Hello, my name is Martin Bissig, and
I am a Canon Ambassador.
I am an outdoor action in sports photographer,
and usually I take my shots outside.
There are a couple of things I need to consider when going out on photo shoots, nowadays.
The first rule; keep the social distance,
which is pretty easy for me
as an outdoor photographer.
I can keep at least two meters of distance between myself and the athletes or the clients.
The second rule: we're not allowed to have more people than five in a group
when we go outside for a photoshoot. And the third, for me,
the most important rule is and it applies not only to these times,
but in general, play it safe.
It's never worth to take a risk just to get a shot.
I have a couple of ideas on how you can improve your action photography skills around your house.
So here is my tip number one.
I'm here with Julian, my neighbour.
He will be my model for today.
What we're trying to do first, is we will do a panning shot.
What does it do?
It will actually blur the background and it will give a lot of movement in the picture.
A lot of action is going on now.
It's quite a difficult technique and it needs a lot of practice, and even for me,
I will need to do it quite a lot of times in order to nail it.
What we are doing on the camera.
We set the camera two TV mode and we dial down the exposure to
very slow time. 1/30, 1/40 or even 1/50 of a second.
You need to try and play a little bit with the settings in order to get the desired results.
Now, I will have him go parallel to me, and I will try
to go with him and shoot while he is moving.
Now, it's very important that subject is moving parallel and
is not moving towards me or away from me.
Otherwise, it's pretty hard to get the desired results.
It's also very important that I try to keep my camera and the
same movement as he goes,
trying to keep the same speed,
have it on a high frame,
setting. She higher frames to better,
because we will get more frames and hopefully one of these frames will be
sharp and will be good to use.
So let's try that one out.
It does need a lot of practice,
and you need to try it and try and try it again.
Best thing is to check it back home on computer,
but you cannot actually try too much because most of the frames you will take
the rider,
the athlete,
the animal,
whatever you're shooting will not be perfectly fine and focus.
And as I said,
it needs a lot of practice.
But if you're getting the shot,
it's quite rewarding.
This is something you could easily try with any moving object.
You may have noticed.
I was shooting Julian against the light.
So here we go with my tip number two.
Here with me is Julian's, sister Alicia,
and she will be my model.
And I would like to demonstrate to you how I take portray shots straight against the light.
This is probably something you are not used to do because you don't feel
comfortable even when looking after taking the shots back on your screen.
It can be quite dark,
and it might seem to be underexposed,
but what I'm doing right now is I'm standing in front of her and I will shoot that
she's got the sun wright in her back.
What I love about this, it gives that little glow around that person,
and there's always a possibility to lighten up the picture afterwards.
So one thing you need to keep in mind when shooting straight against the light.
We have a very clean lens.
If there's any dust,
or anything on the front lens, picture doesn't look nice at all.
If you've got a good lens with a wide aperture 2.8 or even wider open,
shoot as wide open as you can. It gives that nice,
blurry little background.
Also, if you use a little bit of foreground as you've seen in my shelter before, will give that depth
through the image, so give it a try.
Shoot against the sun,
the lower the sun, the
better their results, and do some work afterwards in Lightroom of photoshop to
brighten up the person,
and you will get a nice portrait shots that you probably haven't taken before.
Maybe you own a wide angle lens,
so this will be the time now to try out some new angles.
So here is my tip number three.
It's actually a pretty nice and neat feature to control your camera with your mobile phone.
It allows you to go into positions that you probably wouldn't do.
You can place your camera safely somewhere,
and you can remote control your shutter speed with your mobile phone with almost no lag.
So this is pretty cool to get into positions that you probably wouldn't do.
And it's a nice way to try out your wide-angle lens with a moving subject without
getting actually into the line of fire.
If you have a speed light in your camera bag,
take it out now and try some new creative ways to take action shots.
Last night I went out with Julian and
Alicia, and I took these photos.
I can reveal that much:
No Photoshop or post-production was involved in getting these shots.
If you're interested in how I got these,
leave a comment below,
and I would like to show to you in my next media.
Until then,
please stay safe,
have fun taking pictures and stay creative.