Paintball Action Shot

[KristenMcRaney]

Flickr paintball.jpg

Shutter speed: 1/400
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 55mm
Iso Speed:400

I took this picture at a local 3 man tournament. I am a beginner at sports/action photography. I want to eventually take pictures of NFL football. My question is.. Is there anything I should change to actually see the paintballs breaking better? You can slightly see it in this picture but not very well. I'm not too sure what to change. Thanks.

[kuvahmagh]

I am not sure if you are using it but Continuous Shooting might be a good idea since sometimes its more about timing than settings. Other than that I suppose your shutter speed but like I say timing is everything.

[gturner]

what mode are you shooting in, manual modes or the auto zone.
Decent action shots must be shot in the manual modes (Tv or M) This allows decent post processing

You are not going to get ball splatter as the image is too small (zoomed out)

For good stop action you need to be at 1/500 or higher (1/1000 would be best.) If it is sunny get a circular polarizer to cut the glare. ISO of 400 is correct, higher shutter speeds work best with a slightly upped ISO

[mikedugganphotography]

Kristen, Welcome to DP. First if your intention was to show the paint ball as it exploded then you need to crop in much tighter on the player that is being hit. The tighter crop will draw the viewers focus to the action that you intend to have as a focal point. As the shot stands now I had to search hard to see the exploding paint ball. With sport/action shots the more you shoot and try different styles and perspective the better you will become. Keep shooting and sharing.

[HighImpactImagery]

I mainly shoot paintball, as a paintballer myself, Its really all about timing. Possibly the best thing you could do is to put the DSLR down for a game, and play! You will learn how people move, and anticipate what is going to happen to take pictures of it.. Another thing to do is to get a little tighter on the person getting hit, It is more likely to show, Can simply be achieved in PP by cropping. Some of my paintball photos:









Another thing you can try, if your not already, Is shooting in the "burst mode" on your camera. As Mike already said "With sport/action shots the more you shoot and try different styles and perspective the better you will become. Keep shooting and sharing." More experience you have the better, Good luck with your future outings.

[Mantis212]

Well your problem is the fact you're shooting speedball not woodsball, woodsball is way better I'm just joshing, i wanted to say practice makes perfect. The recomendation to play the game was great too because if you can think the strategy of the game then you will get better shots because you're ahead of the action so to speak instead of trying to catch up and follow it. Zoom and action is the key to selling shots in speed sports, just keep that in mind. good luck, and to all you speedballers beware of the bushes on my field, they fight back

[AdamR]

Decent photo, do you have any gear to protect your camera during the game?

[mambo]

Common sense is the main way of protecting your gear. I play paintball and sometimes take my camera on the field. You should keep an eye on the game and stay out the way of any firefights. pretty simple really.

But as said above, know how to play the game, you dont want to get caught in the middle of a firefight.

[Qanths]

Amazing shots! How do you get so close without getting your camera painted? A telephoto lens? But a telephoto lens just makes it harder considering the speed of all this and a long focal length just makes it worse, although i love the paint splattering everywhere in your shots.