By Umpire Cam
As much as the mobile phone manufacturers tell us about the wonders of the camera in their newest models, they will have their limitations.
Phone cameras are definitely improving rapidly and are excellent for taking certain types of image: such as; selfies, group photos of friends, or wide ‘atmospheric’ views of the wonderful hockey venue. But if you are hoping to get an action shot of a player, with water splash frozen in it’s movement as the ball is passed, I wish you the best of luck.
Take a look at the photo above, you can see that the player is close to being half way across the pitch. If you try ‘zooming in’ to the same kind of distance with your mobile phone it will be likely that the results will be very pixelated. This is where my ‘be realistic’ tip may be most obvious?
But what this image does show is another aspect to work on, with pictures of most types, and that is the 2/3rd formula. In this case, the player’s eyes are in focus and approximately 1/3rd down from the top of the picture. Try this with your ‘selfies’ and group photos and see what you think of your results.
For those of you that are using more complex/dedicated cameras, such as a DSLR/SLR, you may be able to push the boundaries of what you can shoot effectively, but there are still likely to be limitations.
There are reasons that the professional photographers use the equipment that they do. Many will be using something like a 400mm lens, attached to a high spec camera body and a steadying monopod, to give themselves the best chance of a sharp image of the hockey action. If you are thinking about ‘settings’, it will be; an aperture of around f4, shutter speed above 1000th of a second.
If those kind of technical aspects are outside of your camera kit capabilities, have a go at taking images when players are more stationary or closer to you. You never know…
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