Camera Settings for Sports Photography | Sports Photography Basics

What camera settings to use for sports photography? It's a good question and one that you will need an answer for if you're a beginner in sports photography.

Action sports photography settings are all about speed. How fast should be your shutter speed be for sports? Well, as I'll cover in this video, I'd aim for at least 1/1000.

This video will cover the best settings for sports photography, giving you the low-down on why we use the settings we do as well as some of my own experience and examples.

[robertbarton]

Thank you for the video tutorial, I’m a novice photographer, upgraded my camera last year to an R7 and recently purchased a 24-105 f4 usm rf and I will be taking my first lot of photos at a charity football match in just under 2 weeks and this has been extremely helpful! Thank you so much!

[nickanagnostou]

Great video. I've watched a lot of similar videos and this explains some of the relationships the best. Thank you

[theestategalleryllctegauct]

very nice beginners overview of settings for sports/action photography, one note you mentioned "AL" Servo mode several times with Canon it is actually "Ai" Servo short for "artificial intelligence continuous (servo) auto focus mode".

[ahmedmahamed-xg]

i really thank you for these tips, im a new photographer using a 550d and a canon EF 75-300mm lens, and i didnt really know what would be good settings, but this video helped me out so much (i changed them a little because i photograph planes and need to see the propellers spinning on the picture, but yeah) thanks again, your a legend👌

[samuelwebster]

Thank you for the tips I use av mode and up the ISO to 1600 f9 and f10 used.. I started photography of rugby a month back.. I have found it rather difficult to taking pictures of cricket.. But it's definitely challenging my learning experience

[VPERBATZ]

What about lenses I’ve got Sony a6400 what are the best beginner lenses with around 200mm? My budget is not very big though. I’m also planning on trying to be shooting football/“soccer” games which will mostly have good light. Thanks.

[digitaltechvs]

Great video upload and full watching. Thanks for sharing and have a great day.

[CristinaCTchor]

Hi, your video tutorial was pretty easy to understand . Thanks ! Would you please let me know how the burst will work on my not so fancy camera : Canon EOS Rebel T7 ? I cannot figure out the continuous shooting button ( for this camera 3f/second) as I noticed when I press the button the screen turns black and shoots 3 frames after 20 seconds or so 😂.. and when I select a single shot button on continuous shooting it just shoots 1 shot... 😅 I am new in this field and trying to get a few soccer pictures of my son playing the sport. Or should I just upgrade my camera ? Thank you for your time

[mbrobert]

The Exposure Triangle you used is wrong on the side of ISO but everything else is doing just fine !

[hamiltonwalters]

Hello, from Mississippi. Should I use Continuous Shot or High Speed VGA in addition to your recommendations?

[dronetheworldk]

i have subbed

i have a poor 480mm 1" bridge camera and i am strugglign to make it capture low light soccer match
1/200 SS wasn't always great, but it got me a few decent photos,
but now i am forced to increase to 1/500 or just get away with a few decent images at 1/200 SS,

my concern here however is that NOISE is so damn high, and hence i get less detailed images,
so coming to think about it again, i may have to shoot at 1/200, because Noise is a BIGGER problem to me and picture detail from blurry images due to slower shutter

i got two options now to mitigate or reduce the damn noise

1) I can set shadows to -5 and +5 for highlights
2) I can set noise reduction to +5 (maximum) and sharpness to +5

so can i set those two simultaneously to get lowest noise levels possible or should i stick to only one of them ? and which one ?

thank you,

[BruceLeroyUK]

Great vid mate. Looking forward to your video on focus cases. I'm guessing you use either 1 or 4.

[JenniferGelsone]

This will be very helpful thank you. I take photos of my 4 boys playing soccer (football) and there is quite a difference sometimes between games. Most on the pitch during daylight but then the high school games under the lights at night. What settings would you recommend for under the stadium lights?

[DamianParis-dl]

I’ve seen reading sports photography about shooting in JPEG would you recommend this or to shoot in Raw

[TheNumberAlz]

Good video again, would be interested in your views on case modes. I usually use 1 or 4 for footy, but to be honest, I haven't really noticed any real difference. Would like to hear your opinions on them. By the way Rob Sambles was crucified in a funny way, on his channel for saying AL SERVO, it's actually AI SERVO. Not trying to be a smart a**e.

[alfonsolara]

Thank you for your advice i got a D850 i mainly do indoor events weddings, 15as, rodeo, I believe my shoots are good but no’t good as i wish, what will you recommend in terms of settings as to obtain better images .

[trading_with_fish]

Is it normal for the 1d mark iv to shoot a slower fps in burst mode on ai servo? I am experiencing this currently

[BrianKenyon]

For the exposure triangle shouldn’t it have less noise with a lower iso 100 and more noise with a higher 6400 iso? I think it’s reversed. Also the biggest frustration I have with all these recommendations of fifth 500+ shutter speed and low stop 2.8 is we are all forced to buy that painfully expensive white canon lens. I have had quite a lot of success capturing my sons basketball games with the 55-250mm with stabilization though a bit more grainy because the iso needs to be high because of the higher Gatos of the lens.

[nicolekaufman]

I’m just a mom that wants to take pics of her sons football games and get pics for parents. I have a Cannon Rebel T3i. These games are in the daylight. What shutter speed and iso do you recommend? My shutter speed goes up to 1/4000. Thanks for any help!!

[Thebookwormsguide]

My aperture only goes down to around 4.5 What lenses would be better? (I have a canon camera)