I recently sought out an industry sports photographer to review my work and ended up contacting a local photographer who shoots for the Canadian Press. I was impressed first off that he replied to my request for critique, and spent some time gathering what I thought were my 15 best sports shots today. He replied the following day and out of those 15, only 2 made the cut and a third would make the cut with a crop.

He had this to say as well:

In sports, look for the action, the story-telling moment, or peak emotion. And as much as possible, shoot faces, shoot faces, shoot faces when you get the action and the emotion and the story-telling moment all in one frame. And crop.

Interestingly enough, browsing through the sports photography forums lately, it rang a bell and I’d heard the “shoot tight, crop tighter…” adage in quite a few different spots. Since I received his feedback a week ago, I’ve been going through my older stuff and trying different crops, and I do have to agree – it really draws you in. That being said, on the other hand in some cases a wider shot I think makes for a totally different print; but I think I understand now the key difference in newsworthy sports shots and “just” a sports shot. Here’s a couple before and after crops for your viewing pleasure.

On my last couple shoots – basketball and hockey, I tried to shoot tighter as well. The hockey was easier being in a better lit venue, was definitely tougher at the basketball games.

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