{"id":21968,"date":"2018-09-12T12:54:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T21:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/?p=21968"},"modified":"2019-11-26T11:24:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T20:24:30","slug":"10-essential-autofocus-tips-for-sports-action-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/10-essential-autofocus-tips-for-sports-action-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Essential Autofocus Tips for Sports & Action Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Shooting sports and action is really hard. It’s easily one of, if not THE\u00a0most challenging genre of photography, simply because you have so little time to think about what you’re doing.<\/p>\n

When the dirt is flying and the athletes are racing by, there’s no time to ponder camera settings and exposure values, you just have act, which means if you don’t already have your camera settings dialed in, you’re going to miss the shot. (Check out my Action Photography Workflow post<\/a> to see how to set up your camera or shooting action.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of shooting sports and action is nailing focus. Modern autofocus systems are astoundingly capable. They’re built with highly sensitive\u00a0phase detection systems and complex predictive algorithms that anticipate movement and compensate for the lag between\u00a0when your finger starts to press the shutter and when it actually reaches the bottom of the button and closes the circuit.<\/p>\n

However, they’re not infallible. There’s an inherent flaw in the system: Us. We’re the weak link the process. While cameras aren’t perfect, more often than not, it’s our own lack of technique that prevents us from getting sharp images.<\/strong><\/p>\n