pro sports photography

by Jane
(Philadelphia Suburbs)

"Hi. I go to a lot of Phillies games (day and night)and take many photos. Most of them turn out blurry. Sometimes the athlete in the photo is blurry, and the center field wall is in perfect focus, even though the athlete is perfectly centered in the shot. I always leave the cameras on Autofocus, since I don't have much experience with advanced photography. I should also mention I don't have sports settings on my digital cameras. One is a 10x zoom and one is a 26x zoom.
Can you help me?"

Thank You.

Hi Jayne, Good question on a problem I am sure many photographers have for sports photography. Is it possible you could submit one of your photos for me to evaluate?

What camera and do you know what the shutter speed and f-stop were?

You may have two issues going on to cause your blurriness, focus and motion blur, and it could be one or the other or both depending on the specific situation in each photo.

In the meantime here are two articles that may help you get a better grasp on this:

Photo Mistakes

Avoid Blurry Pictures

I have taken my share of blurry photos and it can be frustrating. I can respond better if you have more information specific to a particular photo example of blurriness.


Thanks,

p.s. 26x zoom is extremely powerful and often requires the use of a tripod or monopod to prevent blurriness.