UKH

I've never done any sporting action shots before and would very much appreciate advice on how these turned out with a recent match between Kirby Lonsdale and Blackburn?

I appreciate that many of the images are noisey but the ISO was bumped up to over a 1600 even though it was a bright day. That way I could keep the shutter speed close to my hand held zooming.

Cheers muchly

https://www.flickr.com/photos/the1lemming/albums/72157679800299493

In reply to The Lemming:

They're good Lemming, nice light and good action well captured.I guess if you want to drop the noise a bit you could try shooting a bit wider at 4.5 or something, that's about where I usually sit my lens for rugby or football. As a general rule of thumb I find larger ball sports (rugby/football etc.) need to be shot at 1/1000 sec or faster to freeze motion and smaller ball sports (cricket etc.) at 1/2000 sec or faster. With that as a starting point you can work backwards and crank down your ISO as low as possible.
Cheers!

In reply to The Lemming:

I wonder if the scrum half got done for a tip tackle ??


They look alright to me, but then I'm a rugby player, not a photographer.......

In reply to arch:


When taking shots of climbing, I know what I'm roughly after as I've been climbing and taking photos of climbing for a long time. But with another sport, like rugby which I last played at school and only watch during World Cups, then I don't know exactly what I'm shooting, which is probably why I just left my finger on the shutter and took 1,800 frames.

It was also difficult trying to figure out where the ball was, as everything happened so fast. The BBC and Sky Sports make it look so easy.

In reply to The Lemming:

I'd say walk around a lot and take loads of shots. Lineouts are good action shots (Which you've got) try and make sure you are on the right side of it though, usually be on the side of the team throwing the ball in, they "Normally" win the ball. Perhaps 10yds away, on the team throwing in side.

In reply to The Lemming:

As another general rule of thumb re' football and rugby. With football it's often easiest to shoot across from the side of the field since most of the action at the business end comes in from the wings or the corners. Whereas with Rugby I find it's often best to shoot looking straight down the field since you'll get people charging towards you more often than you do in football - particularly good with a big try or something. It's difficult though without knowing the game and the teams well to anticipate where that try is going to come from.

In reply to Tom Last:

Yes, I did find that the best and least busy shots were taken while looking down the pitch. The shots taken from the sidelines were too busy and cluttered the action.

I was lucky enough to capture two tries. Unfortunately, because I was sat on my arse, the low perspective stopped me from capturing the ball going over the line.

Lesson, learned there.

In reply to The Lemming:
I even made a short video of the presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkklh07M0pQ&t=14s

In reply to The Lemming:

They've certainly played well this season 26 out of 26 games won, can't argue with that. One thing this thread has done is it's shown me how much I miss playing Rugby.

In reply to The Lemming:

very good, well done.

I've seen far worse in my local rag's sports pages.

In reply to The Lemming:

I liked them, some I thought to be very good, others a bit meh but generally well done!

In reply to Skyfall:

Which ones did you like?

I will then try to replicate such situations.

Cheers

In reply to The Lemming:

Seems like the Westmorland Gazette liked the images too, as three of them were published.



I never provided the pictures to the paper but with the club. For future reference seeing as the horse has bolted the barn-door, how much could I expect if I asked for payment to use my images?

In reply to The Lemming:
For future reference seeing as the horse has bolted the barn-door, how much could I expect if I asked for payment to use my images?

From The Westmorland Gazette? Realistically, nothing. None of the titles I work for as a staffer (sort of) pay for any submissions at all these days, a model replicated by most local newspapers across the board. A pic in a national will likely get you from £50 and up, depending on what it is really and how much they want it, but of course they'd be unlikely to use regional sport pics.

In reply to Tom Last:

In that case I shall bask in the glory of being published, even if nobody knows I took the images.

I've had a good month as an amateur, published in a local magazine and on a BBC news website.

Think I shall organise a book signing.

In reply to The Lemming:

That is good going mate and I agree with the other poster who commented that they were better than many sports pics in local papers. They should be giving you a byline though at the very least!
If you feel like you're producing a lot of quality publishable work (and it sounds like you are), it might be worth getting in touch with your local press agency who will be responsible for syndicating local news stories to the nationals and sourcing local stuff for the nationals generally. I don't work for any press agencies myself, but they will pay you if you have what they're after and/or will come to you if they think you're likely to be able to get them the content they need. I don't know who the agencies in the north west are, but that'll be your best bet if you hope to earn a few quid out of local news without actually working for a paper. Hope that helps

In reply to The Lemming:


They should still 'Credit' you though, whether they paid you or not

And as an amateur photographer I think they look great too, very good light and nice action shots.
Do you mind me asking which camera and lenses you used?

In reply to NikiHooper:


Definitely, unless The Lemming had some agreement with the club beforehand (and if he didn't, I'm not sure that they should have been submitting his pics to the Westmorland Gazette without contacting The Lemming first, if that is indeed what has happened here).

Regardless of payment / lack thereof, The Lemming would have even more glory to bask in if he were actually credited for the shots he took in his own spare time using his own equipment.

It also might lead to readers inviting The Lemming to photograph their event - again regardless of payment / lack thereof, this creates opportunities for The Lemming to enjoy and learn from another shoot.

In reply to NikiHooper:

Glad you liked my pictures.

As for my kit, I have a Panasonic GH4 with a 100-400 lens.