Jared Polin, froknowsphoto.com and this is a video about some quick tips for shooting
tennis.
Now, the US Open is right around the corner and I was just in Florida for my cousin’s
bar mitzvah and he was going to tennis practice so I took my camera out there and I took some
photos.
So I’ve got 26 of the keepers out of 100 – 118 shots that I took and I finished with
26 that I think are solid, solid shots.
And I want to go through some of the ones I like, some of the ones I don’t like but
let’s look at what makes a good tennis picture and some tips that you can use if you’re
going to go out and photograph tennis.
So first things first, probably a longer lens, something in the 70-200 range if you are courtside.
Now I was right near the center – near the net off maybe three feet away from the net
just shooting diagonally across the court.
You want to look at where the sun is.
Is the sun going to be in their face if they’re on their forehand or if they’re on their
backhand?
In this case, I am not on the side that I really wanted to be because his forehand is
much stronger but I didn’t want to cross to the other side of the court because I’ll
just say that there was an obstruction over there and I couldn’t shoot from there so
maybe if he switched sides to the other side during practice, his forehand shots would
be much better but look, you see the shadow in his face, the light’s good over here
but if his forehand was turned the other way, the light would be better.
But let’s talk about settings, 1/320th of a second at F4, the reason 1/320th of a second
is I want a really fast shutter speed to help freeze the action.
I have VR off on my 70-200 VR because there’s no reason to have it at 1/320th of a second.
I'm at F4 to give myself a little bit more leeway with the focus so that if it focuses
on his cheek or something like that that his eye is still going to be sharp especially
shooting from where I was shooting from.
ISO 320, you’re going to see me switch from 320 to 400 just because that gives me the
ability to get the faster shutter speed that I want and not worried about noise, not worried
about grain especially on a bright ass day like this.
You’re going to see me in the range 180-200.
That’s where you’re going to start to see most of these shots.
I want to fill the frame without cropping.
You want to get to that action?
This is action.
You want to try and have the ball in there.
One of the things is trying to get like a backhand where the guy is swinging – let
me see if I have a backhand here real quick.
Backhand, okay.
Not a good backhand but you can see what he’s about to do.
I’ve got to have a better backhand.
No, that’s forehand, forehand, forehand, forehand.
Yeah, here’s a backhand.
Not as good, but what you can do, you see how the ball’s in there?
It’s not a great shot but I'm just demonstrating the backhand.
One of these things is where you want to get in a tight shot of the face and you get the
racket moving and you get the ball in there.
That’s what you’re looking for.
Let’s go back to the beginning and take a look.
Fill the frame.
He is off the court.
I'm in continuous focus, I'm using the Group-Area AF that the Nikon D4S offers me so does the
A10 so does – that’s it for now, I think.
I think that’s the only one with the Group-Area AF.
I don’t think the D610 has it.
I don’t know actually.
I haven’t tried.
But you can see that he’s off the ground, that’s awesome.
It’s frozen.
You can see that the focus area is very narrow even at F4 it’s not bad.
It would be even more narrow if it was at 32 or 35 or F28.
No reason to shoot at 28 here.
The background is still blown out pretty well.
So that’s an okay shot.
This, it’s not as good.
I don’t like the distractions in the background but this wasn’t a match.
This was more of a practice so there’s going to be people.
He’s waiting to hit the ball and then because I'm not motor driving, I got right as he hit
it.
This is a nice follow-through.
You can see the wrist going over.
One thing I recommend to do is shift over to the right a little bit if he’s going
to be a right-handed swinger.
The reason is it’s going to end up lopsided.
I want him more in the middle of the frame with that racket in there.
So that’s something that I learned by going out there and doing this.
You can also see the eye contact with the ball.
See, that’s more in the center.
It’s the follow-through, it’s the approach.
He hit his shot, he’s going to serve – basically get served.
He return-served and he’s going to start to volley back towards the net.
So that’s what he was looking for.
I like that shot.
This is filling the frame for a backhand.
It would be great if the ball was here on the racket but it’s not.
You can see again at F4, the background’s blown out, the partner up on the court is
blow out but this to me is perfect in the way of composition.
He’s right in the center of the frame, not cropped at all so this is a great tip.
Ideally, you want to get the ball in there but also the exposure is right on.
I wasn’t that far off.
I think I pulled back just a little bit, 1/320th F4, same thing, 400 ISO.
So I like this shot.
It fills the frame very well and then here’s a smash.
That’s a forehand smash.
I like it.
The ball’s already gone but that’s how you get a shot like this.
I wish it was a little tighter using a 300 but I didn’t use that.
I was using a 70-200.
I'm not going to crop but I like the tones that I'm getting out of it.
I didn’t edit this shot.
I wanted to show you that this is nice.
Actually what I can do, I can sync the shots to the last one.
So, what I'm doing under develop is I highlight that one, I hold down the command and then
I click on that and I'm going to hit sync, I’m going to have everything sync and boom,
it will sync to that setting because that was a good – I didn’t have to change very
much.
So, the ball is frozen.
You could see his hands moving.
You know, I would like to see more of his face.
It’s not a bad shot, but it’s not that good because we don’t have much of the face
in there.
Moving forward, this is better.
Just, it’s not a great action shot.
It seems too ladidadida to be that good.
Oh, I’m like, “Why am I going back to the same picture?” because it was still
selected.
This is better because it’s a follow-through.
I like what’s going as he’s coming to the net and obviously, you get some reactions,
laughing, I like it.
It could be a little tighter.
That’s a simple backhand.
Also, what I like, though, he’s on the move.
His feet are off the har-tru; they call this har-tru.
He is using Adidas.
Or is this Reebok?
That’s Adidas, right?
Reebok.
I don’t know anymore.
But that’s not a bad backhand and that’s great.
I love how he’s on his front foot.
The smash already went through.
You could see the wrist is coming over.
I like that shot.
Then we switch to the other side.
You see now that we’re on his forehand, which is his right hand, the light is in his
face whereas here, it’s kind of shadowed because – just because.
So we’ve got this and there it is.
There, that’s what we’re looking for, is that.
This is okay with the ball but then when you get the ball and this, it’s like boom because
we have his face; his face is in focus, the ball and the racket, he already made contact,
I believe.
Is that coming or going?
That’s definitely going because it’s further forward but this is what you’re looking
for you are looking for this type of thing so here’s a tip.
With the 70-200, I’m out at 195, almost 200 filling the frame.
If you were to break out a 300 and go even tighter and shoot maybe a horizontical, that’s
where you start to get a tighter shot.
I’ll show you what you could get.
I’ll use the [Inaudible] [0:07:14] tool just to show you what the composition could
be with a tighter lens.
I wouldn’t do this to mine unless I had that tighter lens.
Let’s see.
This is always a good experiment or a good way to learn how you could shoot.
Like this is a type of shot that you could shoot.
Maybe even a little tighter but see how you get the look on the face, that’s what you’re
looking for.
Now let me get back, boom, alright, I’ll fix this later.
I’ll fix that later.
Then you got this, it’s not a bad shot.
Fill the frame.
I don’t know if that ended up being a good shot but I love the color in the face.
It looks good and I like that it’s a follow-through.
Here, we got that smash going and then the full follow-through so this is nice.
He’s getting up and hopefully, he’s getting over the top of the ball or just, you know,
striking it well.
So I like that, I like the look on the face.
I like that he’s open and I like that you get the follow-through right there again off
the court to do that.
I think this needs to be a little more contrasty, boom, just a little bit.
And not as good.
You see, sometimes it all depends on how he got to the ball because if he had to run across
the court to get to this, it’s not going to be as good.
Oh, bad shot.
It must have been a bad shot.
It must’ve gone out.
Then there’s some reaction getting which is nice.
Switch over to horizontical, fill the frame.
Not as close to the vertical but not bad at all, 200 mm because he was further away from
me.
The ball’s in there, good, the eyes on the ball, boom, wrist is over, striking it well
and that’s a nice shot because you got the ball going back.
The same thing here.
I don’t like the look on the face as much but I like the background, I do.
He’s separated really well from the background, didn’t cut off the racket, got the ball
in there, got him in there, good and then this, he’s right in the middle.
Still don’t like the look on the face but the ball is going back as a return, not as
tight, don’t like it, not as much energy going into it but that is better.
That is a nice shot, and that is where it leaves us.
I hope you picked up some tips.
I know I didn’t say terribly too much but just things like when the player’s moving,
it’s easier during practice because there’s a lot more going on.
Actually the game, I mean, there’s so much going on during the game.
You know where they’re going to be.
They’re going to be on the baseline.
They’re going to be at the net.
They’re going to go left, they’re going to go right so you just track the guys.
So when you’re shooting tennis, try to shoot some wider.
Try to shoot some tighter.
Try to shoot some ultra-tighter.
Try to get some of the racket and the ball almost at the same time so that if you’re
off to the side and they’re coming, and they’re on a, you know, their forehand or
they’re on their backhand and you’re just lining up the ball and the racket and the
eyes, so basically you’re getting that shot at the opportune time.
Try not to motor drive too much.
Try to anticipate the motion but then, you know, do a snap or two or three and you should
be good to go.
That should work out.
That’s a good tip right there.
Get the action, guys, sliding on the court if they’re on clay.
Just coming into the net, those reaching backhands when they come to the net, those are cool.
Try to play around.
Just play with the 20[Inaudible] [0:10:11], play with the 70-200, play with the 300 if
you have it and that is what I have to say.
All of these full res images are uploaded, they’re on flicker if you want to check
them out.
This was that one, obviously but you could see the difference.
These are filling the frame, none of them are cropped, that is what I would like you
to do.
You know, it is more difficult to not crop.
I just find that in my opinion, I like not to and I said that before but it’s a cool
little challenge like this, to fill the frame right there, playing with the zoom, getting
it right and there you have it.
Those are some tennis tips.
There you have it.
Jared Polin, froknowsphoto.com.
See ya.