Sports photography is a niche area but a very popular one - indeed it regularly fills much of the space in our newspapers and television viewing, but catching the action at the critical moment is essential to the impact, and in conveying the excitement and drama of the event, whatever the sport being photographed.

Sport is generally fast-moving, action based - it is rarely static, so capturing "the decisive moment" which allows the viewer to share the high points of the action is key.

A fast shutter speed in Shutter Priority is therefore perhaps the first setting to check on your camera - and depending on the sport, at least 1/500th of a second is probably necessary to ensure a pin sharp subject, perhaps up to 1/2000th second or more for really fast action.

If possible, practise with some sample shots before the action begins, and if blurring is found in the subject, a faster setting is needed (that is, unless blurring is an artistic objective for the image).

Post-production work in Photoshop or similar software will not remedy a blurred image.

The next setting is the lens aperture and to ensure the fast shutter speed, this should be as wide open as possible - depending on the lens, typically f2.8 to f5.6 - to allow the maximum light to hit the sensor and to freeze the action.

This will be particularly so if shooting indoors where light availability will be limited.

A wide open lens will also have the advantage of a limited depth of field, resulting in your subject being sharp but the background blurred - thus ensuring attention is firmly directed on the subject and maximising the impact of the shot.

Even with a wide open lens aperture and a fast shutter speed, the camera may struggle to achieve a proper exposure, so an increase in the ISO setting may be required.

The ISO setting adjusts your camera’s sensitivity to light - the higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the sensor, but with the disadvantage of increased ’noise’ (the graininess seen in digital images).

If you are shooting indoors, be aware of the type of lighting - artificial lighting indoors is unlikely to be ’daylight balanced’ and whilst the ’auto white balance’ sensors in modern cameras are pretty good, a strong colour cast is almost inevitable with fluorescent or tungsten lighting.

The advice is again to try a few test shots and to adjust the white balance setting in your camera’s menu settings to whatever the lighting conditions require.

Whilst it may be tempting to use flash to enhance the lighting, this should be switched off - partly because it is an obvious distraction for the participants, but also because the action is usually in the distance and your flash is useless for anything more than a few yards away.

The ’multiple exposure continuous shooting’ mode (also known as ’burst mode’) will likely be the favoured choice for sports photography, together with ’continuous autofocus’ (usually marked AF-C) rather than ’single shot’ autofocus (usually marked AF-S) - this should ensure that one or more of the 4-10 shots from a burst will be sharply in focus and capture the action!

Action and sports photography is challenging but is exciting.

There is one more piece of advice, and perhaps the most important - and that is to understand the sport being photographed, to understand the rules, to know the likely main areas for action and the best viewpoints, and to be able to anticipate the action via the body language of the participants - your images will all the better for it!

Why not consider joining a camera club such as the the Isle of Man Photographic Society?

Our members will always give a warm welcome to newcomers and be happy to share their knowledge, and give advice to help develop your skills. Have a look at our website - www.iomps.com or our Facebook page for lots of ideas to stimulate your interest.

Chris Blyth