Lesson 1c. Backgrounds

Another important aspect of sports photography is backgrounds. Though you can not always control where you get to shoot from, and as I stated in my last lesson the position of the sun has to be considered as well, you always want to try and shoot from the spot that gives you the cleanest backgrounds. Also, shooting sports is usually done at the lowest possible apertures to get the most background blur. Most sports photographers live at or around f/2.8 or lower whenever possible. The right combo of clean backgrounds and low apertures give sports shots that unique look.

What I mean by clean is a background that is relatively free of objects that can distract the viewer from the subject of a picture, or compete for the viewers eye. Here is a shot with one of the worst backgrounds you could get.

The row of porto-potties is distracting, and not a very pleasing aesthetic. Clever cropping can sometimes help, but generally you would want to re-position yourself so that the potties are out of the picture!

As I mentioned earlier, shooting around the lowest aperture possible helps with backgrounds as well. Lower apertures can really blur out a background making the subject of the picture really stand out. Shooting at higher apertures can cause the background to remain in focus and be distracting to the viewer.

Here is a shot taken at f/7.0 As you can see, the background has remained in fairly sharp focus, making the shot very busy and distracting.

Shooting with a low aperture is not always enough to guarantee a good background blur. The distance between you, your subject, and the background plays an important role as well.

In the above diagram, we see a photographer, and subjects at different distances from the photographer and the background. At a suitable low aperture, Object A is in a relatively good spot. Object A is relatively close to the photographer, and relatively far from the background. Here is the typical result of this scenario.

Though there is a lot going on in the background, because it is so far from the subject, the low aperture has blurred it out and it is not very distracting.

In the diagram, the photographer is a lot further away from Object B. Object B is also a lot closer to the background. When this happens, even a low aperture can not save you from a background in focus, and a distracting picture. Here is an example. This shot was taken at f/2.8, but the background is still in focus.

The receiver was across the field, so about 50 to 60 yards away from the photographer, but only about 10 yards in front of the players on the far sideline. There is nothing you can do in this scenario, other than possibly re-positioning yourself.

So, to re-cap; after taking the direction of the action, and the position of the sun into account, you now want to try and pick a spot that gives you the cleanest backgrounds possible. Shooting at a low aperture, and a clean background give the sports subject the isolation and full attention of the viewer.