Top tips to improve your sports photography

Over the last ten years, Cameron Spencer has covered some of the biggest sporting events on the planet for Getty Images. Just some of these have included four Olympic Games, two Commonwealth Games, three Rugby World Cups, two Asian Beach Games, two NZ Winter Games, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and International cricket including three Ashes test series. Not surprisingly, when it comes to capturing those quintessential moments in sport, the ones that epitomise the emotion, and the crucial moment, Spencer knows a thing or two. Below he shares six top tips to help you improve.

1. Freeze the action

Regardless of the sport you photograph, you always want to be able to freeze the action and this requires a fast shutter speed. Ensure your camera is set to a shutter speed minimum of 1/1000th of a second, and use high-speed continuous shooting mode to enable you to shoot a sequence. Afterwards, you can then select the best shot out of the series. I typically set my shutter speed to over 1/1000th with a shallow depth of field like f2.8-3.5 depending on the sport. The wide aperture helps separates the subject from the background which can often be distracting with signage and advertising boards.

2. Slow down

The slower the shutter speed and busier the background, the better a pan will look. However, the slower you go, the less likely you will get the subject sharp. Make sure you stand as still as possible and follow through with the subject while opening the shutter. Keep moving until after you hear the shutter close, and make that movement as smooth as possible. Don’t get frustrated if your subject is blurred, because panning isn’t as easy as it may look. It’s a skill that takes time and practice to master. I usually start panning race cars or bikes at 1/60th. Once you get a sharp one, keep slowing down until you get one at 1/10th – that's about as slow as I can pan hand held. With motorsport and cycling, you generally don't want to shoot too fast a shutter speed or it looks like the vehicles are parked as the wheels are not spinning.

3. Warm up

Don’t wait until an event starts to begin shooting. Get out early and shoot the warmups. You need to get used to photographing the action. It’s not uncommon for me to shoot several thousand pictures at an event. As part of your warm up, it’s good to work out your colour balance, the position to shoot from (my priorities are best angle with light and cleanest background), and then establish the right exposure. It takes time to get into the rhythm of a sport, and for each sport it’s different. Shoot warmups, and warm yourself up along with the athletes. An example of this was the half-pipe in snowboarding at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, working out where the competitors were getting air and what wide angle lens to use helped before the competition began.

4. Perseverance

You really need to understand the sport and the tendencies of the teams and sports players you are covering, and also how those tendencies can help you to anticipate what might happen next in a game. This comes with a lot of trial and error, a lot of research, and a lot of patience. Eventually, you can make your own luck and predict what is going to happen next. You have to hang in there until the picture you see in your head is framed in the viewfinder. If you understand the rules of a sport, it helps too. For example, if a referee signals in rugby, I’m already running to the other end of the field ahead of the play, preparing for the next shot. If I turned up at an NFL game, I would not know where to start as I'm not familiar with all the intricacies of the sport.

5. Tell a story

Everyone’s eyes will be on the action, but sporting events consist of more than the athletes winning games. Going to a game is an experience: the crowd, the volunteers, the backdrop, the atmosphere captured inside shots showing the whole stadium – all of this helps to tell your story. Sometimes my best shots are of the crowd; like the Aussie fans I captured at the Rio World Cup.

6. Expect the unexpected

Sporting events can be a condensed version of life, filled with high and low emotions; all within one match. You always need to be prepared for something new and something fresh. You can often sense momentum building in a match, and when a big moment is about to unfold. Even though photography is such a visual medium, you can use your ears to listen to the spectators. Often when a crowd goes quiet and you can hear a pin drop, it’s because something magical is about to happen. Try and read the players and watching how they respond. You never know when Gael Monfils is going to fly through the air to hit a ball; and you want to be in the best position with the right lens and settings, prepared for that next big moment that doesn't come along that often.

About Cameron Spencer

After attaining a bachelor’s degree of Visual Communication majoring in photography, Cameron Spencer began his career working as an assistant and freelance photographer. He started working at Getty Images, in Sydney, as a picture desk editor, then assignments editor and, after many weekends learning from several senior Getty Images photographers, in 2004 the self-confessed sports fanatic became an official Getty Images staff photographer.

Cameron’s work is regularly published in newspapers, magazines and online around the world. Publications include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Inside Sport, ESPN and Sports Illustrated.

No stranger to awards, Spencer has received numerous local and international awards for his images. In 2015 alone, 2015 he was named Sports Photographer of the Year at Picture of the Year International, and Sports Photojournalist of the Year at NPPA: Best of Photojournalism 2015.