Photographing people running

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toohuge

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All,

I have had a bit of brain dead moment..... whilst photographing runners / sprinters, is the general consensus that a 'good' image is one where at least 1 foot is on the ground, as opposed to the runner in mid air as it were?

I think I've gone with one foot on the ground, but I've seen several images of athletes in 'flight' - I personally don't think it looks great, but wondered what the general consensus was?

Thanks
Chris
 
I've run many races and yet to have a single image that I really like - runners face is a definitely a thing! If anyone looks good whilst running, they're not running hard enough :LOL: For the runner, I think what's important is catching the moment, and for me, a good running picture would be one that captures the joy, pain and emotions at the same time. The 'feet in the air' image is great, but for me, I prefer an image that shows me in the environment that I am running in and gives me something to look back at with fondness.
 
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ProG77 said:
I've run many races and yet to have a single image that I really like - runners face is a definitely a thing! If anyone looks good whilst running, they're not running hard enough :LOL: For the runner, I think what's important is catching the moment, and for me, a good running picture would be one that captures the joy, pain and emotions at the same time. The 'feet in the air' image is great, but for me, I prefer an image that shows me in the environment that I am running in and gives me something to look back at with fondness.
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I understand, thanks for the input.

I've culled a few images recently with both feet in the air as it looks odd imo... I think I'll slow my shutter speed and get a sense of motion instead.... all these things to remember!
 
I'm not one for going to sports events but sometimes I do photograph people running, like this young woman who seems to be "walking on sunshine" as she runs to catch the bus I'm already on...

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It's Subjective

Personally I like both feet off the ground.. i don't like both feet on the ground.... If I have a few frames with one or both off the ground then I will choose by facial expression or other... As @ProG77 says not many runners like there pictures.. especialy women at the end of the race where I usually photo :) But I like a few.. I will shoot at a water stop if there is one rather than bog standard running..

PS one of my least fav sports to photo... so boring :(
 
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Try doing runners in the dark with head torches on, seems to be the latest running format.
 
I knew when I posted that someone would pop up a pic from years ago lol :LOL:
 
toohuge said:
Thank you for all the input, it is very much appreciated! It's great to hear there's no one accepted 'good' running photo.
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Sometime you get some decent images at the end of the race- when people are exhausted

Taunton Marathon- I called this shot " Helping Ping Pong Pete" I did of course send a copy to both runners . One of which is my brother.

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Les :)
 
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As an official photographer, for a vast proportion of a mass participation race you don't have the luxury of being able to time the photos for the most pleasing stance. You can for the race leaders and the stragglers at the back, but the main body of runners comes through and if you're tasked with taking several shots of everyone you're pointing and shooting.

A proportion of races have switched to a 'free photos' model, so the cost of photos is built into the race entry fee - this takes off any selling pressure for the photo team - they get paid an agreed value.
 
A proportion of races have switched to a 'free photos' model, so the cost of photos is built into the race entry fee - this takes off any selling pressure for the photo team - they get paid an agreed value.



This:)
 
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Lez325 said:
A proportion of races have switched to a 'free photos' model, so the cost of photos is built into the race entry fee - this takes off any selling pressure for the photo team - they get paid an agreed value.



This:)
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Not every race. Others are still sold the traditional way so the sales that the official photographer makes can be affected by freelance photographers working ad-hoc.
 
andrewc said:
Not every race. Others are still sold the traditional way so the sales that the official photographer makes can be affected by freelance photographers working ad-hoc.
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The race I photographed included one image per runner in the entry fee.

I might also add the person helping Pete is my brother . Hence the gift of the images:). I have ammended my original post for clarity
 
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andrewc said:
As an official photographer, for a vast proportion of a mass participation race you don't have the luxury of being able to time the photos for the most pleasing stance. You can for the race leaders and the stragglers at the back, but the main body of runners comes through and if you're tasked with taking several shots of everyone you're pointing and shooting.

A proportion of races have switched to a 'free photos' model, so the cost of photos is built into the race entry fee - this takes off any selling pressure for the photo team - they get paid an agreed value.
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I'm doing a 10K on Sunday with the free photo built in. Set fee for me which is reasonable and a simple format of trying to get as many runners as you can as they go by. Small files, low quality jpegs. It is funny all the trouble we go to as photographers to get great shots but many of the paying gigs are about speed and volume at least in terms of sport
 
andrewc said:
Take your 10k and imagine the London Marathon!
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I'm doing the Edinburgh Marathon in the summer so that will be a bit bigger. You must have to have good reactions for the big running events. I suppose there will be photographers round the course in the hope all runners will get an image from at least one of them. My advice is to shoot at F8 so again very different to what I am used to as they are looking for a sense of place. Looking on Google Earth the image will look like any single lane road in Scotland. It is money for kit and setting up a website so most welcome.
 
I didn't enjoy the London Marathon. You had to be on course early around 6am before the course closed. The wheelchairs came through first, followed by the elites, followed by the tens of thousands of club and fun runners. I think they had a team of 80-100 photographers. By 6pm there were still a few coming through.

Normally for a smaller event there may be up to 6 photographers, but it depends on the extent of the deal negotiated and how many photographers can be bought for the budget. Normally one covering start and finish, and a couple of others out on course who may change locations depending on how the route winds its way around.

The recommendations I'm given for running is Aperture priority at F4, with min shutter speed of 1/640th. I tend to ignore that and shoot manual with shutter speed and aperture locked in and allow auto ISO to adjust.
 
Always shoot manual and set shutter speed and aperture myself. Leave ISO to it's own devices. I wouldn't have lasted so long at the London Mara without a pee. Gettting too old to hang about so long.
 
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Mozziephotography said:
Always shoot manual and set shutter speed and aperture myself. Leave ISO to it's own devices. I wouldn't have lasted so long at the London Mara without a pee. Gettting too old to hang about so long.
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So you shoot in semi auto mode :)

Just about anythng will do on a daytime shot to be fair... its boring stuff... glad i aint doing these. Start pics.. first three accross the finish line.. go home.... thats all my paper ever needs :)
 
Made loads of friends while covering races. It's a challenge for my tiny mind to find the best spot to snap and hopefully attempt to be a bit different. Raised over £20,000 for charity through my work, so I'm not complaining. Each to their own.
 
Mozziephotography said:
Made loads of friends while covering races. It's a challenge for my tiny mind to find the best spot to snap and hopefully attempt to be a bit different. Raised over £20,000 for charity through my work, so I'm not complaining. Each to their own.
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I've done my local multi-terrain race https://www.axevalleyrunners.org.uk/grizzly/ and it is brilliant for different locations apart from having to trek to some of the best spots to shoot. This year I walked over two and a half miles through country lanes and fields to find a nice boggy spot but my favourite is the narrow coastal footpath at Hooken Cliffs where they run up towards the end of the 20 mile race. Beautiful views and plenty of pain on the runners faces make for good pictures.
But as @KIPAX says it is boring to photograph!
 
Boring photographer loves to take boring photos. It can be monotonous at times, I agree ... but I enjoy the banter and the friendship. Restricted in many ways in terms of distance I can travel, it does allow me to get out there and meet people. Not all my photos are sports' based.BPR.jpg216603072_797285577651852_7913936245420592291_n.jpg
 
Race was delayed today as there was a Cow on the road around 500m from start. The brave photographers couldn't get it back in and when the second jumped the fence we gave in and got the farmer. An interesting introduction to running photography. The set up was really good as we just uploaded the images direct to a server when we got home. Very simple and worked well. Shooting positions were terrible shooting right into the sun with a pretty ugly background. They never even closed the road so the faster runners were driving past the stragglers and getting in the way of shots. Pity as there looked to be some nice shots at other parts of the course but I was just there to shoot what I was asked to shoot
 

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One of the first things I do when asked to cover a race, is to check out the course on a map. There are so many crap places to set up your gear. I've snapped some events quite a few times and know where to stand to give me a decent chance of quality images. Hate bright sunlight. I look for curves, leading lines etc as I would do for a landscape photography. You were told to stand somewhere by someone who isn't a photographer?
 
Mozziephotography said:
One of the first things I do when asked to cover a race, is to check out the course on a map. There are so many crap places to set up your gear. I've snapped some events quite a few times and know where to stand to give me a decent chance of quality images. Hate bright sunlight. I look for curves, leading lines etc as I would do for a landscape photography. You were told to stand somewhere by someone who isn't a photographer?
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They are trying to sell images not create art. Not necessarily the same thing. It is a cheap and cheerful picture package they offer.

A downhill stretch near the finish probably means more smiles and runners running at pace. Non photographers are rarely bothered by what nips us photographers in my experience. As it was I could have shot on one side of the road and got a slightly better background but I would have had my back to traffic(hard to believe the road was still open) and my risk assessment said no to that particularly when I had seen a few Teslas in the car park(silent assassins).
 
I prefer the feet off the ground, and as someone who's taken hundreds of thousands of running images, and sold them, that's what the majority of runners prefer.
They refer to it as 'flying feet' and a lot of runners seem very happy when they finally have a photographer who's captured them with 'flying feet'.

I've also switched to freelance in terms of running photography, it's so much easier working for the big companies as part of the race photography team, turn up, put their memory card in your camera, shoot, hand the card back and go home. As was said above though, during the main body of the race you don't get to cherry pick the shots, during the Manchester Marathon recently you had a chance to fire off a burst of 3 shots per runner, if you were lucky.

I photograph my local parkrun, have done for a few years, and doing that I could think more about composition etc and getting a nice shot, but even so once you've photographed the same parkrun for 4 years that becomes a bit tedious, so much so that I've only done it a handful of times this year.

Have to agree with a comment earlier, running photography is very boring, it also doesn't pay well, I'm glad it's not my main job.
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Hanley said:
I prefer the feet off the ground, and as someone who's taken hundreds of thousands of running images, and sold them, that's what the majority of runners prefer.
They refer to it as 'flying feet' and a lot of runners seem very happy when they finally have a photographer who's captured them with 'flying feet'.

I've also switched to freelance in terms of running photography, it's so much easier working for the big companies as part of the race photography team, turn up, put their memory card in your camera, shoot, hand the card back and go home. As was said above though, during the main body of the race you don't get to cherry pick the shots, during the Manchester Marathon recently you had a chance to fire off a burst of 3 shots per runner, if you were lucky.

I photograph my local parkrun, have done for a few years, and doing that I could think more about composition etc and getting a nice shot, but even so once you've photographed the same parkrun for 4 years that becomes a bit tedious, so much so that I've only done it a handful of times this year.

Have to agree with a comment earlier, running photography is very boring, it also doesn't pay well, I'm glad it's not my main job.
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I totally agree with that the runners love the flying feet photos. I have three friends that are good club runners (under three hours for the marathon) and they always pick those ones out as their favourite.
 
I agree that running can be boring, but you can bring lots of energy to your shots with some slow shutter panning. Particularly if you can get some stationary spectators in the crowd, or any static foreground element such as bushes / fences etc to provide a sense of movement. The only requirement is that the face of the subject is sharp (tricky when the head is moving up and down as well as side to side). A red dot sight really helps here.
 
Something I found out doing running dog's, I'd guess people are the same, timing just when feet will touch the ground is impossible while they are running. I like dog's and whatever I get usually works for me. What I haven't fihured out is how to get focused eye's intentionally! generally my eyes on running dog's are out of focus!
 
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