Sports Photos Cropping

I'm not an expert but thought I could show an example on how you can get different looks out of one photo.
Rule of thirds is great for normal photos but with sports that should rarely apply.
Always use a tight crop and cut out the unnecessary players/items.
Crop the photo many different ways and look at all of them. One will always pop out being the best.

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Now the four different looks just by cropping.

Agree well done

aced19 said:

Rule of thirds is great for normal photos but with sports that should rarely apply.

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I'm curious what makes you say this; could you go into more detail?

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aced19 said:

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I can't help but notice this crop/shot follows the Rule of Thirds pretty well...
All the major elements are on a 1/3 "line" and they're pretty durn close to the intersects just as the guideline would suggest.

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I'm curious about this comment as well. I have seen times that it doesn't really come into play, but not enough were I could make a blanket statement like that. I find that wrestling could fall into line with that, but anything with a ball does not. You always want to show movement, the play unfolding, the action. Yes you can crop tight to get a different look but sometimes you lose the feel or action of the shot.

Like I said I'm not an expert. But the rule of thirds is hard to do in sports photos. What I have been taught (could be wrong) you want the tightest crop you can do when cropping a sports photo. When cropping tight sometimes (most) the rule of thirds is tossed out the window. The example you posted does follow the rule of thirds but it just fell that way after cropping out the defensive player on her right.
With that said now there are some sports photos that need the rule of thirds, but it really comes down to preference on what your trying to show or present.

aced19 said:

Like I said I'm not an expert. But the rule of thirds is hard to do in sports photos. What I have been taught (could be wrong) you want the tightest crop you can do when cropping a sports photo. When cropping tight sometimes (most) the rule of thirds is tossed out the window. The example you posted does follow the rule of thirds but it just fell that way after cropping out the defensive player on her right.
With that said now there are some sports photos that need the rule of thirds, but it really comes down to preference on what your trying to show or present.

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Well I certainly don't consider myself an expert either but I don't think sports photography, really, is any different when it comes to composition. Rules of Composition deal with rhythm and balance and those rule "work" regardless of what the particular subject matter happens to be.

I don't understand why one would want to disregard composition when cropping either; I'm very careful with my cropping but when I do crop it's usually in order to bring shots more in keeping with guidelines of composition; I don't disregard them simply because I'm cropping. That, frankly, makes no sense to me but I'm certainly willing to listen if someone cares to explain why this would be a good idea. I'm also a proponent of learning more than just the Rule of Thirds, there are several such guidelines and the RoT gets tossed around a lot, I think, because the Tic-Toe-Grid-nature of the guideline is easy to teach, remember and visualize in the field. Your basketball shot, IMO, works well using the RoT but looks even better when cropped with with triangles, but you rarely hear about cropping-triangles because they're a lot harder to teach, remember and visualize in the field.

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When it comes to sports, things that makes it a better picture are their faces and the ball. Include both and you'll have the traditional elements of what a sports photographer would normally try to capture.


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Crops are good, but I couldn't help but notice how the story changes as more is included.


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Rule of thirds is great for normal photos but with sports that should rarely apply.

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I would modify this to say in the heat of the moment (action) I am not trying to compose following the thirds, but trying to capture the action in its entirety with no missing limbs or other body parts. In post I crop to the thirds. That's my approach.

Image composition is always important, and there's more to it than just the rule of thirds. Maybe this is at the heart of the discussion? As mentioned, there are techniques of composition applied within all the crops, which is why they don't feel off. Sometimes you can point to the rule of thirds since things like the head and/or ball are at an intersection point. Other times it's likely the Golden Ratio being followed. And while no one speaks about it because, well, it's sort of self-explanatory, composing in the center is not a violation of the rules of composition provided that light and color are pleasing and nothing is distracting you from the subject.

There are often many ways to a well-shot subject from a single capture and, as mentioned, the one thing that usually changes is the story each crop tells. Cropping is just recomposing and there are good and bad ways to do it.