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All photos © Dino Vournas
Shooting tennis, or any action sport for that matter, is a skill acquired from
practice and experience. While tennis presents some of the same challenges as
other sporting events, its confined setting makes it especially difficult to
photograph successfully. San Francisco photographer Dino Vournas knows the photographic
challenges that tennis and other action sports present. He currently shoots
for both Reuters and the Associated Press, and during the past 33 years he has
developed a loose set of guidelines that will give any photographer the edge
in capturing both the action and the mood of a tennis match.
TIP 1: Keep Moving
Try to move around the tennis court as much as you can. Move up and down the
court and shoot from a variety of angles. Vournas says he likes to stay out
in front of the action, either on the side or shooting across the near court
to the subject on the other court. He generally avoids shooting from behind
the subject, where more luck than skill is involved in getting a usable shot.
As you move about the court, try to vary the shooting angles and the focal length
of your lens. Zoom lenses give you the option of quickly zooming into the action
when it's at a distance, or zooming out when it's too close.
When photographing competition, Vournas recommends that you respect the player’s
need for concentration and not shoot as the player is preparing to serve. Instead,
wait until the ball has been struck before firing away. Vournas says that when
he does shoot during the serve, he uses a camera blimp—a special housing
which deadens the sound of the camera's shutter and other mechanical noises.
TIP 2: Crop Into The Action
Vournas says that many tennis shots are way too loose. They show the background
and sometimes too much of the player's body. Unless their legs are doing something
interesting or funny, (like they're upside down), it’s usually better
to zoom in to show just the player’s face, racket and the ball. Get what
you need to tell the story, but not much more.
Vournas explains that tightly cropping into the subject also minimizes the distracting
backgrounds that are found at almost all tennis events. He is quick to point
out, however, that there are no absolutes in sports photography. Sometimes the
background can contribute to an interesting image, especially if someone in
the stands is accidentally falling onto the court or engaging one of the players
in a shouting match.
TIP 3: Capture Facial Expressions
Vournas says he likes to capture tight facial shots with the ball in the frame.
While it's possible to get a good shot without the ball in the picture, in most
cases the ball is important for reference. Vournas says he frequently sees a
lot of close-up tennis shots in which the player is swinging the racket and
maybe making a little expression on their face, but there's no ball.
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