How do I get into professional [freelance] sports photography?

What are some tips/rules to sports photography ?

• So yesterday I tired out some sports photography with my brother and i did a bad job on them . I used the sports mode on my Canon Xti . So here is one of them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annafur/2609344524/ What can I do to get better results ? Thank you

• Answer:

  Sports photographers are usually photojournalists with many, many years of experience shooting under many conditions with many different tools (cameras and lenses) If you look at what the pros are using and how they are set up to be ready to shoot at the peak of action it will help you have better results. First take the camera off any pre-programed "mode". This is a feature added buy Canon (and others) to lure P&S camera owners to buy more expensive cameras and maybe actually learn how to use them. If you take a look at the photos printed in the sports magazines and newspapers, you will notice that selective depth of field is used in most of the cases ... this means that the photographer is shooting in the aperture priority mode with the lens wide open. This also guarantees that the camera will be shooting at the highest possible shutter speed, thus capturing the action. You will also notice that the lenses they use are "fast" ones. I carry a 24-70 mm f/2.8, 400 mm f/2.8 and a 600 mm f/4 when I am shooting baseball and other field sports like football, soccer and track and field events. BTW, there is nothing really wrong with your linked shot. The colour and lighting make the shot ... if you shot using RAW, you can convert it to a TIFF or PNG if you want to crop it a little, although this shot would make a great cover shot because there is enough area around the subject for all the front page copy.