Action Photography Tips

Here are some action photography tips to help you take better photographs of action photography. To take good action photos you must have basic action shooting skills and a little knowledge of the subject you’re photographing. Five skills you need for action photography are follow-focusing, panning, developing a sense of timing, peak action, and prefocusing. It’s very important to make sure your timing is right when taking action photography. Knowing what you’re doing helps you anticipate those perfect peak moments that make for great action photography photos. The first step in getting a great action photo is location of your camera. Where you put your camera is where you put the people viewing your photos, and if you bring the viewer into the action, your photos will be successful. Two action photography tips in dealing with an action subject are: freeze the motion by shooting at a fast shutter speed, blur it by shooting at a slower shutter speed. The faster the subject, the closer the subject is to the camera the longer the focal length, the faster the shutter speed required to "freeze" its motion. Experiment with different shutter speeds, starting with 1/30, try panning with the subject. One action photography tip is prefocus on a point you know your subject will cross, and then shoot as it arrives at that point. Doing this is easier than trying to focus on a rapidly moving subject while trying to smoothly pan the camera. Auto focusing can make action photography easier. You have to keep the subject in the AF target area in the viewfinder, or the camera won't auto focus on it. Another action photography tip to remember is when taking an action photograph or any photograph is look at what environment your subject is in, possibly what mood you’re set in. A factor influencing action photography is the shutter speed of your camera. If you camera allows a fast shutter speed about up to 1/8000 of a second than you can easily capture fast motion. If your camera only supports a slower shutter speed about 1/640 of a second then you won’t be able to capture such fast motion.