Photography

Volleyball is really predictable, it's the only team sport I will promise photos of each player ahead of time. Set up for the front row and you have a 1/3 chance of getting a hit each play, then move to set up for the back row and same 1/3 chance, and that's if you're just picking a player to focus on at random rather than trying to react.

I shoot with wide aperture prime lenses (40, 105, 200, 300) to get maximum light and background separation, which helps.

Have worked in sports photography for 10 years or so now! It takes a lot of practice, there’s a real art form in learning to follow the action and predict where the good photos are going to be. I would also argue it’s easier at a higher level. Pro athletes performing in well lit environment’s that are set up in a way for pro sports photographers to work produces better pictures much easier. Pro level gear makes the difference too, there’s a reason people spend tens of thousands on equipment. I think it’s a real issue with the industry that makes it hard to break through when starting out but that’s a whole other conversation!

Last biggest tip, don’t be afraid to crop in tight, its almost impossible to get clean action images in some sports but you can pick out clean pictures with a good crop!

I shoot a lot of sports events and I use maybe 1-5% of shots taken

Professional sports photographers typically have sideline access or a dedicated press area where they only have a few people who might be walking in front of them.

You might find Jeff Cable's blog here interesting. He does a lot of sports photography and shot the US olympics water polo team in Japan. It was a very interesting read to get his thoughts on how he managed to get some of his shots and the thought process that went into them.

I've photographed (indoor) volleyball for two seasons.

I used a zoom initially, but then settled on using 50mm and 35mm primes, depending on location (35mm court-side vs 50mm up in the bleachers). Then I crop photos liberally in post.

I typically keep the settings at 1/250, f5.6 or f8, and use auto ISO. I like the wider aperture to help focus the viewer on a specific player/scene, and the narrower aperture for photos that need multiple players in focus.

I mostly concentrate on a single player at a time (camera focused on player or location, not the ball), and use back button focus.

Also, at least for my camera (Nikon D780), I have to press the shutter slightly before when I think the photo needs to be taken. That could just be my reaction time and the speed of play, not the camera itself.

I typically take 100-300 shots a game, and narrow them down to 10-30 keepers.

Also, even if I like a photo compositionally or its a great action shot, I'll delete the photo if it makes the player(s) look unflattering.

If you can move around, try different perspectives. From behind each team, at the net between both teams from the side and look for the best angles. You are the photographer, so find the best shots.

You must use f-stop lenses at or below f2.8.

When I've shot volleyball I get maybe 50-60% of the shots are keepers. I try to get faces between plays when they are smiling at each other or high fiving. Action shots are much harder but the more games you shoot, the better you get at anticipating good action. Maybe 1 in 3 are good. And I've found that if you can't get faces, get butts. Your GF might not like that, but a spike from behind to me is easier to get and just as interesting as from the front...just saying.

Try NCAA Basketball and you will learn to hate Refs lol I know they don’t but it’s like they intentionally get in my shots and I have full access to where ever I want to shoot as long as I’m not on the actual court.

My last game I saved about 25 shots, my team lost bad and I lost interest in trying to get great shots of a loss. If you got 300 I’d say you did great.

Shoot low F stop, I shoot f/2.8 and try to focus on just the action, not what the team is doing. I do a lot of cropping also.

I've been shooting high school football (USA) for about 15 years, and I'll typically shoot 1000-1300 shots, and deliver 150-250 to the team. My job is to try to get at least one good shot of every team member. If I was delivering for a newspaper, that would be winnowed to 50. For a print newspaper, probably 2-6 shots would see the light of day.

I'll bet your 300 keepers will drop to far fewer upon further reviews.

What to do about repetitive shots? Try different angles. Put your camera on the floor and shoot upward (flip out screens help a lot). Shoot from high in the stands, or even from the rafters if you are allowed access. Get artsy and get a close up of the shoes if the player has written something on them. Reaction/celebration shots may be your best ones, don't chimp your screen when the action stops.

As far as shooting young women, you can't think about it too much when shooting but look closely while editing and culling. I once got a great shot of a cheerleader, at peak mid-air throw, four limbs fully extended, great face, everything was perfect, and you could clearly see the outline of her vulva though her clothes. But it was such a great shot! I showed my wife... no you can't share that. I showed a pro photographer... no you can't share that. Into the cull bin it went.

How the *** do professionals get solid photos with all the faces, people running around, athletes getting in your shot while you are focused on a subject, limited space etc?

Lots of practice, some luck

I took around 1300 photos. Only like 300 of them are usable.

That’s not a bad ratio

And when I did... the faces... Oh my god.

Why do you keep saying “the faces”? I’m missing the relevance.

The professionals only show us the keepers.

Volleyball isn't easy. Try focusing through the net, ha ha. Tip- focus on the legs under the net.

Floating ISO as someone else mentioned can be help or hinder. The place I shoot has those LED video boards at the sideline tables. Get one of those in a shot and everything goes dark.

When you shoot, ask yourself what you are shooting. Faces? Bold action shots? One particular player? Your why doesn't have to stay the same for the whole game. You can mix it up the entire game. If you want to get everything you'll get nothing.

Keep shooting and you'll get better.

I’d sing to the heavens for that kind of keeper rate, especially when inexperienced.

My first time shooting volleyball my keeper rate was just below 8%. Because of my inexperience, I did a lot of shotgun pictures.

My first game, I was taking pics for local small newspaper. I was expected to write an article to accompany the photos. After culling the photos, I fired up my writing brain. Then I released I didn’t know how many games were won (best of 3). I dod r know any players names. I didn’t know the final score of any of the games.

BIG learning curve.

Keep practicing and heed the advice given above. You will mess up sometime, we all have.

As with all things, practice makes perfect. It's impossible to expect to be great your first time doing anything. Even seasoned sports photogs still have a learning curve when shooting a new sport. The more you cover a specific sport (and it helps tremendously to already have an understanding on how it's played) the better you can anticipate the action and you know what you want to get pictures of instead of just trying to shoot any random action happening in front of you.

As far as keepers, as already mentioned that's a lot. Obviously different people have different definitions of what makes a keeper (for some it's as long as it's in focus, others are much more specific like peak action/ball/face/no body part cut off). I'd say 10% is a great ratio to be at, and like mentioned above when you get to know a sport and know what kinds of photos you want, your overall shot count goes down and your keeper rate goes up.

23%?!? That’s amazing! I’ve heard many professionals only get like 10% usable shots.

Edit: also there’s not much you can do about the faces. No matter how good your lens is, athletes are always going to look like that. Try not to submit anything too embarrassing, but realize you can’t get them to look too good without staging the photos

practice, knowledge of the sport to inform you where you should be looking... and as someone who regularly says it is not about the gear... in this instance it very much is. More AF points, more 'cross type' active sensors, better AF tracking, and of course the FPS, not to mention long and very fast (large aperture) pro lenses, which further aids the AF in successfully locking and tracking

That's just sports photography for you. I had a user on another subreddit critizes me for taking 2k photos (sporting event). You either take 2k photos or you don't get any good photos at all. Plus in sports photography, gear matters a lot. It's a whole another realm.

Dude, I'm the official photographer of a team playing in the top league here. First of all, if you want to take decent photos, in that sport, you have to be close, and I mean real close. Then you have to watch games, a lot. You have to learn their timing and movement. Pre-focus at a specific point and wait for the photos to come to you. If you start chasing the ball, you already list the game. Try to see the fleeing moment they stay still in the air. A LOT OF PRACTICE. And take into account a 5 to 8% of the photos you shoot will be usable. Even professional photographers have a max 8-12% of really usable photos.

I think it can be summed up with skill, gear, and experience; all of which I don't have.

With that said, a yield of 300/1,300 actually sounds great for a first time! Since you're shooting digital, as long as you have a decent-size and decent-speed card, don't be afraid to just machine-gun it and take what comes out good.

You largely start getting used to how things go and where the action is going to be. I was a wrestler in high school and my journalist friend was amazed that when I sat with him covering an event I could tell him a few seconds ahead of time what was going to happen in each match.

It's the same when I shot basketball in college (awful). You know where the ball is going to be because it's a lot of rote practiced activities for the athletes. When things go well, it's predictable.

It's the same when I shot basketball in college (awful). You know where the ball is going to be because it's a lot of rote-practiced activities for the athletes. When things go well, it's predictable.

First of all get a solid lens with an opening of 2.8 or better. More light is more speed is sharper photos. Use a monopod to balance the camera and lens. Position yourself in that way the play comes to you, that way you have more time to focus. Shooting from the sides is asking for trouble unless the pass is going for the other side of the net sideways in your direction. Choose low angles so you can catch them mid air and use the added height in the photo, makes it more spectacular. All in all, don’t give up and keep trying.

Always think quality over quantity.

300 usable photos is a solid amount. When I started shooting sports, I felt like I HAD to have as many photos as possible of as many people as I could, that was until I got some advice from a seasoned sports photographer I knew and he told me that you're the only person who a) sees/knows how many photos you took in total and b) gets to edit the good photos and delete the bad ones. This means that even if you only have one good shot of each player on the volleyball court, you're the only one who's going to know, and nobody is going to care if there's a good shot of everyone.

The beauty of sports is that it's highly repetitive more often than not, so you have hundreds of attempts to get the good shots. You'll pick up bad shots at every event you shoot, even the best photographers do (you just don't have the privilege of seeing them!).

I did sports photography for two summers. Mostly high school age kids. 300 decent shots out of 1300? That was probably my percentage too....

Depends on the gear. Having a lens with a better fstop means you can bum up the shutterspeed. Moving to on with more around f2 cpuld help. The max shutter speend of the camera alnd malx ISO work in to that to. I just watched a video on youtube sort of about this by simon d'Entremont. He breaks it down to almost an elementary level but is still useful.

Happy shooting

How does anyone do anything? Practice.

In ball sports, follow the ball.

I’ve shot soccer, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, swim, and water polo at various points and there’s not really a one-size-fits-all answer, but shutter priority is your friend. In indoor lighting you can go full manual, but it becomes of a game of balancing your aperture against your shutter to get correctly exposed images.

I took around 1300 photos. Only like 300 of them are usable.

That's not horrible. Remember, sports is fast moving and can be unpredictable at times. This isn't family portraits or passport photos, you can't control everything.

Volleyball is one of the toughest sports to shoot. If you get 30 images that are keepers you are doing well, 300 is fantastic.

Not bad for your first time. It should get more comfortable as you build up your experience through repetition. By watching how the players move should help you anticipate what they'll do in certain situations and know where to be and when to shoot.

Low-light action photography isn't easy but it can be pretty rewarding when you get some good shots.

If you're going to be shooting an entire game, don't stress over someone getting in the way (unless they're a ref) because another chance will come along soon enough.

Sports photography is tough, most pros take hundreds of images in the hopes of getting 5 or six good images.. don’t lose heart.. you’ll get better!! Just shot often

Just keep in mind that you see your failed shots, but not theirs.

I shoot sports a lot for work and I also get a lot of bad shots lol.

late to the party and it looks like you got good advice, super fast lenses (f/2.8 or better), and IMO know the sport, It really helps, but also know your gear, what you can and cannot do. When I was active I'd be sitting with 30 other photographers and every. single. one. did a spray and pray. Well, almost. I didn't, and the AP photographer didn't either, but he'd show up, take 1-3 shots, edit them, upload, and leave. I mostly shot ice hockey and play/knew the game well enough that I didn't have to spray and pray. I could take a few hundred photos and I'd keep more than 50% and my photos told the story of the game. Whether that's 51% or 70% I can't recall, it was 15 years ago and it varied from game to game some better than others, some worse. It was a lot of fun, met a lot of the hockey players I got to photo but it burned me out and I set the camera down for many, many years.

300 out of 1300 is huge, I shoot local events and have a 5% keep rate

For volleyball I learned to shoot with both eyes open, one in the viewfinder to focus and frame the shot and the other eye to watch the game and know when the ball was coming into the frame. It’s a weird experience, but it’s a skill you can learn. My hit rate increased dramatically once I learned how to do this. How said that, in college, back in the film days, my first two rolls of volleyball shots had no ball in any frame because by the time I saw the ball enter and press the trigger, the ball was gone.🤣🤣🤣

not only that… it was women playing

Curious as to why you edited your post to say you weren’t trying to be sexist instead of just deleting the sexist bit.

I shoot a lot of basketball and my hit rate is 10% on a good night.

Knowing the sport well really helps so you can anticipate the action. Knowing the players and their tendencies is also a huge help.

Start by trying to copy other people’s shots from volleyball then start finding your own style.