How to take basketball photography

How to Aim for Better Basketball Photography (10 Hot Tips)

Basketball photography is an exciting and dynamic sport to shoot. But it can also be challenging due to the need to freeze motion.

If you’ve been wanting to take razor-sharp action photos like those that you see in the sports section of the newspaper, read on.

Here are ten tips to help you focus your camera and get sharp basketball photos.

10. Set Your Camera to Shutter Priority

To freeze action, your minimum shutter speed should be 1/500th of a second. Go even higher if the lighting situation and particular combination of your camera and lens allow for it.

Manual Mode is usually the best mode for professional-looking and properly exposed shots. But it’s not always the best choice for every situation.

When it comes to shooting sports, try setting your camera to Shutter Priority Mode instead of Manual Mode. This will ensure that your camera stays at the minimum shutter speed while it calculates the right F-stop and ISO required to properly expose your photos.

It will also prevent you from having to worry about your settings.

Take a few shots and check them for any unwanted blurring. If they are not sharp enough, go higher with your shutter speed, say to 1/1000th of a second.

9. Increase Your ISO

The way to get more light into your camera when shooting a basketball game is to increase your ISO.

Ordinarily, playing with the shutter speed is the best way to increase the amount of light hitting your sensor. Increasing ISO can introduce grain, or “noise” into the image.

In sports photography, this is not the best option. The shutter speed must be high to get sharp images.

If you don’t have enough light coming into your camera, you have no choice but to increase your ISO.

You can fix noise in post-production. Lightroom has a good option for repairing noise.

You can also use a dedicated noise repair plug-in with either Lightroom or Photoshop, such as DFine from the Nik Collection.

This selectively repairs the noise in an image and is tailored to whichever camera you’re using.

8. Shoot at a Wide Aperture

To shoot at a high shutter speed, you’ll need to use a wide aperture, ideally from F/2.8 to F/4,

This will allow more light into your camera.

The lens you’re using will determine how wide you set your aperture. A good quality lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or f/4 will give you the best results.

In all likelihood, you’ll also be using a zoom lens. If you crop in as close as possible, your lens will not let as much light in. This is where the aperture is the narrowest. In this case, shoot wider and crop in post.

One bonus of shooting at a wide aperture is that it can give you blurred out background. This can look great in basketball photography. It can give the image a sense of urgency and speed.

It can also help isolate the player acting as the main subject in the composition. It will draw the viewer’s eye to the most important part of the image.

7. Shoot In JPEG

It may surprise you to hear me say that you should consider shooting your sports photography in JPEG format. After all, you are repeatedly told that for professional-looking photos, you should always shoot in Raw.

This may be true for several genres in photography. When photographing sports, capturing the action of the game is more important than having really high-quality photos that can withstand a lot of post-processing.

Shooting in JPEG will allow you to shoot more images in burst mode. You’ll also be able to fit more images on your memory card.

You can miss a crucial part in the game in the few minutes it can take you to swap out memory cards. The less often you need to change them out, the better.

6. Use Autofocus

When photographing a basketball game or any other sport, it makes sense to choose autofocus over manual focus. You just don’t have the time to be fiddling with your lens that way.

Not to mention that you need to have excellent eyesight. Being just a millimeter off can mean that you miss focus and lose those killer shots.

For your camera’s autofocus system to function properly, there needs to be contrast in the area where you want to focus.

This can be a problem in the low light situations that are common indoors.

When there is not much contrast, the camera doesn’t know where to focus. If there is not enough light hitting the sensor, the lens motor will keep moving. It’ll hunt for focus without locking onto the subject.

This can cause you to lose precious seconds when you need to be getting crucial shots. Be sure to focus on an area of contrast within your subject.

5. Use Multiple AF Points

The accuracy of the autofocus system is in part influenced by the number of autofocus points your camera has.

It can be hard to nail focus if you have only nine AF point on your camera. One of the biggest differences between cameras and their price points is the number of points the AF system offers.

The costly, more professional systems always have a lot of AF points. Some of the new mirrorless cameras even have focus points in every part of the screen.

Use multiple AF points to take control of your camera’s autofocus system and take sharper images.

4. Set Your Camera to Continuous AF

Continuous Autofocus is when the AF system focuses continuously on the area covered by selected autofocus points.

Most cameras have four focusing modes: manual, auto, single, or continuous.

On a Canon, continuous focus in called AF or Al Servo. On Nikon or Sony, it’s AF-C.

In this mode, as soon as the autofocus system detects a moving subject it activates predictive tracking. It continuously monitors the focus distance. And it adjusts the focus when the distance from the camera to subject changes.

The autofocus system will adjust the point of focus. If you want to focus on a subject that is not covered by any of the AF points, you’ll need to lock the focus distance by pressing the AF lock button.

3. Use Burst Mode

Set your camera to Burst Mode. This will allow you to shoot several frames with one press of the shutter. This will increase your chances of getting a perfectly composed action shot. Note that it will also fill up your memory card more quickly.

Be sure to bring extra memory cards with a high storage capacity. This means that you won’t have to lose precious minutes in the game by having to repeatedly swap them out.

Your best bet is to use Burst Mode for crucial parts of the game. Revert to single shooting most of the time.

2. Switch to Back Button Focus

Back Button Focus is a boon to every type of photographer, even the portrait shooter.

Back Button Focus is the transfer of the focusing function from the shutter button to one of the buttons on the back of your camera.

When used in basketball and other types of sports photography, back button focus will increase your shooting efficiency. You’ll be able to shoot faster.

Instead of pressing the shutter button halfway down to focus, you press a button on the back of your camera with your thumb and use a finger to press the shutter.

This makes focusing and shooting a lot quicker. You don’t have to constantly refocus. And you can keep adjusting your composition without worrying about focusing every time. Your focus will hold, even if you release the shutter button.

Together with continuous focusing, it will increase the likelihood of achieving perfect focus even with difficult shots.

Check your camera manual to figure out how to set Back Button Focus for your particular camera brand and model.

It may feel a bit awkward at first. But you will quickly get used to it. You might even end up keeping your camera on Back Button Focus all of the time.

1. How to Find the Best Vantage Points

Last but not least, think about your vantage point throughout the basketball game. Situating yourself for the biggest impact may mean moving around a lot if there is room for you to do so.

Sports photography also means getting down to the ground or contorting yourself into awkward positions to get dynamic shots.

Don’t be afraid to move with the action. Have a plan beforehand of how you’re going to move around the court for the most advantageous point of view.

One tip for shooting a basketball game outside on a sunny day, make sure that the sun is behind you. This will help get more light into the lens and assist in getting up to those fast shutter speeds with less noise.

When you’re shooting basketball photography, be sure to fill the frame with the players. Capture their facial expressions. Documenting the emotions in a game is a crucial aspect of sports photography.

Conclusion

Be sure to take a few test shots before the game starts. You can check how sharp your images are beforehand and make any necessary adjustments to your camera settings.

Basketball photography is one of the most exciting games to shoot in the realm of sports photography.

With these ten tips, you’ll be sure to get dynamic and sharp action photos the next time you shoot a basketball game.

7 Tips You Need to Get Great Basketball Photography

Sports photography is far from easy. Use these basketball photography tips, and you’ll be capturing incredible, fast-action images in no time!

Get Action-Packed Images with These 7 Basketball Photography Tips

Kim Fetrow’s primary focus is commercial photography, but she began photographing basketball when the coach at her daughters’ high school invited her to document the games. Kim’s husband was already running the scoreboard at basketball games, so the decision was easy. “At first, I didn’t realize how hard it would be,” admits Kim, “but I quickly learned to nail great shots at every game. Now I love sports photography!”

Read on to learn Kim’s tips and techniques…

Photographer Kim Fetrow stands beside 7’4″ varsity player Riley Sorn

#1: Gear

You can’t shoot sports without the right gear! I use two professional Nikon bodies (the D3s and D4s). The 50mm f/1.4 lens sits on my D3s and the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is on my D4s. I use a Spider Dual SpiderPro holster to quickly switch between cameras—depending on where the action is on the basketball court.

The 70-200mm f/2.8 is my preferred lens, but it really isn’t long enough to get great photos of players on the other end of the basketball court. However, anything longer, and you risk some serious camera shake—not to mention the wear and tear on your body, as it is HEAVY!

Kim Fetrow

Camera Settings

I prefer manual mode. First, I use the lowest possible ISO to get both a fast-enough shutter speed to stop any motion blur and an f-stop that will still provide a sharp image. For me, this usually looks like ISO 4000-6400, 1/500th shutter speed, and an f-stop no smaller than f/3.2. (Wide open apertures make it hard to nail your focus.)

Next, I set my camera’s custom white balance using a white wall or piece of paper in the gym. This white balance setting changes from gym to gym. I prefer  RAW so that I can easily adjust the images in Lightroom.

Kim Fetrow

Light & Shutter Speed

Due to recycle times of gym lights and influences from other light sources such as big TV displays, the frame-to-frame color temperature may not be consistent, even with a custom white balance. Watch for other things at play, like the yellow tones from the court and reflections off-colored jerseys and walls that may affect the skin tones and facial expressions in your basketball photography.

I also use a shutter speed that’s fast and allows me to shoot in burst mode. Burst mode lets me capture things like a player making a breakaway dunk. You don’t want to miss those shots!

Kim Fetrow

#2: Establish the Setting

Part of telling the story of basketball for sports photographers is capturing the fans, fanfare, and traditions of the event. Capture what is going on in the gym before the basketball game. This is a great way to take test shots to make sure your camera and photography settings are where they should be.

#3: Find the Best Camera Angles

For the tip-off I make sure I find a spot that sets center court in the center of my camera viewfinder. Depending on whether I am capturing the basketball game for one team or both determines where I’d be generally doing the rest of the basketball game.

If I’m working for one team, I place myself right outside of the key to try and capture the team on offense. (The refs don’t like you to stand right under the basket, plus it’s a great way to get pummeled). Thus, I change positions at every half.

If I’m capturing BOTH teams, I change every quarter in order to capture both teams on offense and defense equally.

Kim Fetrow

Shoot from Above

If there is a deck or a place for shooting the game from above, I’ll move around and capture the entire scene with a fisheye, or I’ll use a long lens to focus on a play from a new angle. But truthfully, my favorite place for photographing basketball is right under the basket!

Identify which is the player’s preferred hand for layups, and that will also help you to know where to be. It is very common to get a player’s arm covering their own facial expressions if you aren’t on the correct side of the basket.

Kim Fetrow

Body Position

I shoot two ways:

1. Standing, with my feet firmly planted, while I keep my arms close to support my camera lens and avoid camera shake. (A fast shutter speed helps, too!)
2. Sitting on the ground (with my back braced against a wall, when possible) or kneeling.

In both cases, I do whatever I can to keep my camera body and camera lens stable as I press the shutter button. Some professional sports photographers use a special chair that supports them while sitting. Just be aware and stay ready to jump out of the way at a moment’s notice—especially when using a longer camera lens for your photography. The basketball players in your camera lens are closer than they appear!

Kim Fetrow

#3: Shooting

Stay alert and follow the game! I equate shooting basketball with shooting ballet photography. Anticipation and timing are key!

I basically watch the entire basketball game through my camera viewfinder and focus on every shot. In other words, I don’t just set my camera on auto-focus then “spray and pray.” I actually hold the shutter button down half-way for every shot.

Don’t be surprised if half of your basketball photos are garbage. Mine still are—even after photographing high school basketball for years! Capturing players at the peak of the action, while still in-focus, with the ball, isn’t easy. A little motion blur is okay; but out-of-focus shots just aren’t. Don’t be afraid to liberally hit the delete key while culling!

Kim Fetrow

What makes a good shot? Should I shoot vertical or horizontal?

I think it’s easier to go vertical, as you are more likely to get the ball in your pictures as your hold the shutter button and more likely to get your shot in focus as you are less zoomed-in. However, coaches and sports agencies like balls in photos. I’ve found that horizontal images are preferred, as they like to share these images on T.V. screens, on social media, and in their news feeds—most of which require a horizontal or square image. Shoot both.

Get close and zoom in. A bunch of pictures showing the entire court aren’t very interesting. Try to freeze the action of one or two players up-close.

Kim Fetrow

Know the Game

One of the best ways to be successful photographing basketball is to know the game. Anticipate what is going to happen next. Keep your camera focused on the player all the way through shooting the ball. Some of the best defensive shots occur after the ball has left a player’s hands when they are getting mauled by the opposing team!

In my opinion, the more fast-paced and physical the basketball game, the better the action photos—but it also takes more skill to shoot.

Kim Fetrow

#4: Rules are Meant to be Broken

• Move the subject around in your frame. Don’t center every shot!
• Follow a player as they run past you down the court, and use a slow shutter speed. A slow shutter speed will help you create a little motion blur.
• Use super-wide open angles and closeups to capture the details of the event. These detailed action shots help to tell a story.

After a while, every basketball game does start to feel the same, so get creative and mix it up!

Kim Fetrow

Be Respectful

Talk with the athletic director or head basketball coach before the game. You may need a press pass or permission from the high school to be down on the court shooting.

There are often other people photographing in the same areas you are, so be mindful not to walk in front of other people’s camera lens. They are there to do a job, too.

Ensure that you aren’t blocking the view of the fans in the stands.

Be respectful, but don’t be a wallflower. Don’t be afraid to get in the mix and get the action shots you need!

Kim Fetrow

#5: Plan Ahead

Be prepared for other photography requests while at the basketball games. Often, I’m asked for a quick team photo, a senior night with parents, or the younger kids’ team to share on social media.

Sometimes this requires additional photography gear or technique changes, such as:

• a flash on your camera to compensate for horrid gym low light
• higher f-stops to get more in focus
• Use a wide-angle lens to get everyone in the frame

Kim Fetrow

These are some areas where you may be able to gain added revenue!

If the team has had a good season, it’s common to shoot events like “cutting down the nets” and team portraits with trophies. Be ready! Parents, players and coaches will want these celebratory shots.

Make sure you have a very wide, fast lens on one of your cameras for the action at these important end-of-season games. As soon as that buzzer goes off, I guarantee: the players (and sometimes the fans) will rush the court. Be prepared to rush out there with them to capture the excitement! (You might want to set the auto-focus and hold down the shutter!)

Kim Fetrow

#6: Share the Pictures

There are many platforms out there that allow you to successfully share pictures. I prefer ShootProof, as it allows me to set up different permissions for different uses.

• Coaches get unlimited access to download and use the images throughout the season.
• I allow parents and players to purchase both digital files and prints.

At the beginning of the season I set up a ShootProof online gallery for each team, and I continue to add optimized images as the season progresses. The players and their families automatically know where to go to find images after each game.

Kim Fetrow

Rather than send out the direct gallery link, however, I send players and families through my website to access their online gallery. Sports photography offers the potential for hundreds of new people to see my work. Perhaps they’ll even spend a few minutes browsing my portfolio and choose to hire me for commercial photography, senior portraits, or family photos.

Kim Fetrow

#7: Have Fun!

Sports photography is fun! I love being down on the floor as close as possible to the action. I get excited when I capture an amazing play—especially when shooting a basketball team I care about. You are right there celebrating their victories and defeats while preserving some very special memories that you just can’t get with a cell phone. So get out there and have a blast!

Written and Photographed by KIM FETROW

Kimberly Teske Fetrow is an award-winning, internationally published, commercial and portrait photographer with over 20 years of experience. To follow her adventures as a photographer and to see her most recent work, follow her on Instagram.

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Indoor sports photography

8 tips for creating sports shots

Are you going to learn how to shoot sports events better and create spectacular shots? Sports photography gives you many opportunities to capture dramatic and vibrant images that will stay with you for a lifetime. No other environment will provide you with so many heart-pounding action, rich colors and unique shooting opportunities.

The steps and recommendations covered in this tutorial cover a wide range of issues, from choosing a shutter speed value to checking if you missed an important point.

By following these 8 tips, you will be able to dramatically improve your photos, which will make all your friends jealous. The key point, beyond these eight tips, is to keep filming! Practice makes perfect, keeping you steady and ready for the big game.

1. Be prepared to use high ISO

Looking to capture the perfect shot, but the lighting leaves a lot to be desired? Trying to stop traffic at a small league game and need a faster shutter speed? Increasing the ISO on your camera will allow you to shoot at a faster shutter speed, giving you a better chance of getting your perfect shot.

Professional sports photographers use a shutter speed of around 1/1000th of a second to stop motion. It's easy during the day. However, at night you may need a larger aperture than your lens is capable of. As a compromise, increase the ISO (what used to be called film speed) on your camera. This will allow the machine to recognize more light.

So, how high do you need? If you shoot with the latest and greatest cameras like the Nikon D700 or Canon 5d Mark II, you can use ISO settings up to the maximum level (ISO 3200) and your images will still look good. In the past, higher ISO values ​​meant more noise in your photos. However, with the latest systems, photos look great at any setting.

With that said, I usually shoot at 1600 ISO. This is the sweet spot between 800 ISO and 3200 ISO and allows me to photograph sports at much faster shutter speeds.

Depending on the capabilities of your camera, you may also want to try using Auto ISO to let your camera automatically choose the best ISO for you. This function has one unique feature: the automatic system does not change the ISO by a full step, for example, from 400 ISO to 800 ISO, instead it can change the value from 200 ISO to 210 ISO. Take note of this setting if you are just getting started with ISO settings to improve night photography.

2. Try something new

All sports shots don't have to look the same. A few years ago, photographers from a small American magazine decided to try something new to cover football matches. Instead of shooting at eye level, they lay as low to the ground in the end zone as they could with a wide-angle lens. What did it do to their images? This provided them with a new perspective to help tell the story. Who were these people, you ask? Sports Illustrated photographers. Now everyone does it.

When shooting, be original and try something different. At every event I cover, I try to find as many new approaches as possible. I mainly work as a professional motorsports photographer, shooting mostly NASCAR, but every event is a different situation. It allows me to try new backgrounds, new angles, new shooting positions.

You don't have to shoot professional sports to try something new. Even when I photographed football games in high school, I was always on the lookout for new angles and ideas.

By trying to create something different, you allow your creativity to flourish and create something that no one has filmed before you. In the picture below, I was photographing through the windshield of a racing car and caught the driver getting ready to hit the track.

3. Don't forget the environment

This may sound like nonsense, but be mindful of your surroundings. Whether it's a stadium full of cheering fans, or a picnic on the hood of a pickup truck (English "tailgating") next to the stadium, the environment provides you with unique opportunities to capture the spirit of the game without filming the action itself.

Before the game starts, tailgating is a great place to capture real fans before the game.

Before the start of a basketball game, the umpires' side is also a good place to take shots that capture the spirit of the team.

Even after the game has started, don't forget about the environment. If you have a wide angle like 10.5mm or 14mm, get as high as you can and take a picture of the general view of the stadium filled with cheering fans.

4. Prepare your equipment strap or camera bag

Ever wondered why sports photographers carry so much equipment with them? This is because we want to build muscles while we walk.

Jokes aside, when you're on the sidelines or in the thick of things, it's hard to run to your bag and change equipment. Many sports photographers use one of three things to carry equipment when they're on the touchline: a fanny pack, a harness system, or a photo vest.

Photo vests were cool a few years ago (I had one), but they're impractical now with the amount of lenses you need to carry around in the hotspot. I prefer to use a good lap belt system. In this system, I have 6 holsters that can be used at any given time, from large lens holsters to one dedicated to flash.

This system allows me to quickly change lenses and keep all my memory cards in one safe place. On the sidelines, this allows me to stay ready for action with a set of lenses, and since each holster has a protective coating, it also keeps the equipment safe in the rain when shooting outdoor sports.

Some companies offer special bags for sports photographers.
The key to choosing a good system is to find one that is comfortable for you and suited to your specific needs. Visit your local photo store, try different options, and see what works best.

5. Long glasses go far

Shooting the perfect shot in sports comes down to relatively few things. One of the most important points is glass. Sports photography, unlike any other form of photography, sometimes requires the largest and most expensive equipment on the market. This will allow you to shoot from anywhere in and around the stadium, including the American football end zone, for great shots.

I say all this for one simple reason. As we mentioned earlier, cameras can now do wonders with high ISO settings. This allows people to use slower sports lenses such as f/4.
When looking for a good sports photography lens, consider the following factors:

• Get 300mm or 400mm telephoto lenses if you can afford them. If not - take 70-200 mm.
• Choose f/2.8 or f/4 lenses. Try to pick one up and run from f/5.6 like the plague.
• Generally, the larger and heavier the lens, the better it is.
• Make sure the lens has a tripod socket.
• Look for lenses that stand the test of time: this is the reason why Nikon and Canon rarely change their line of lenses.

Buying good glass is not the same as buying a new carcass. Good glass will last you at least 10 years with proper care and maintenance.

6. Let's not "chimp", please.

Every sports photographer suffers from “chimping”. If you're not familiar with the term, it's definition will clear things up.

In essence, chimping is when you check each frame on the LCD immediately after shooting. Why is that bad? This distracts you from the action, because. all your attention is focused on the camera. This is bad for two reasons: (1) you can get hurt, and (2) you can miss a good shot.

When you do this, you take your eyes off the field and the action. If you're shooting football, you can easily get knocked down on the touchline while your attention is occupied by someone else.

There is a time and place for viewing your photos. During sporting events, there is no second chance after the click of the shutter. Move on to the next game.

7. Use a slow shutter speed

Long exposure? I used to use 1/1000 of a second to freeze an action and stop it...

When trying to create something new and interesting, you can sometimes try different shutter speeds. If you're shooting a baseball and want to capture a perfect silhouette shot, I'm not suggesting you shoot at 1/60 of a second. But if you want a shot with a cool blurry background, this works great.

Many professional photographers at Getty Images and Reuters use this technique to bring energy to their images and create a luxurious looking clean background. Shooting at 1/100th or 1/80th of a second will make sure that the player is in focus, while the background is very much and effectively blurred.

8. Avoid using flash

When shooting professional or student competitions, flash photography is strictly prohibited. Flash can distract players and drive coaches crazy. There are a few exceptions, including basketball and indoor sports, but on-camera flashes can't usually be used.

For indoor events, schools usually have very powerful flashes (or strobes) mounted on the beams of the hall and provide the perfect amount of light to the playing field. These flashes can be synchronized with your camera using Pocket Wizard.

When you are shooting outdoors, such as football or baseball, you should never use the flash on your camera.

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