EclecticGuy

Well, our fall soccer season kicked up this Labor Day weekend. Both my sons play for FC Stars of Massachusetts soccer club and we host an annual tournament. Since I spend a lot of time on soccer fields and happen to love photography, I got smart a few years ago and combined the two! Now, you’ll usually find me on the corners of the field shooting the game. Photographing games keeps me out of trouble from being one of “those” soccer dads, its fun, and the team gets some pretty good photos out of it.

Over the years, and literally >50,000 soccer photos I’ve taken, I’ve picked up a lot of tips and helpful ideas for photographing kid’s soccer. Most of these tips are applicable to all youth sports. Since I get a lot of emails and parents asking me for tips, I’ve been inspired to write this Practical Guide for Youth Soccer Photography. Part A will concentrate on non-technical aspects of photographing youth soccer and Part B will provide a bit more of the technical details.

Part A – General Tips

1. First, there are no hard and fast rules – what works for me may not work for you and vice versa. Photograph what you like and how you like it. If you want to stand in the group of parents on the sideline and snap a photo here and there, so be it!
2. The primary goal of shooting youth sports is to make the kids look great! Sometimes you get a funny shot or maybe a tearful moment, but I cull those out for my personal collection – unless there is a really good reason to share it. Avoid photographing injuries, no one likes to see that.
3. If you are just photographing your own kid, it probably isn’t a good idea to share your online photo album with the entire team. Parents, believe it or not, are sensitive that “their kid” is not in the photographs and if all they see are great shots of your kid, they may get upset that you are showing off by sending them the link to your photos (even if that was not your intent). Don’t ask me how I learned this.
4. Always make sure the ball is in the frame. Of course, this “rule” can be broken but it is a good idea to have the ball in the shot. It adds a sense of motion and purpose to the photograph and explains why the player is in that funny position having just kicked the ball. I rarely post photographs with no ball in the frame but some notable exceptions are; team group, celebratory, post game handshake, and sideline spectator photos.
5. Follow the ball and focus on the action. Sometimes this means you’ll get shots of the opponents making great plays (see #9 below) but that is part of the fun. Soccer is an active sport, try to capture that in your photographs.
6. This is an important one – shoot from the player’s chest level. Think about it, adults are a lot taller than kids (usually!). If you stand and photograph, you are shooting down on them and that is not very flattering to the kids. Shadows on their faces look odd too. Sit on the ground, kneel or sit on a small camp stool or low chair. The younger the kids, the lower down you get! For a little extra dramatic effect, get lower and shoot up slightly. It makes the difference between an “ok” photo and a really interesting one.
7. Position yourself to capture players running towards you rather than sideways or away from you. This generally means that you stand in the end zone (but well away from the keeper). Photographs of a player’s back are generally less interesting than those with facial expressions.
8. This is a good time to mention “photographer courtesy”. As a parent/spectator photographer, never, ever, under any circumstances coach players on the field, overly cheer on goals (a simple short handclap is sometimes fine), or make yourself very noticeable. You want to blend in and be invisible to the players, referees, and especially the coaches – on both teams. Since you are probably standing off by yourself and focusing on the game, this is usually not a problem. But if you start making a lot of noise or coaching players, referees and coaches will ask you to leave. I’ve never had that happen and I’ve photographed from right next to the opposing team’s bench.
9. Sometimes, parents or coaches from the other team might ask what you are doing. Simply tell them that you enjoy photographing your kid’s soccer games and be friendly. If you have a website and want to share photos of the game with the opposing team (a really nice thing to do) get an email address or give yours or your site’s URL. I print “business cards” with my site info to give to the opposing team’s parents and coach and also carry a notepad and pen. Believe it or not, parents from the opposing team are usually nice people too and enjoy seeing photos of their kids no matter the outcome of the game. If I strike up a conversation with an opposing parent and exchange email addresses, I actually make an effort to take more photos of the other team. There are a handful of teams that we play every season and I always make the extra effort to photograph them a little more.
10. Timing is everything. Never take your eye off the game, that is when you will miss that great shot! Follow the ball and anticipate the shot. The really good sports photographers take their photos the old fashioned way – one shot at a time. They do not just hold the shutter release down and “machine gun” a high speed sequence. If you are using a point and shoot camera, you will have to deal with some shutter lag, but with experience, you can still get some good shots.
11. This one might fall in the Part B section but is simple and important enough to include here – keep the sun to your back if at all possible. You want the light to highlight the faces of the players as they are running towards you. Of course, field orientation, time of day and other factors may not let you get in the best position, so find the best alternative. A lens hood is a necessity if you have to shoot in to the sun.
12. The most important tip of all, go out and photograph as many games as you can! Digital photos are “free”, so don’t worry about taking too many shots. The more practice you get, the better your photos will get.