Lacrosse is a very interesting sport to photograph. The game is very active and dynamic. Players run all the time, and often fly in the air. Many interesting interaction amongst players.
The strategy and technique to shoot a Lacrosse game are similar to other fast paced sports such as basketball and soccer(football).
To get optimum shots, you need a digital SLR camera with a telephoto lens mounted. I personally recommend an advanced dSLR with high continuous shooting speed (5 frames per second or higher). For example: Canon 40D or 50D, Nikon D300.
For the lens, I find 70-200mm is very versatile for the job. If you need longer lens or like to do very tight shots (to capture close-up face expression) you might need 300mm or longer.
Some sample photos in this article are taken by Canon 40D and Canon EF 70-200mm f4 IS lens.
Techniques and setting
Like other sports, you want to set a high shutter speed, 1/500 or faster. For aperture, it will depend on how thin you want the depth of field will be. If you like your object to be pops up and make the background completely blurred, then you want to go to maximum aperture of your lens. For example, f/2.8 or f/4.
Shooting and metering mode
Because daylight is changing all the time, I usually use aperture priority (Av). Then I will set the ISO to 100, and then check out the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is 1/500 or faster, I will leave it that way. If not than I will start boosting ISO to 200, 400 or greater to get the desired shutter speed. As the day become darker, I will boost more ISO to maintain the shutter speed. This is important because low shutter speed will create blurry images, even if you have stabilized camera or lens.
Metering Mode
If the light is evenly distributed in the environment, such as a clear daylight, I will use evaluative metering mode. But if the light is unequal, for example in the evening/late afternoon, I will use center-weighted average metering or spot metering mode instead. This mode will help correctly expose the skin of the players.
Constant Light
In constant light setting, like indoor or night scene, I also often use manual mode. I will calculate the light, try a few shots and check the review in the lcd screen. After I got the correct exposure, I will just stick with it.
Other things
Like other fast-paced sports, you need to be very alert because timing is essential. Also learn about various composition to make your photos more pleasant to look at. One of the composition rule is rule of the thirds.
I hope this article is helpful and check out my other articles especially about sports photography. Enjoy!
Become our Facebook Fans
Follow me @ Twitter
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey great article, and the metering mode was really helpful, but one question, why Aperture Priority mode over Shutter priority mode? You know you want a minimum of 1/500 so set Tv mode to 1/1000 (if you have a fast enough lens and good lighting). and then start adjusting ISO once evening rolls in, and then start dropping shutter until you can no longer maintain 1/500 etc.. just one other way to look at it I guess.
I used that for soccer recently up until I hit ISO 800. Soccer is definitely not good below 1/500 unless you just want to get tight candid head shots.
Thanks and great review! I’m shooting my first lacrosse tonight, I grew up playing soccer up until my 30’s and I shoot soccer now, so we’ll see how hard of a transition this is going to be..
Hi Jamie, the reason I don’t use shutter priority is because I want to get consistent aperture which will determine depth of field. I like to have blurred background.
If you use shutter speed priority, some image will be shot at f/4, some will be f/11 which will be inconsistent.
There is a weakness on both approach.
If you use shutter priority, then the environment become dark, some of your image might be underexposed before you crank up the ISO.
If you use aperture priority, then the shutter speed might drop to undesirable speed, and you might get blurry images.
This can be solved if your camera has a good (reliable) Auto ISO.
Have fun with the shoot
{ 1 trackback }