Sports and Events Photography: FIFA World Cup and Other Venues

[dinora_de_rivera]

<p>Could some of you tell me how does sports photography work?</p>

<p>I would like to know about the equipment, cameras, lenses, and anything else special that helps the process, the exposure settings, and how is it that the images almost instantaneously get uploaded on a server and into an online image gallery for one of the photographic agencies? Do the photographers use the flashes?</p>

<p>Watching the FIFA World Cup, I've noticed that there is a whole bunch of cameras behind the goals. Does anyone know what is their special purpose and how are they operated remotely?</p>

<p>Are there any tricks, such as the so-called trap focus, which are regularly used in this field?</p>

[JosvanEekelen]

<p>Don't overthink it; in part it is just hard work. see this link: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/the-inside-story-of-how-olympic-photographers-capture-s-1521746623">http://gizmodo.com/the-inside-story-of-how-olympic-photographers-capture-s-1521746623</a> for an impression of Sotchi. I suppose FIFA will be similar.<br>

I don't know if it's still around but I remember a similar (Sports Illustrated) article about the 2004 Superbowl. Things were way different then with runners picking up memory cards from photographers and central processing of images. </p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Disclaimer: I'm an amateur.</p>

 

<blockquote>I would like to know about the equipment, cameras, lenses, and anything else special that helps the process, the exposure settings, and how is it that the images almost instantaneously get uploaded on a server and into an online image gallery for one of the photographic agencies? Do the photographers use the flashes?</blockquote>

 

<p>Cameras, it's often the case that a fast frame rate, good autofocus and a big buffer can make the difference. Resolution usually doesn't. With exceptions, that means that the pros are often wielding 1D or 1dx series Canons, D3/D3s/D4/D4s Nikons, etc. Occasionally you might see a crop body (such as a D300s, a D7100 or a 7D), but they can't usually quite keep up. Lenses: For tracking someone around a football field, the classics are a 400 f/2.8 or something like a 200-400 f4. Possibly a 600 f/4 if far enough back. Big lenses like this let you get good isolation on an individual player, isolate them from the background, still manage to shoot at fast speeds under poor lighting, and focus very fast. These are the big white (Canon) or black (Nikon) lenses you see in the press pit. More close-up options can use a wider (and cheaper) lens. You can still take decent photos with a consumer zoom, but the pro lenses are a class apart for getting the money shot. They also cost more than a small car.<br />

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Exposure settings? Often wide open aperture, or near it. Shutter speed is usually as fast as you can get away with. The big cameras are very good at higher ISOs. Canon and Nikon both make external units that allow ethernet or wifi connectivity, so you can get results straight to a computer. Some venues are wired to make this easier for the journalists. I suspect flash is rare, if only because of the range that we're usually talking about and that a hundred journalists firing a flash gun in your face while you're trying to shoot at the goal is probably going to detract from the sport - but I could be wrong. (I've never taken a flash to a sporting event.)</p>

 

<blockquote>Watching the FIFA World Cup, I've noticed that there is a whole bunch of cameras behind the goals. Does anyone know what is their special purpose and how are they operated remotely?</blockquote>

 

<p>To get the shot of the ball going into the goal, with the player in the background. As far as I know, they'll be manually triggered by the photographer, with a wireless trigger. I imagine an automated solution would be intrusive.</p>

 

<blockquote>Are there any tricks, such as the so-called trap focus, which are regularly used in this field?</blockquote>

 

<p>It's possible to set up a remote shutter, but doing it in a venue shared with a huge number of other photographers without getting in the way of the sport is probably tricky. I'm happy to hear otherwise. I doubt trap focus, as such, will help - it's not really fast enough, and usually very precise about where the subject has to be. Nikon removed it from their cameras for a couple of years because they believed nobody wanted it (there was a campaign, it's back, but I don't know how many pro sports shooters used it - though I've been known to). I believe Canon removed this functionality a few years back too, though I could be wrong. As far as I know, people just take the shot manually, if sometimes remotely.<br />

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I hope that helps!</p>

[joe_willmore]

<p>Here's a blog with the experiences of Simon Stackpoole who was shooting for a soccer/football magazine (Offside) in Brasil 2014: http://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/a-photographers-world-cup-blog.htm<br>

While it won't answer all of your questions, it will give you a better idea of how some of the working sports photojournalists approach this assignment (especially an extended one).</p>