Creative Images

So I opened up the comments in my last video telling everyone to j I'm really grateful for everyone who did, got some really, really cool suggestions in there. What I want to focus on today is t And Alex wants some suggestions for some creative sports photography beyond the frozen action shots. It was Alex's comment that stood out to me because really what I'm known for is that more kind of creative shot as opposed to just standard frozen images. So what I wanted to do is take you through some of my top tips of how I do that. It's not particularly very difficult stuff. It just involves you t So let's dive in. Tip n Oftentimes what we do when we're shooting sports is we try and work the frame of our image to be the whole body. So that's kind of And we freeze the action regardless of what that is. One way to get a bit more creative is to either from your position, zoom in as tight as you can possibly get so that you get a chest to headshot or a half body shot. And then you're capturing more of an emotion and what's going on. Or you zoom way out and you take on a much, much bigger scene, This is a great way to kind of Tip n So it's really easy for us to stand on the sidelines of the event we're shooting and to be stood at height level and just firing off lots of images of stuff happening in front of us. And actually to be a bit more creative, all you need to do is either kneel down or lay down and then you get a slightly different perspective and actually you make athletes look a heck of a lot more impressive. Or go up and shoot down onto the action and down onto the kind of people that are doing stuff in front of you and you'll get a totally different creative kind of image. And it's just about being in a different place. It's not about a bigger lens or a different camera. It's just about being below the action or above the action. Tip n So we all know about rule of thirds and the fact that an image can have And if you imagine it being blocked out into a nine grid rectangle, square rectangle, if you imagine it to be a nine grid rectangle, so you've got three boxes at the top, three in the middle, three at the bottom. If you look to place your subject, regardless of whether that's a full body player or kind of To take it even further from the extreme, rather than just placing all of your action and all of your subjects right in the middle col It really helps to unlock the creativity. It really helps to create a slightly different image that looks a lot more creative and a lot cooler. Tip n So we've talked more than enough times on the act of You get a really, really good sense of motion and flow. Whereas if you stand still and you slow the shutter speed down, you still get that motion, but it just kind of looks a bit different. They'really, really good ways of creating some creativity into your work. Doesn't involve you getting an expensive gear or anything Just slow your shutter speed right down and then play with the action, whether it's following the action as it goes or just letting the action appear in front of you and blur in front of you as it goes. Tip n So you're not just trying to freeze the action. You're looking at the reaction of that player or that athlete afterwards, whether that's one of happiness or surprise or defeat. It doesn't matter. Look for that emotion after the action rather than just trying to freeze the action itself. Another good t Where's their sunlight? Where's their shadow? Where can you kind of What I tend to find is that if I am in quite a bright, sunny environment, if I darm my exposure down, I come down maybe two, three stops, I can really darken that shadow area and still maintain It's another way to get cooperative shots. The other final way really for looking at different t So does that athlete have a tattoo? Does that athlete have a particularly cool emblem on their s Is there some kind of Is it a water bottle? Is it a football? Is it a netball? Is it a stick? Is it a bat? Is it a club? It doesn't just need to be the action as it's happening. One good way to kind of So you've got the whole golfer plus the club all that kind of stuff. Wait until the action's gone through and the club's all the way above their head and then just take a picture of the club head at the top of the swing or the bottom of the swing. So you're getting that non kind of There you have it. My five top tips for more creative sports photography that's aside from those kind of frozen action shots. And there's definitely a place in sports photography for those frozen still shots. They're brilliant for commercial kind of editorial work. They'really, really good in magazines and the newspapers. And if it's a really good piece of action, it's a great image. So don't kind of shy away from those. But if you want to add more creative to in, it's just about t And because my work's been really, really quiet, what I've actually done is I've worked on quite a lot of resources for sports photographers just And you'll have seen my Udemy course ticking along and I'll have dropped it in for So you'll be aware of that. What I've also got is some presets, w And what I've just completed in the last couple of weeks is a totally free, you don't have to pay for it ebook, w It's designed to take that person who is a beginner sort of entry level amateur who wants to just push their stuff on just a little bit. And you can actually go to the link in the description below, w I've got a full photographers section on my website now where you can go and you can get all those kinds of resources, whether it's a link out to the Udemy course, whether it'stuff of my filters, or whether it's the new ebook that I've just released that's for free, better sports photography, there's going to be more So it's definitely a link that's worth looking at. If you haven't already, take a moment to hit That way you get notified every time I post up a new video. You can also check out my work over on Instagram. I'm at Ben Snap stuff. Till next time.