Capture Gold: What You Need To Know To Photograph Athletics, Swimming and More.

21 July 2024

With the 2024 Paris Olympics fast approaching, budding sports photographers are feeling the strong urge to pull out their camera gear and aim for greatness of their own.

The purpose of sports photography is to capture the essence of athleticism on camera. This is a challenge that demands precision and understanding. While general photography principles apply, each sport, from the raw power of athletics to the fluid grace of swimming, presents its unique challenges and opportunities.

Here, you'll discover the secrets to capturing those breathtaking moments that define sporting greatness, from the right camera gear and settings to special tips that help you master photographing your favourite sporting event.


How do you do Sports Photography?

To become great at sports photography, be prepared to react quickly. Like an athlete, if you get caught napping, or spend too much time preparing to take your shot, the key moment will pass you by. 


Here are the key camera settings you can use to go toe to toe with the fastest and strongest people on the planet.

What is the best shutter speed for sports? The shutter speed is the most important camera setting for freezing action. If you use a slow shutter speed, your photographs will be full of motion blur when you attempt to photograph your athletes as they compete. While this may be a look you are going for in one shot, most sports photographers aim for a sharp, detailed image. Start with a fast shutter speed of around 1/1000th of a second and adjust as necessary.

What ISO should I use for sports photography? Changing the ISO of your camera affects its sensitivity to light. We use this setting to adapt to differing lighting conditions, and in the case of action photography, to help us utilise specific shutter speeds and apertures that freeze a moment. As all key settings of the exposure triangle must be adjusted in unison for a good exposure and it is dependent on lighting conditions, we can’t give you a specific figure but don’t be surprised if you are using a relatively high ISO of 800 or more, even in good lighting.

What is the best aperture for sports photography? Aperture has two key jobs in the photography world. Firstly, it is one way to let in more light for a good exposure. Secondly, it directly affects the depth of field of your image; that is, how much or how little of your photograph is in focus. For sports photography, we don’t need too much background detail, it is all about the athletes that take centre stage. Set your aperture to a fast setting of f2.8-f4, which will throw those backgrounds into a blur - this will also let in more light to allow us to use a fast shutter speed.

Always shoot in RAW: Even with the best-laid plans in place, you will struggle to get the perfect exposure in the heat of the action. Shooting in RAW gives you the best opportunity to make any necessary adjustments to brightness, contrast and more, without degrading the quality of your image.

The best equipment to use for sports photography

What should I look for in a camera for Sports Photography? The key features of a sports photography camera all relate to its ability to react quickly. If your camera and its functions are slow and laggy, you are at an immediate disadvantage and will struggle to keep up with the action. There are also a few key components that a good sports photography camera excels in, such as speedy and accurate autofocus performance, which can keep track of subjects as they move about their fields of play, and a fast continuous shooting or burst shooting rate - this allows you to capture multiple frames of a specific moment - you can then decide which image wins the gold during the editing stage.

Here are some of our favourite sports and action photography cameras:

What makes a good lens for sports photography? Even if you shell out for top-price tickets, you probably won’t be able to get up close and personal with the athletes as they cross the finish line. For this reason, you will need to use specific camera gear that bridges the gap between you and your subject. The obvious tool that you need in your camera bag is a telephoto lens. A telephoto lens features a long magnification, so you automatically cut down on the foreground between you and your subject and achieve a closer view of the action.


As well as coming in various focal lengths, which means they provide you with different amounts of magnification, telephoto lenses are also available in both prime and zoom variants. Prime lenses are favoured by professional sports photographers, as they deliver the ultimate in image quality, and offer fast maximum apertures. Zoom lenses provide a podium finish, thanks to their versatility - you can photograph various events without changing lenses.

Here is a list of some of our favourite sports photography lenses:

What other gear should I carry in my sports photography kit?

Monopod - Tripods often take too long to set up and they also have a large footprint. How else can we stabilise our camera gear for maximum sharpness? The answer is the often-overlooked monopod. If you are interested, check out our blog on how a monopod can improve your photography.


UV Filter - When you are on the sidelines concentrating on the action, it's easy for an errant elbow or stray ball to bump your precious camera gear. As telephoto lenses can be expensive, keep their crucial front element safe by always using a UV filter.

Putting these sports photography techniques into play

We’d love to tell you that with the right camera gear and settings, you are guaranteed to capture brilliant sports photography, but there are still some key steps to take to achieve the ultimate success. The good news is, we have been training up for this event!

Below are some basic sports photography tips, as well as some individual tips that we have compiled to photograph some popular Olympic events.

Understand the key moments and rules of each sport: When it comes to AFL, photographers aim to capture spectacular marks and bone-crunching tackles, while basketball photographers dream of photographing slam dunk posters. What are we getting at? You need to understand the rules and plays of the sport that you are covering, so you can anticipate when a key moment occurs and be ready to fire your shutter.

Have your camera settings dialled in early: As soon as you pull out your camera, prepare yourself by setting your camera using our above settings guide. Fire off a few test shots and check your exposures before the events start, so you should only have to make slight adjustments when the starting gun fires.

Pay attention to the start and end of events: Athletes have been training their whole lives to reach this moment, and they often only get one chance at the ultimate glory. For this reason, some of the most impactful and dramatic imagery can be captured immediately before or after an event. Before an event starts you have the chance to frame the tension and complete concentration of participants, and at the end, you can pinpoint the extreme emotions of the winners and losers.

Tips for photographing your favourite Olympic event

Athletics: Athletics have been a popular feature of every summer Olympics in the modern era. Despite this rich history, we still marvel at how these athletes move so fast and jump so high and far. One creative technique that you can use to illustrate this peak performance is panning. Panning in photography involves moving your camera along with the subject, which results in intentional motion blur but a sharp subject.

Swimming: With swimming most of the action takes place underwater, so you will have to be prepared at a specific time to capture something interesting. Try to aim your camera at the starting or finish lines, and anticipate moments in the stroke in which a swimmer is visible above the surface of the water, in order to capture the most visually impactful moments of swimming events.

Basketball: When photographing team sports like basketball, it can be tricky to frame an image that is not too busy and filled with different athletes. Try to focus on one-on-one battles, when a player is shooting, or of course, if someone rises above the other players for a mighty dunk. 

Gymnastics: Gymnasts continuously inspire us with the way they can contort their bodies and do the seemingly impossible. The hard part of photographing these moments is that if you take a split second to react, the moment has often passed. Use an ultra-fast shutter speed and consider a camera with a pre-shooting function, such as the brand new Canon EOS R1 or Canon EOS R5 II, for the best gymnastics photography.


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