With a few simple changes to the way you shoot, your sports photos can become dramatically better..
With a subject as exciting as sports, you'd think it would be easy to create dynamic, striking photos. But then why do so many shots look identical, lifeless, and just simply boring?
I'm not saying this is a bad image, and I'm not saying that a bad photographer took it. But, I will say that it feels a little uninspired to me. It doesn't make me feel anything, or put me in the moment.
The biggest faux pas in sports photography to me are: shooting landscape style, being too zoomed out, and just plain lacking originality.
Zoom in!!!
For a truly good sports photo, it should feel like you're in the action, on the court, or field, right in the middle of the players. This closeness helps to capture the emotion of the players, and feel a real connection to the image and the players in it.
Also, the more zoomed in you get, the more artsy background bokeh you'll get, and that';s never a bad thing. That's always a very, very good thing.
Shoot in Portrait!!
To me, if the subject of a photograph is vertical, then the photo should be vertical. So when I shoot, if it's a person, tree, tall building, anything with a vertical orientation, I shoot portrait. Cars, buildings, landscapes (hence the name), I shoot landscape. These are very loose rules, and I break them all the time, so take this one with a grain of salt. But, in general this is how I shoot.
Get Creative!!!!
Admittedly, this is easier said than done. "bE cReAtiVe" like it's just that easy, I know... but it's true. If you're shooting from the same spots, with the same settings, and same mentality as every other photographer, you're pictures are going to look the same as every other photographers!!
Play with your settings, find some new angles, do what it takes to differentiate yourself!
Personally, when I'm in a rut, the two things I go back to are: Shooting through crowd members and players to frame my subject, slowing down my shutter speed to get a shitton of motion blur. These are my ways of "getting creative," try to find your own!!
One last thing...
Learn how to edit your pictures in Lightroom. I'm not going to tell you what all settings and presets I use (gotta keep some secrets so I can keep making these blogs) but familiarize yourself with the platform, and learn a thing or two about color science.
That's all I've got for ya today, peace yall!