Amaize

Two issues that so far I didn’t see mentioned — one is setting camera at fastest rate and just holding shutter button — taking say 20 pics is the only way you’ll catch the basketball just above the rim or at the outstretched fingers of the shooter. Good luck stopping a baseball coming off a bat. If you have Nikon — I’m not sure of others brands — what has been mentioned above is pre-focus on a spot and wait for the action to arrive. You can put your camera on a tripod, pre-focus precisely on a spot and set camera to “focus priority” shooting and initiate shutter before action arrives — the camera will fire only when best focus is achieved, right at the spot you want. You can shoot a series of shots and catch your action very well.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Tripod? Methinks you haven't shot from many sidelines!

TommiRulz Loc: Corpus Christi, TX

I like this question - I am also a Hunter Jumper photographer, so I sometimes I wonder if following the horse may work better than pre focusing on the jump..... so I went out and tried, and nope, generally it does not. BUT for the little kids with the tiny jumps sometimes it does. Now when watch my son ride his motorcycle - panning is super fun. So like everyone said, it depends on the sport and the shot you're trying to get. Try different things and PRACTICE. I have been shooting horse shows for years, and I still go out to the local barn and practice.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

Amaize the technique you've described involving "...the camera will fire only when best focus is achieved..." is better known as (Trap Focus Release) or simply Trap Focus (also called a Focus Trap). My question to you is have you actually deployed this successfully and if so can you post image(s) of the aforementioned.

My inference here is that Trap Focus is rarely used and nearly impossible to deploy successfully in a sporting event. Trust me I've labored many an hours trying in vain to accomplish a "Focus Trap" with bird feeders. Never even remotely successful. To this end I will say that others have done this under very unique conditions. It requires a sturdy tripod, full access to the point of interest and unique camera settings that must be verified carefully prior to deployment.

btw, Trap Focus was the mother of invention that created full motion movies a.k.a. video. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge set up 24 cameras linked to tripwires to take photographs of a horse galloping. This was technically the first movie ever made! He developed and later projected the images onto a screen using his invention, the zoopraxiscope.

For those sports shooters who use the Nikon D500 here is a Blog Post on how to set it up on a Nikon D500. Albeit like so many others Jason Odell didn't actually posts any images using this technique however others responding to this Blog Post were able to get it to work. Proof is in seeing actual results...
http://luminescentphoto.com/blog/2016/06/11/nikon-d500-setting-up-a-focus-trap/

One scenario where a Focus Trap might work is that of a Hunter/Jumper competition event like Gene's example. Here it could make sense provided you're allowed to setup a tripod which unfortunately many times isn't an option.

Looking forward to seeing your example imagery taken with "Trap Focus" Amaize.
Thanks! And please stay safe!

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Beautiful work Thomas....thank you.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Thanks billnikon......you helped me as well,especially with the pre-focus to aid the auto focus ahead of the actual lock-on which I didn't really comprehend prior to your explanation. That will give me a better chance at getting a cleaner shot. My camera is not an action catching device so will at least get me into the neighborhood.

Thanks man

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Both! With experience, you will learn when to choose each approach.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

Edgemont v Roosevelt lacrosse - Westchester Cty? Slice of pizza after the game at Carlo’s?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Timing your shots is more difficult than spray and pray, but once you get the hang of it you get better results. Trap focus does work in some circumstances.

At a horse show a number of years ago, I was shooting with my trusty Nikon D200 - 5 fps with a small buffer. And this guy shows up with an expensive Canon 1DsM3 full frame with it's 12 fps burst capability. He used your premise of holding the shutter button down. He smirked when he saw me take only one shot per pass. Afterwards, he was reviewing his shots on the back of the camera and for each pass he must have taken 20-30 shots. For 15 competitors he only managed to get 3 where the horse and rider where in perfect position. I got all 15 in that segment. He looked at my shots and just walked away shaking his head. True story.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Yonkers vs Edgemont @Roosevelt and yes, pizza (and other stuff) at Carlos. This was 2007. One of my kids was on the Roosevelt team.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

My sons played for Greeley. Football, soccer, lacrosse, track and baseball. Spent many years on the sidelines shooting, even after they graduated in late 90’s. My wife graduated from Lincoln in 1965 and we spent the first 7 yrs of married life in Yonkers. She taught there for 38 yrs .

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

It's up to you. I have a friend that just returned from the Olympics and he is an Olympics photographer tasked most to do water-polo. But when he finishes the American games, he is free to photograph other events. He sends blogs out daily and shows his different styles and talks about his technique. Sometimes he drags the shutter but pans on the subject, as he did for the equestrian events, so that the human on horse was mostly in focus but the panning caused a really nice background blur giving the photo that look of fast movement. But you can speed up the shutter and get the action to STOP as well. If I were a sports photographer, I'd do all the different techniques I could think of to be different and creative.

Amaize

I wish I had some shots — but don’t. My son does sports work and we played with it some years back with his D500. Settings needed to be AF single, wide aperture, single point focus, back button focus. My daughter ran track at Wisc and it turns out track is a good venue as more room to move about, tripod works well, and we shot finish line and jumpers. I will see if he has results. I just got a D850 so got reminded of that technique. My shooting so far has been on safari with most things quite unpredictable. The most “predictable” was wildebeest crossing, though that’s pretty easy to shoot on the fly. It was a technique I used years ago at track meets, shooting with film, and well before autofocus.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

It entirely depends upon the situation. I do both at times.

I certainly pan and follow subjects more often, as opposed to pre-focusing and waiting for the subject to arrive. But there are times I used the latter method, too.

Pre-focus and wait can be the only way to shoot "past" a lot of obstructions between you and the subject.

Or maybe you have a very particular type of shot in mind and know that the only place you'll see it is at that particular location.

On the other hand, tracking subjects with a panning motion (of sorts) is what I do most of the time... keeping my eye to the viewfinder, the shutter button half-pressed and maintaining focus on the subject, watching for peak moments I want to capture.

I "time" my shot either way. In both cases I sometimes take short bursts of 2, 3 or 4 shots, looking for just the right pose. I leave my cameras in continuous shoot mode all the time, though I also often only take a single shot. I try to minimize bursts of shots mainly because I don't want to spend any more time than necessary sitting at my computer editing... and often end up with 1500, 3000 or more images from a day's shoot. I've seen other photographers take 8000 or more shots during the same time! A "proud father" amateur used to hang around behind me at ever event his daughter participated in and for every shot I took I'd hear him rattle off 5, 6 or more! (I really didn't mind him hanging out back there.... in spite of all his shooting, his wife was always one of my best customers! )

For example, here's a shot where I pre-focused and waited for the subject (I still took a short burst of shots, to ensure I got the horse's stride looking just right). I wanted the subjects along with their reflections in the mirrored wall...



The above is dressage, which is very predictable and that makes using some pre-focus technique practical. Some other types of equestrian sports are less predictable and can require more pan and following the subject.

Below is a short burst of panned shots from a hunter-jumper event...




Hunter-jumper is fairly predictable, too (usually), so there have been plenty of other times when I've used the pre-focus and wait method:



Gymkhana events use pre-arranged patterns, but there are more surprises, so I tend to shoot those with a panning technique...

gessman Loc: Colorado

Yep, like any other kind of photography, the technique you use depends on the nature of the action and what you want to convey.