and they need to be approached differently than the landscape or the portrait or the fixed subject type photography. In fact, the biggest difference between this type of photography and the photography that most people do is that you don't get a second chance. You don't get a second take. You don't have the ability to manipulate your environment. It is what it is when you're in a studio and you're photographing a model or you're looking at ah landscape and you're trying to get a mountain in the picture. You can wait for hours until the conditions are just right. When you're at a basketball game or a sporting event or a concert, it's happening live. It's really time, and you have to be able to react to that. So a big part of this course is understanding that while the moments of the opportunities for sports and action photography are are fleeting, with the proper amount of planning and preparation, you can be ready when they happen. 3. Four Elements of Sports / Action Photography: So one of the things that's kind of messy about this type of photography is that it's a little bit art. It's a little bit science. It's kind of a mix of the two, and you really need to have have, ah, grasp and understanding of both. So there's four elements, really basically to it, in my opinion, a nice. So there's technical mastery, and that's gonna be part of the first section of this course devoted, essentially toe technical mastery. We're gonna learn the, you know, the aperture with light shutter speeds and how it all effects image, properties and all of that stuff. It's also part art. You know, there's, ah, there's an artistic element to this type of photography. A lot of people don't think so, but there really is. There's there's composition. There's, ah, understanding of the rule of thirds and light and color and things of that nature shadows, background, it all rolls in tow. You know some of its technical, some of its artistic there isn't a gain knowledge, so it's entirely possible to be a good sports photographer without having an in depth knowledge of what you're shooting. However, it's not recommended. You know the same thing is true for a a concert or an event or a parade, you name it. It helps to know what's gonna happen next in order for you to be able to position yourself to get the shots that you want. And maybe most importantly, the last aspect of this is understanding human nature. There is a There is a big part of this, a big part of photojournalism. That's not just about the action. It's about the people and their reactions. The emotions think about some of the classic photos sports photos that have been taken throughout history. I'll think of two examples right now. I can't show them to you because I don't own the rights. But if you're old enough to remember Ali Liston okay, the picture of Mohammed Ali standing over Sonny Liston on the deck, yelling at him to get up. Okay, that no remembers the punch or the Phantom punch. It's It's that image of him standing over the defeated boxer or ah, Brandi Chastain at the end of the World Cup finals against China. You know, she's she's on her knees with their screaming with their fists in the air and, you know, she pulled her shirt off. We don't see the pictures of that last goal. It's that shot. So there's a lot more to this than just trying to capture the action. There's a There's a whole spectrum of things that you need to learn to be a truly effective sports and action photographer. 4. Knowing What You Want: you might not realize it yet, but it's not enough to show up at an event and just hope for the best. Just take whatever comes and just be ready with your camera. If something happens, if you're good enough, you'll get some good shots. There's no question about it, but you'll do so much better if you have a plan. If you understand what it is you want to capture and why you're take the photos that you get from that event, no matter what it is, will be way better than if you don't plan ahead. So that's a good part of the second section of this class is to help you develop those skills, that understanding of what it is you're after, why you want that picture of those particular pictures. And then the third part of the course is going to be around, you know, putting putting it all together and figuring out how to get those shots. So that's combining the technical mastery with your artistic capabilities to produce striking images. That's the whole point, right? So in terms of trying to understand what it is you want, I'll give you some coaching there. Think about from from your own perspective, What are you trying to accomplish? What? Why you even in this course, you know, and then there's no wrong answer. And in fact, it could be a simple is. I want to take better pictures of my son or daughter on Saturday morning playing soccer. Nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly fine. You could be on the far end of the spectrum that says I am going to be an S I photographer someday, and I'm gonna do I'm gonna shoot magazine covers. That's fine. There's there's that's that's a perfectly legitimate goal. So most of your kind of in between there you want. You want to improve your photography skills. But when you're going into an event when you're when you're walking up to the gates of a football game or the doors of a basketball game or a concert or ah, reenactment or whatever, we're going to try to train your mind to think. Okay, when I go through those doors when I go through that gate, these are the things that I'm looking for. Based on what I know about the event, that's gonna be a huge part of this training. It's It's not only on a beginner's level, but that carries all the way through to master class. And it's something that if you you continue to get better at, your shots will only get better as you progress. Think about it this way. You wouldn't just start building a house by grabbing a bunch of lumber and nails and shingles and just sort of randomly putting them together. Okay, that would be a complete disaster. So think about your plan of action as you go into an event in the same way. You know, I'm a among my other activities that I like Teoh participate in. I'm a writer. I've written novels and screenplays and stories, and I wouldn't even think about beginning to write a story without some idea of what I'm writing about what I want to happen, some notion of what the characters are gonna what their personalities air like or whatever . So if you approach your action sports and action and event photography in the same way, you will build on that story and some of that will unfold in front of you and some of it you were going to carry into the event with you. So if you think about the progress through this course in those terms, I think you'll excel. 5. Defining Your Goals: I'm gonna give you a couple of assignments here. The 1st 1 is, I think, fairly simple. But I don't want you to skip it. You're gonna be compelled some of you to just skip over and say, I don't need to do that. I would highly encourage you to make a list of the things that you want to get out of this course. And you can go to any level of detail that you want to. You know, I gave you one example. I want to take better photos of my son or daughter on Saturday morning playing soccer, and that's OK, but think about maybe even greater detail than that. I'll try not to lead the witness, but I'll give you something to think about. I want a shot of my son carrying the football, looking straight into the camera or something like that. That's different than saying I want to take better photos of my son or daughter playing soccer on Saturday morning. That's a very specific thing that you're after. I want a photo of my daughter and her best friend celebrating after they've made a goal in the soccer game that's different. That's a whole different level of detail. And so these are examples of what I'm talking about, how to start training your mind differently about that shots, the type of shots that you want to get and creating that plan, that strategy for getting them. 6. Creating Your Portfolio: your other assignment is potentially going to be a little bit more difficult. So you got two options here. You can either go shoot an event. Ah, sporting event. A concert of theatrical production wherever your interests lie. But go shoot an event and take your 10 best pictures from that event. You can add it him a little bit, even crop on, maybe brighten up a little bit and, uh, put them in a folder putting on your desktop or wherever you keep their your photos and just put him away for safekeeping. We're gonna look at them when we finished the course. So if you are not in position to shoot an event right away on you want to continue on with the course, go ahead and find 10 of your best pictures from a single event. Don't pick your 10 best pictures from the last five years. Take your 10 best pictures from, ah, sporting event or whatever that you have shot hopefully recently. But the point is that we don't want a stack. We don't want to stack the deck with all your best photos. We want to look at the your your 10 best from a single event, and then we're gonna compare that Theo end of the at the end of the course. And just so you know, I will be out this weekend doing the exact same thing, and I'm going to be using the similar equipment to what you would be using. So I have some gear at my disposal that I could use, but I'm gonna be using Ah Di Condie 3400. And I've rented a 150 to 600 lens to use so that we're all on uneven footing. Now I'm gonna show you some magic. Whoa! What do you think about that, huh? Yeah, I can't do that too many times anyways. Happy shooting. Good luck out there and we will compare notes when we're done. 7. Camera Gear Part 1: did you do your homework? Well, I was out there over the weekend. It was a little cloudy had to dodge some thunderstorms, but I got it done. As I'm talking, I'm going to show you my my take from the day. That's probably only there may be, I don't know, on our total, there was a softball game going on in a baseball game. What's significant about the pictures I'm showing you is that I have available to me some very expensive camera equipment. For example, this rig right here brand new runs about 20 grand. The pro body, pro lens, As you might expect, that generates some incredible images. Crisp, sharp, the cameras real responsive, can shoot in low light. But I didn't use that gear. I use something else. Instead, I used this. It's a Nikon D 3200 with the Tamron 150 to 600 lens. His body I picked out purposely as I had it laying around. It's probably four years old. You can buy them used on eBay for about 200 or $250 and this is a pretty nice lens retails for, I don't know, probably 1200 but you could buy him again used for around $700. And the reason I'm pointing this out to you is to demonstrate the fact that you don't necessarily need high end professional gear to get nice pictures. It absolutely helps. But I think this is probably a good time for us to have on honest discussion about equipment. So what is the difference between the $1000 rig that I used to get the pictures that you're looking at right now and the $20,000 combination of equipment using the high end professional bodies and lenses? What are you really getting for that? A lot of it has to do with the I S O capabilities. So you're going to pay a lot of money to be able to shoot in the dark. That gap has closed significantly just in the last few years. So the camera bodies that cost $6000 five years ago that were anywhere from 6,425,000 I s O . You can pick those up now at best buy or online for for $500. It's It's absolutely amazing. Now, obviously, there's some. There's some differences in the sensors that are being used. When you get to that, I eso level you're going to see some differences in the clarity, the sharpness, you know, absolutely. And you would expect that $6000 for a D five or 6500 I should say versus Ah, you know, four or 500 for a D 3400. So, you know, that's that's part of the difference. Another difference is in the lenses themselves. So if you're gonna pay $10,000 for, ah, high end 400 to 8 lens from Nikon or Canon, you're gonna expect some sharpness that you're not gonna find in $1000 Tamron lens as you're taking these photos especially, I guess sometimes that shows up more in the sunlight or backlit light. You'll see some fogginess, Cem, lack of clarity, some ghosting just ever so slightly. Those could be mitigated in photo shop, of course. And that's the difference between a $700 used aftermarket lens on eBay and a $10,000 brand new Nikon or canon lens. So there are gonna be differences. But as you're going through the photos that I took over the weekend, you'll notice that these air some pretty nice photos. So the point of all this is that unless you're on assignment for Sports Illustrated or major wire service and you're shooting for magazine covers most of the time, the images you're going to get with the gear that I used is gonna be more than adequate. The third area of difference, I guess, is in shutter lag. And that's basically the time that transpires between when you press the shutter and when the photo was actually taken. When the shutter actuators and the photo is taken in the in the $400 camera or the used $200 camera, that shutter lag can be anywhere from 1/10 to 2/10 of a second, depending on how well focused you are with a high end professional camera, you're talking about hundreds of a second, so you're talking about shutter legs that air 4 to 6 hundreds of a second versus 11 to 20 hundreds of a second. It doesn't seem like a lot in ah hockey game when someone's taken a slap shot at the goalie . It's all the difference in the world. It's the difference between catching the puck in mid flight and having it already be in the glove. But the time the shutter actuate, it's so that was, honestly, something I struggled with over the weekend. I'm very accustomed to the, you know, the 41 hundreds of a second shutter leg and trying to deal with a you know, one or 2/10 of a second shutter leg. It was difficult. I'll be honest with you, so you know. But those are the differences that that's what you're paying for. So anyways, just a little short blurb about my experience over the weekend wanted you to see the pictures that I was able to get with, frankly, equipment that that most of you can probably afford. If $1000 for camera equipment to get those kinds of shots sounds like a lot of money to you , then you should probably run away screaming right now because it doesn't get any better from here. 8. Camera Gear Part 2: so there's a couple of ways you can approach, understanding what it is you want to get and what equipment you might need. If stopping the action really lights you up, you want toe. Freeze the puck in mid air you want to catch. To get the ball in the bat, you're gonna need professional gear. There's there's almost no way around it. If you have AH lot of money to spend on equipment, then you have many more options than somebody who's wanting to get into sports and action photography on a budget. I'm not advocating any particular brand. I'm probably going to reference Nikon more than anything else because I'm familiar with it . It doesn't mean that I'm promoting it or advocating it. It's just it's what I'm most familiar with. So I would say if you're looking for that type of shot, you want to get something like an old views D three or a D three s, whatever the equivalent might be in the in the canon. But my recommendation would be the de three, which I just did a quick check on eBay. I think you can pick up the threes now for, you know under $1000. Maybe maybe even is lower is $800. The D three s, I think, is quite an upgrade from the D three, frankly, and I think I saw $1200 range somewhere in that neighborhood. The point is, if you're looking to really have that short shutter lag and you want a piece of professional camera equipment carried with Parker the ball field, that's a great place to start. You know it's not going to give you super results in low light, but in terms of shooting in the daytime and freezing the action, it's a great way to start. There's a bunch of them out there. They're not hard to find. And then, as far as the lenses go, you know, again, I think you can stick with the starting out like the Tamron. 1 50 to 600 was a great lens. It was, you know, it was kind of slow responding, but again, if you're looking for that split second reaction, you're gonna have to pay for that. That's a part of buying the pro gear. If you're less concerned about stopping the action, then you can use some of the less expensive lenses and still get some great sports and action photos 9. Camera Gear Part 3: I did also want to follow up on something that I mentioned in the prior video, and that was the difference between the consumer camera and the pro level camera. And I thought I would demonstrate to you the difference between the shutter actuacion ins in real time so you could actually hear the difference. So this is the $200 consumer level camera that I used for my homework assignment, and I just wanted you to hear the rate that the shutter actuate it's when the shutter release button is pushed down in burst mode, you can see it's fairly slow. What I can't show you was with the response time is after I pushed down on the shutter release button. Suffice it to say it's about the same interval as you're hearing between when the shutter is actuate ing. This is the pro level camera, and you can tell the difference between the two just in terms of the speed at which the shutter actuators when I press this shutter release button quite a difference. And again, the time from when I pressed the shutter release button to when the shutter initially actuate, is about the same as between when you're hearing the shutter actuate when it's in burst mode, so you can tell it's extremely fast, so I just wanted to point that out in real time. 10. Camera Gear Part 4: So the rest of this lecture is really about giving you some extra details around the differences and what I call the consumer pro sumer and professional level of equipment. And the last part of the lecture is just kind of a summary of the accessories that I use. So it's really just an overview of some of the things that I found useful and helpful over the years in doing my job and basically thought I would share them with you and maybe you'll find them to be helpful as well. This next part has the potential to become ridiculously complicated, so I don't want that to happen, and I'll rely a little bit on your own curiosity to do some research into this topic. But I did want to give you some pertinent information around the differences in the sensor sizes for different cameras and what impact that might have on your choices around which equipment to buy. There are basically two different sensors that are used in digital camera bodies. Most of the pro grade bodies use what's called a full frame sensor. It's called that because the sensor is actually about the same size as the old 35 millimeter film frame. And there are some differences in the way these sensors act and perform within the cameras . So what does it mean that a pro grade camera body uses a full frame sensor? It means that there are different lenses that are intended to be used with the two different camera bodies, so a full frame camera body would be matched up with a full frame lens and commensurately. A C size camera body would use a C size lens that's compatible with us. He sized sensor in a full frame camera. There's no what we call a crop factor. I'll explain that in just a second. So if you did use a C compatible lens on a full frame camera, you would actually get that crop factor. But it would reduce the resolution. So there's a widely held belief that full frame pixels are larger than the sea sized pixels and therefore produce better color resolution and I s O performance. This issue around the crop factor is a fairly complicated discussion, and it's beyond the scope of this class to really try to explain it. But the result is this for the cameras within a PSC censor. The optics, or the way that the light is managed through the lenses and onto the sensor, increases the effective reach of the lens that you're using, which is a fancy way of saying If your crop factor is 1.5, then if you're using a 200 millimeter lens with a camera that has a C type sensor on it, the effective performance or the effective reach of that 200 millimeter lens would be like having a 300 millimeter lens with a full frame camera. So when you're using the consumer or pro sumer type cameras, you are actually getting a bonus because you're able to magnify your subject mawr than someone using a full frame camera. But it's also why, using the the used Nikon 3200 camera with the 600 millimeter lens, it had a crop factor of 1.6, which meant that the effective optical performance or the zoom on that particular lens was actually over 900 millimeters. So it was what, the biggest reason why I could get those shots of those batters while shooting from over the fence from the outfield. So there are some tradeoffs that come with using a C sensor versus a full frame sensor. You do give up a little bit of color rendition and some I S O performance, but you make up for it in the fact that you don't have to have the large lenses that the full frame shooters have to have in order to get the same magnification. 11. Camera Gear Part 5: So let's take a look at the differences in the relative cost of these cameras from the consumer pro sumer and pro level. So when you look at the d X crop factor camera, you're talking about something like a Nikon 30 D 3400 or perhaps can and 70 D These cameras , Aaron, the 56 $700 range. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, depending on the retail outlet. But these air your see sensors there were typically gonna have slower burst rates, probably smaller make a pixel values. And this is your entry level camera again, they're probably gonna have a 1.4 to a 1.6 crop factor. Next along the way are the what we call the pro Sumer camera lines, which is like the cannon 70 or the Nikon D 500. The's air typically gonna have some features that you can't find in the consumer level, and you're color rendition your eyes. So values are usually a little bit higher than your entry level. And, of course, you're gonna pay a little more for these cameras. So you're looking at the probably in the 17 $1800 range. Lastly, are the pro level cameras thes air referred to sometimes as the flagship cameras for these two major product lines? So it's the the one D mark two or the Nikon D five. This is where you're going to get your really high frame rates, your astronomical I S O values and full frame. So when you move into the pro level, you lose that crop factor. Now you're into $12,500 camera bodies, so this is a serious investment for a beginner. But you know you again. You is we talked about before. You get what you pay for when it comes, the long glass. There's, ah, a lot of choices out there, and you can spend a lot of money. So if you can take advantage of the crop factor by shooting during the day and you don't need super crystal clear, sharp images, you can get away with aftermarket lenses. There are other options for full frame cameras you condone by 406 108 100 millimeter prime lenses and spend upto $22,000 on these. Some of this comes down to budget, and some of it is just personal choice, you know, For most people, the entry level camera with an aftermarket lens is probably the best you're going to do to start out with. Keep that investment down to a minimum, and then possibly as you start to make money with your photography, then you can afford to reinvest in your equipment As a general rule. If you are using a cannon or Nikon camera and you're buying pro level lenses, they are going to perform a little bit better than the aftermarket lenses. And the two product lines of aftermarket lenses that have ah, really good offering are the Tamron and Sigma. They're both very good if there's huge selections there reasonably priced. And for somebody who is just beginning and doesn't have $12,000 to spend on a single lens, you could do pretty well with two or $3000 get a wide variety of lenses that are compatible with C sensors that will perform quite well 12. Accessories Part 1: there are aftermarket flashes that you can buy that are going to be a lot less expensive than the brand name the Cannon and the Nikon, and some of them worked very well. So do a little bit of homework. You can spend three or four times what it costs for an aftermarket flash on the canon or the Nikon. I will say that the, you know, I used Nikon that the flash is synchronized with the cameras. Unbelievably well. There are also some after market selections that worked very well. You're typically not going to use a flash when you're shooting sports. However, it may come in handy on a sunny day when there's an awards ceremony or you need a little bit of fill in the shadows. So having a flash in your bag at a sporting events not a bad idea. I use a strap and harness assembly for my cameras. As I mentioned before, I carry two handheld cameras and then one large camera on a mono pod, so I typically have, ah to strap assembly and then I have a harness with pouches made by think tank. There's there's other brands out there that just happens to be what I use. So again, if you're going to carry gear around a field, it's Ah, it's a lot more convenient to have it all contained on your waster over your shoulders with a strap in a pouch system, you'll also need rain gear. If you're going to shoot anywhere outdoors where it rains, you are absolutely gonna want to protect your equipment again. I use think tank, but there are other brands out there and you can spend a couple $100 on ring gear or you can you can use the garbage bag. It'll all work. It just depends on you know how how you want toe. Proceed. Um, I've used the garbage bag I carry one in my pocket is an emergency backup. It will absolutely work. It's just that the rain gear that's pre made for these different cameras has some ergonomics, I guess that that are made specifically so you can continue shooting with these in the rain that perhaps a garbage bag won't, uh, won't provide. Also, if you do by the ready made rain gear, don't forget to get your eyepiece. It's easy to forget. So when you're in the camera store you're ordering online. Remember to include the eyepiece if it's not included in the kit, and you're gonna need gear for inclement weather. If you happen to live in a climate where it gets cold and rainy in the fall, you're shooting football or or whatever you're gonna have to invest in a decent rain suit. Probably hats, gloves and other accessories to keep yourself warm and dry. On the other end of that spectrum is protection from the sun. So while a hat could keep you warm in the winter, it can protect your your scalp in the summertime. I I know I have that problem. Don't have as many protein strands as I used to. Get a good sunscreen. Make sure that's always accessible, and either in your pouch or in your camera bag back in the media room. Absolutely essential. Get yourself a credential holder even if you don't need one. If you aspire someday to be a working photographer in media, it's a good incentive toe. Have one, just to imagine that you'll have a credential someday. But chances are pretty good even if you're shooting on the high school or middle school level that you're going to need some kind of credential to get on the field, so you'll want to have a good credential holder. I like this light where I've used it for quite a while. I've tried many different types. This is the one that I favour the most. Again, this is all just personal choice. Make sure you have plenty of spare cards and card holders when you're out on the field or shooting an event. You don't want to have to run back to the media room to grab your cards. When you run out, you want to make sure you have more than enough for the event. You don't want to miss shots because you ran out of capacity. 13. Accessories Part 2: grab a roll of gaffer's tape and tape your lens hood to your lens. They will fall off at the most inconvenient times, I promise you the gaffer's tape will also come in handy for 101 other uses. It's kind of the duct tape for photographers. It's sticky. Enoughto hold things together, but it doesn't leave a lot of residue and create a big mess like duct tape does so. But it's called gaffer's tape, and you're definitely gonna want to roll. If you're a serious sports and action shooter, you're going toe want Kneepads. The reason you're gonna want Kneepads is in order to do it right. You're gonna want to get low, and eventually you kneel down on the hard ground long enough, you're going to trash your knees, so I know if you're 25 you don't believe me. But by the time you're 55 you'll be glad you wore the knee pads. Some people chuckle at me, but I carry a light meter. There's a built in light meter in your camera, but I always cavil in close at hand because different cameras interpret light in different ways. They're subtle differences and I always like to have that sort of objective voice, if you will, of a light meter to check my ambient. So it's probably a luxury, you know, the good ones fairly pricey. So this may be one of those things you wait a little while to get, but I would recommend getting one. You'll probably go through a couple of mono pods until you finally get one that you like. It's a personal choice. A lot of it has to do with how the little telescoping poles engage and disengage. Some people like the when they unscrew some people like the little, um, flipped latches that air on the side. So but it's essential if you're going to carry anything over about a 300 millimeter lens, so make sure you get a good model pod. Lastly, this is kind of a luxury item, but one that I find really helpful is an off camera flash cord. You know you thief lashes will mount on the shoe on the top of the camera, but if you're shooting, you know, in locker rooms or places where you want to add a little bit of flash, having the ability to take that flash and rape and move it to the left or to the right to create a little bit of a dynamic shadowing effect will definitely help the appearance of your flash photography. They do cost a little bit more than you think they should, but there will worth having if you want to get good quality flash pictures. So keeping in mind that this is a beginner's course on how to take good sports and action photos, I didn't want to dwell on the accessories part of it. But I didn't want to kind of give you, Ah, a whirlwind tour of what I put in my bag and what I use on kind of a day to day basis so that you'd have some idea. You know what, what, what you'll need what to look for. And these are things that you can accumulate over time. So wanted to make sure that you knew what these items were in case I refer to them in a future lecture. So your homework assignment, if you plan on being a sports photographer or maybe even an event photographer who is willing to go all out to get the types of shots that you want. Your assignment is to go to Lowe's Home Depot tractor supply wherever but physically try on a pair of Kneepads. This is absolutely essential. You have to try him on. You have to kneel down in the store, make sure they feel comfortable because if they're not, you're not going toe. Wear them. And I promise you you will trash your knees. So your homework assignment is to get a really good pair of knee pads. I'll see you in the next lecture. 14. Managing Light Part 1: the title of this lecture is Light is our friend. I guess you could say the subtitle might be so Let's not be afraid of it. I picked that subtitle because for the longest time, I was kind of intimidated by trying to understand lighting beyond a cursory level. We all understand. You know what's what's to dim, what's too bright. You know, the different qualities, the direction of light. And I think there's, Ah, there's a beginner level of understanding off light that will get you by. Ultimately, I want to change your thinking. I want to give you that pro level mindset that takes you beyond just understanding light to being able to manage light. So we start that discussion with an understanding of what photography actually means. It's ah, Latin root word that literally means drawing with light from a scientific level. It's ah, it's a narrow band of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum that we call visible light, and that's what we use to create photographs from, ah, subatomic level. It's a it's a particle and a wave form, so it has some tricky properties to it. The good news is it's abundant. It's everywhere and It comes from all kinds of different sources and in terms of how we use it in photography, just from a very basic standpoint, it's those photons. It's those wave forms of energy that are deposited onto the sensor that actually create the image. So on a fundamental level, the first thing to understand foundational e about photography is all you're doing with your camera is collecting little bits of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum that bounce off your subject. That's your job. And ultimately it's your job to manage how that happens, both from the standpoint of what the camera does with that energy when it enters through the lens, as well as putting yourself in a position to maximise the collection off that stray energy that's bouncing off your subject. 15. Managing Light Part 2: now, since light is so abundant and it does come from so many different sources, it has different properties. So while in the next lecture, we're gonna talk about the infamous light triangle, I'm going to talk about the three cues, which will hopefully be burned into your memory and give you a much greater understanding and appreciation for the different issues that you have to manage around light. So the first Q is quantity that shouldn't be too terribly difficult to comprehend. We all know the difference between the amount of light that's available at noon vs sunset. 2nd 1 is quality, so light can have different qualities or properties, depending on the source, again using the example of the sun. The quality or the properties of the sunlight that's available at dusk are different than at noon. It's the same light source. It's just that it looks different at different times of the day. Same thing is true for different types of lightbulbs. Incandescent fluorescent quartz metal highlight sodium vapor. They can all create different types of wavelengths and color renditions on your sensor. The third Q is is one that I kind of made up because I couldn't come up with another queue , but core Khoury. So I just threw that in there just so I could have the three cues. But it's really a reflection off the different conditions that you can encounter, even when you have a good, solid light source. You know, perhaps it's not coming from all directions. Maybe it's only Una directional, so it's casting a shadow like the sun or perhaps in a stadium. For instance, you might have plenty of light at the sideline, but as you as the players are out farther into the field, you noticed that the light drops off tremendously, so there's inconsistencies that you have to be aware of as you're trying to manage your lighting. 16. Managing Light Part 3: So just to take a closer look at the quantity of light, you have a built in light meter in your camera, and you can also buy a separate light meter. That's it's handheld that you can use toe actually measure that, and so that gives you some idea of the amount of light that's available here in this room. It's fairly dim, so I had to make adjustments in the camera to accommodate for the lack of light in this room. And I had to do it in such a way that when you look at this video, you're not aware of the fact that there really isn't a whole lot of light here. That's part of managing the light, but that is directly related to the amount of light that's available in the ambient. The quality of light is I alluded to before Different light sources can produce different qualities, so you're going to run into situations in of different venues where there's going to be different types of light sources that are going to affect the color rendition of your images, and you're gonna have to be aware of that and understand how to manage that. So we'll get into that. Ah, future. Ah, future lecture that's more of a deep dive. It's probably well beyond the beginning or intermediate level. But at least if you have awareness of it, maybe in a future course, or as you get better at your other skill sets, you'll be able to revisit that and understand how toe mitigate color balance. As far as the core Khoury goes, a lot of that has to do with with shadows and what we call drop off. So on a bright, sunny day, you're going to have a lot more difficult time managing shadows than, let's say, on a night lit football field. But then, at the same time, you're not gonna have drop off in the broad daylight. You'll have to manage harsh shadows. But when somebody moves farther away from the light source on a softball field during the day relative to the distance of the sun, they haven't moved at all that the light intensity is exactly the same. When someone moves from the sidelines of a football field out to the middle, the light drops off or can drop off significantly. So if you're a physics buff, it has about the same inverse square proportionality that gravity has. You know, the old gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two objects . It's the same thing with light intensity. As you move twice a far away from a light source, the light falls off four times. Again. We put this in the core Khoury bucket because they're they're advanced concepts that you as a beginner, probably don't have to try to resolve today. But at least I'm bringing you awareness of it so that sometime down the road you can understand how to better mitigate those. 17. Summary Of The 3 Qs: So I've tried Teoh insert examples of these three cues during the course of this short lecture. So hopefully you've kind of got a ah flavor for what? Those three things. What they look like. This is a kind of a roundabout way of saying that when you're shooting sports or events or action, you're going to have to constantly make adjustments because of the venues that you're going to be in. Typically, you're either going to be an artificially lit stadiums or outdoor venues where you're gonna have harsh sunlight or difficult conditions that are going to require that you make constant adjustments. And that's what the next lecture is about is to give you a good foundation, a good understanding of what those adjustments are and the fact that with every adjustment that you make it has a consequence. It's going to affect something else. So it's my hope that in the next lecture we build on the conversation we had in this lecture and give you a solid foundation using the light triangle to understand how to make changes in your camera and what those changes do and how each one effects image quality. So I hope you're still with me, and I'll see in the next lecture 18. Image Quality - Aperture Part 1: these next three lectures air going to be related to what's commonly referred to as the light triangle. They're the three major tool sets that you're camera offers you to deal with in to manage light. So those three are, as I've described before, their aperture shutter speed. And I s O So each one of these lectures gonna be really brief because we're going to be really just concentrating on one concept for each one of them. And this 1st 1 as it indicated in the title graphic, is gonna be on aperture. So the first thing I want to say about aperture is aperture and f stop are kind of interchangeable, even though, technically speaking, they're not exactly the same thing. There are people out there who are purists who I want to dwell on the absolute definitions of terms as a sports and action event photographer. You are not that person released. I'm not that guy. Honestly, I don't care. Aperture f stop. They mean about the same thing to me. I understand the differences, but just know that I'm gonna be using the two terms interchangeably. And if you want to get off into an academic discussion about it, that's that's fine. But essentially, it's the opening. It's the opening in. The lens of that allows light to come through and be deposited on your sensor. So the different numbers that denote or designate the different F stops, or apertures, have meaning. So the larger the number, the smaller the lens opening. So, for instance, on F 2.8 is a very large lens opening and F fours a little bit smaller F 5.6 F eight etcetera. So the larger the number, the smaller the opening. And they do have a relationship. The F 5.6 lets in twice as much. Light is F eight, and the F four lets in twice as much light as the 5.6. So there's a direct relationship between these aperture settings, or F stops and the amount of light that's coming through to the sensor. So if you're not really familiar with the concept, just think of the F stops as different diameters of hoses. So all things being equal, if your shutter speed is the same as you start to change your aperture, you're letting in varying amounts of light. You could think about thes lens openings as hose diameters. So think of the light in terms of water flowing through a hose, so your F 0.8 hose is obviously gonna let in half assed much water into your bucket as thief 5.6 and the F four well let in four times as much. Water flowing through that hose is the F eight. So if you're sensor is your bucket that you're trying to fill, you will fill the bucket in half assed much time with the 5.6 as you will with the F eight . So that's just a simple way of kind of relating to how these aperture settings or these F stops relate to the amount of light that's coming through the lens onto your sensor. 19. Image Quality - Aperture Part 2: so one might ask if the larger lens opening lets in more light, then why wouldn't we just keep our lens open all the time and let in as much light as possible? Well, sometimes that's practical, and sometimes it isn't. If you're shooting in the bright sunlight and you're F 2.8, your lens opening might actually be too big and let in too much light for your camera to handle. So you may not be there, maybe too much light coming through the lens. So you have to go to a smaller diameter aperture in order to not blow out the picture. Another reason is, as I mentioned in a prior lecture, there's always a trade off to something you do. Any adjustment you make is gonna have a trade off, and your aperture is no different. So when you're changing your aperture value, your lens opening, you are affecting what's called depth of field and the depth of field Luke. Just loosely to find, is that area around your subject that's going to be in focus. So the smaller aperture that you have, which is commensurate with the larger F stop number, the greater the depth of field you're gonna have or the greater the area of focus around your subject As a rule of thumb. There are exceptions to that. But generally speaking, if you're using the same lens as you start to adjust your aperture, your depth of field is going to change. Now there's reasons why you might want to have a very deep depth of field, So in this picture you can see the subject. Number two is in focus, but it's also beneficial toe. Have some of the other players and focus around him to kind of give a sense of place. You see that Number two is in focus, but so are some of the players around him. So that kind of gives a sense of cohesiveness to that shot. It's it's him and his teammates altogether in that picture. Now, in some of these other pictures that I'm going to show where the depth of field is much more shallow, it's it's actually beneficial toe. Have the background out of focus to create that separation you can see in some of these shots. If the background was in focus, you wouldn't really be able to separate the subject from the background, there would have been too much clutter in the back for you to for it to be a decent picture . So because the background is so out of focus, it really doesn't matter what's back there. You you can't see it anyway, so the depth of field is so shallow that makes for a good picture. So this graphic is just a crude way to represent that. So what you can see in the kind of the inverted triangle the lower aperture numbers, which is the wider lens opening, creates that shallower depth of field, which is represented by the either the smaller triangle or the smaller air with kind of points to the overall depth. So really, just to kind of wrap this up, you can change the aperture or the size of your lens opening to let in either more or less light into your camera. And then, from that point, you can use the other two tools, the shutter speed and the I S O to manage the light beyond that point. So in the next lecture, we will talk about shutter speed and again, what are the trade offs of using slower or faster shutter speeds? So we'll see in the next lecture 20. Image Quality - Shutter Speed Part 1: There's nothing really magical or complicated amount shutter speeds, but the only two things you really have to remember or that their expressed in fractions. So the larger numbers actually represent shorter time spans. So you're 1 250th of a second is. Actually the shutters actually open twice a so long as the 1 5/100 of a second. And because of that, it's letting in twice a much light. So the the shutter speed of 1 250th lets in twice as much light as a shutter speed of 1 500 The other thing you have to remember about shutter speed is that in the light triangle, whatever changes you make to those settings will disrupt the balance of the other two. So if you are in perfect exposure and you change shutter speed in order to maintain that perfect exposure, you have to compensate somewhere else. So the exercise that we're going to do in this lecture is really designed to match, first of all, to express what happens when you change shutter speeds, what effect that has on your image quality, especially as it relates to action. And then the second half of the lecture really puts shutter speed and aperture together and shows you how they trade off each other. And this exercise will be done leaving our eyes. So as a constant in this particular exercise, I chose an I S O that was appropriate for the venue I was shooting in. So it's it's someone arbitrary, but it's it's constant throughout. I think that's the message here. I figured that rather than try to explain how all of this works, I would show you in a series of examples. So this is something that I would encourage you to do as well. If you're beyond the beginner level and you've got a pretty good handle on shutter speeds and how it plugs into the light triangle, you could probably skip over this. This is really exercise. It's intended for the beginner who's trying to learn how to break away from using the auto settings on their camera and start down that path towards shooting and manual. So this is something that almost anyone could do. Most people have ceiling fans in their house, and if you don't, you probably know somebody that does, or at least have access to one. So all I did here was find a ceiling fan in my house and I properly exposed on the ceiling fan using a fairly high I s O. Because I knew what I needed to accomplish so that I cheated a little bit. That's because of my experience. Um, but the fan was not in motion. It was just perfectly still. And I properly exposed for the room. I used F 3.2 and 1 1/1000 shutter speed. I s 0 4000 All these images have the labels on them, so you can see what I did. Ah. Then the second thing I did was I turned the fan on to medium speed. I took another picture and you could tell from this image that it it still looks like it's not moving. Even though the fan was turning, the fast shutter speed actually stops the motion. So this first series of pictures all I'm showing you is that I am leaving the f stop and the I s o alone those air completely constant. So you notice as the fractions get larger or the denominator the number in the denominator gets smaller, which represents a longer shutter speed that the image starts to get brighter until we reach a point when below 1/60 or 1/30 or even certainly 1/15 of a second. There's so much light coming through the lens that the shutter is open so long that the pictures just washed out. There's nothing there to even look at, and you can even tell from the looking at the fan blades. As that fraction gets larger, that shutter speed gets longer that the motion blur gets so bad that there's really nothing that's in focus or discernible. There's nothing sharp about the picture that starts at around 500 of a second. It becomes a little bit more pronounced at 3/20 of a second at 1 25 almost the entire blade is blurred. And then, as we get down to 1/60 30th of a second and certainly at 1/15 of second, there's so much light coming through the lens because of the shutter speed is getting longer and longer that the the image or the subject is not discernable anymore. It just blends in and gets washed out into the background. It's all if there's too much light in the image. So this first Siris was basically to show you what the effects of just changing shutter speed and not adjusting on the rest of the late triangle. 21. Image Quality - Shutter Speed Part 2: now this second, Siri's gets a little bit more complicated. What I did was for the 1st 3 images. I left the shutter speed at 1/15 so that's a constant. Then I started to play around with the aperture Celia Notice in this picture, the apertures at F eight and then in this next picture, the apertures at F 16. And then, in this third picture, I went all the way out to the limit of this lens, which is F 22. If you'll recall from the prior lecture, the larger the aperture number, the less light that's being allowed through. So that's why the F eight image at the 15th of a second is so much brighter than the F 22. So in the next Siri's, I'm showing you what those trade offs look like as we start to adjust both the shutter speed and the aperture. So the goal here is to get a properly exposed picture where we're stopping the action. So you noticed. As we progress from 1 25th of a second to 250th of a second, the motion blur in the fan blades starts to get less and less And then, as we take our aperture from 22 to 13 28 to 5.6, the exposure of the image itself starts to get brighter. So you take away here is very simple. Your shutter speed and your aperture have a direct relationship with each other. So when you change one, if you're in perfect exposure, you have to compensate with the other. In most cameras. Your shutter speeds and your temperatures actually will have increments that air in between the ones that we're talking about here. So there will be from 1 250 if they'll be 1 320th and 1 4/100 and 1 5/100 of a second. Same thing with the aperture. It doesn't go usually from 4 to 5.6 there are There are half or thirds steps in between that you can select. But the point is is that they're directly related. So I made a small error in here. I was using a 3.2 aperture. It's actually the relationship is 1000 of a second at F 2.8 is in terms of the amount of light that's being let into the sensor is exactly the same exposure as 1 250th at 5.6, and that relationship is purely mathematical. So 1 250th let's in four times as much light as 1 1000 But the F 5.6 let's in, ah, quarter of the amount of light as f 2.8, so that the image that I showed you the that I took in the very beginning at 1/1000 of a second at F 3.2 is pretty darn close to the same exposure as you would get with 1 250th at 5.6. The difference being that the image at 1 1/1000 has the family is completely frozen, and the 1 250th still has some motion blur in it. So you can see in the images what the effect is of having a shorter versus longer shutter speed. Even though the exposure in terms of the image quality is the same, there is a difference, and there's a reason why you might want to use 1/1000 of a second versus 250th of a second , and this even becomes even more complicated when we throw in the I S o values and their reasons why you want to use different eso values, which of course, will influence your choices around which apertures and shutter speeds to use. So hang in there. I know for some of you, this is a little confusing and complicated. I'm gonna try toe present this in a easy to understand manner and I think it will help you tremendously if you'll spend some time on the ceiling fan exercise and get to know your camera. Get to know what happens when you make those changes in both shutter speed and aperture. And after a while, what seems very complicated to you right now will become second nature, so I'll see you in the next lecture. 22. Image Quality - ISO Part 1: This next lecture is as much about I s so as it is about sort of tying all three elements of the light triangle together. The initial part is to discuss exactly what I eso is and how it's used. So it's actually for those of you who are purists, eso is somewhat of a misnomer. It's really a throwback to the days of film and film cameras when I eso was an expression of a roll of films, sensitivity to light. So photographers would have to use different types of film in different situations, depending on the amount of light that was available and much to the manufacturers credit. In my opinion. Anyways, the designers made the sensors react very close to the way that the old film used to react . So the i e isso values that they ascribed to the different sensitivity ratings were appropriate. And so those people who were using film in the old days could very easily make the transition over to the I A soul values for the sensors. So that's probably a little bit more extraneous information than you might have wanted. But you know, that's the genesis of the I s o settings and how they're used. So basically the sensor of a digital camera and the old film at various esos manages, like in the same way. The trade off is historically that as the light sensitivity of the sensor or in the old days of film, as thesis NC tive ity increased, it generally decreased the picture quality. And typically by that, we mean there was more grain introduced into the into the picture so that there was less resolution. So that's the trade off. As you start to introduce more sensitivity into the sensor by increasing the I S o value, you're going to degrade that image quality. So this is just kind of a guide. It really doesn't apply to some of the high end professional cameras. But if you're a beginner and you using some of the pro sumer level cameras, these air, some of the things that you're gonna encounter as you start to increase, I s o. Now, these air, not the incremental levels. There are levels in between what I've outlined here, but these air kind of some of the benchmarks, they're gonna very depending on what camera you have. So it's really just kind of a guide. A discussion point. Really? So what? I s 0 100 or 200 you're gonna have really sharp pictures. There's gonna be great detail. You can have really good color rendition. And then as you move up to 1632 is, so you're going to notice that there would be some green introduced into the image and that your colors are going to be less vivid. You're going to start to see some erosion there. And when you go to the 6400 and 12,800 I eso levels, in some cases you're gonna have so much grain. You have so much image degradation that cropping is going to become a problem. Picture won't hold together. As you start to crop it into smaller intervals. It'll start to look like I like to call it crayons on a cinder block wall. So, really, the two competing forces that you have at work when you were talking about I s O are the picture quality and motion blur, and this is all related to the amount of light that's available in the ambient. So if you're shooting in the daytime and you have plenty of light. The lower i, ISOS are still going to give you great picture quality. But as you go to these darker venues, like some high school football fields where you have to have to increase the i s. So in order to get the shutter speeds you need freeze the motion. You're fighting this constant battle between eliminating motion blur and then maintaining the quality of your images so that you're not kind of floundering around there on your own . Wondering what toe latch onto, you have to have some anchor. You have to have some base to start the process. So as a is a guide, generally, most pro photographers will use the 1 1/1000 shutter speed as a benchmark. That's the minimum shutter speed that is ideal to stop action. And so, if you're looking for something to hold on to as your anchor, this is it. So you start here and you go faster than a thousands. And, of course, if you have to, you can go slower than 1000. Sometimes you have to, but that's your guide. So while you're doing that at the same time you're trying to preserve the image quality. You're trying to use the lowest I s so you can while still maintaining that 1000th of a second shutter speed. Or as I like to say, you're trying to find that sweet spot. You know, where the two curves cross between that freezing the action and the preservation of the image quality. And you really only have the three tools to use. You've got aperture, shutter speed and I so to accomplish this. 23. Image Quality - ISO Part 2: So let's take a look at some examples that I've chosen from my archives That will really give you a good idea of what High I s O and low image quality look like. And so you can get some idea of kind of what? You're what you're fighting, what you're fighting against when you're trying to use I s O to increased light sensitivity in an effort to freeze action. Let's take a look at a few of these pictures, and we'll point out some things as it relates to the three different types of settings that you have available to you. In this first example, here's a picture I took back in 2008. I used a Nikon D 200 which at the time was one of the first digital SLR cameras to come out . And, you know, back then, 1600 or 3200 I S O was considered just top end and we'll zoom in a little bit here and you can see, you know, as you start toe, look at the image. You know, I had to take this at probably five hundreds of a second at either 1600 or 3200 I S O aperture was 2.8. You can see the effect in the background of the 2.8 aperture. The subject is completely separated from the background because of the shallow depth of field, which it kind of worked against me a little bit here because you could see maybe you can't notice it because of the graininess. But even part the front of the ball is out of focus. So the depth of field wasn't even deep enough to have both the ball and the players eyes and focus in the image here. Another thing you'll notice is how grainy the images. You know, that's something that was a byproduct of having to shoot at those high rise those at the time. So in this picture you can see the results of the three different elements of the light triangle at work. The high I s O creating the graininess, the wide aperture, the 2.8 aperture creating the very shallow depth of field and in this case, the shutter speed. We didn't have any motion blur, but it was I had to shoot at 500 of a second. So had he been moving faster or his arms or hands had been moving faster. You would have seen motion blur in this picture pretty much the same thing here. This is a picture from about the same vintage taken under very similar lighting conditions . I shot this. I believe it. A 2.8 f stop I eso was probably in the 1600 to 3200 range and again this was probably around Ah, 500 shutter speed, so they weren't really moving that fast. There's not a lot of motion blur here, but as you can see, we're just zoom in a little bit is a fair amount of grain there and again, you could see from the wide aperture. The background is completely blurred, which creates really good separation of the main subject from the background. Okay, here's an example where I was able to use a lower I S O and a smaller aperture to create greater depth of field and much sharper image. So you can see the ball is in focus as well as the players face. There's a fair amount of detail. You could see the little bumps on the basketball, and so this was probably shot at around 200 or 400. I s O at 5.6 And the shutter speed. Um, I don't want to complicate matters here, but I was actually using the strobe lights in the arena as my shutter speed, but was effectively about 1/1000 of a second, maybe 12 50. But you could see it froze the action. You've got good resolution and proper depth of field. And there's because of the distance from the player to the background. The background is blurred and it does create good separation. Had there been players behind him, probably for a good six or eight feet, they would still be in focus. So this was a good shot at on isolation shot to take under these conditions. And I'll use this last image to make one final point. Hopefully, by now you could see the earmarks of the the effects of the different settings on this picture. You have probably surmised at this point that this was taken several years ago with high I S O and a wide aperture. The depth of field, as you can see, is very shallow. His right hand is out of focus. And while his left hand is in focus and there's just the slightest hint of motion blur on his right hand, so, you know, effectively, this is a pretty grainy picture. But the point is, this Shoot with what you have. Okay, Yeah, This is a grainy picture. It's not ideal. It's probably never going to make the cover of a sports magazine. But on the other hand, it's a shot of a kid making a one handed catch. So use what you have, deal with whatever conditions you have. And don't pass up a shot like this because you've got grain in your image. Okay, that's what you're out there for. Your out there to grab shots like this and they don't. They're not always going to be perfect, but it's your job to tell the story and to document the game with shots like this, and every once in a while, they're gonna be grainy, and they're not gonna be perfect. So I'm hoping after this series of three, many lectures around the light triangle has given you a greater element of comfort around how it all works and how to manage it. So this kind of wraps up the technical mastery part of the class. And I think the next part is probably the part that you've been waiting for. I know you've all I bought your tickets to the state fair, and you want to head to the midway. So we've already been through the cow building. And so now we're heading out to the to the Ferris wheel in the roller coaster, so I'll see you in the next lecture.