A Helpful Tip for Photographing Basketball Games

Photography Tips

It’s tough photographing fast paced sporting events, especially games like basketball, in which the players are constantly running away from you then toward you. It takes a certain amount of skill that most new photographers will need to practice. Fortunately, Jared Polin talks to us on the sidelines and shows us one of his best tips for photographing basketball games:

To get the best images you will want to use a long lens when the players are on the opposite end of the court from you. A long lens ensures you can still fill the frame when the action is far away. Use a wide lens when the players are very near to you so you can fit in all the action. Most of us do not have two camera bodies—one for each lens—nor are we quick enough at changing lenses to feel confident that we won’t miss the big play, which leaves us in somewhat of a Catch 22.

Use different lenses to capture both wide and tight shots.

Polin suggests a workaround for this as using a long lens for one quarter of the game then switching back to a wide angle lens for the next quarter. Or, you can use Polin’s favorite lens, a 24-70mm which gives him a wide focal range and still be a fast enough lens to capture the motion in low light situations.

Using the wrong lens for the wrong situations can mean lots of boring shots that don’t express the feeling of the game. Choose your lens based on the types of action shots you’re looking to capture.