HOW TO

Take perfect football photos

Capturing motion can be tricky. But whether you’re shooting your kid’s under 9s outing or your own weekly 5-a-side endeavours, your iPhone is capable of capturing great football photographs.

To help improve your images, we talked to professional football photographer, Sharon Latham, before putting her advice to the test. Having spent six seasons as Manchester City’s club photographer, capturing everything from the team’s first FA Cup title since 1969, to that iconic, Premier League-winning Aguero goal, these are her tips for photographing football with your iPhone.

Know your position

Before you start thinking about which apps can best enhance your images, first it’s important to adopt the correct technique. “A lot of people get over excited and try to run to follow the action. Don’t!” says Latham, also the developer of the Selfie Guide app.

“Find a position around the pitch and let the action come to you. If you’re moving the camera too much with the action you run the risk of making your shots too blurry. Instead, if you crouch down and find the frame you want, you can watch the players coming and move slightly right and left to capture them perfectly.”

Show a burst of speed

Beyond minimising your movements, there are camera settings that can help you better capture that crucial action shot. “I use my phone at certain matches, and burst mode is great for letting you capture the action,” Latham explains. “Try and shoot around 10 frames per second and have your shutter speed quite fast because the faster the shutter speed, the better your action shot is going to be.”

“If you think of the speed of a player running towards you, there’s always going to be one of those eight or ten pictures that will look better than the others because even a millisecond can make the difference between one picture to another.”

Covering both bases, ProCam 6 offers a dedicated Burst Mode that also lets you increase your shutter speed for sleeker action shots.

Practice having a light touch

Come rain or shine that match is going ahead. Fortunately, by altering your camera’s ISO settings – the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor to light – you can ensure solid snaps even in the gloomiest of conditions. And for that, you’ll want ProCamera.

“If you’re outside and it’s not too bright or dark, you should set your ISO between 100 and 200,” Latham advises. “If it’s darker or cloudy outside, always go up with your ISO, say from 200 to 400. The darker it is, the higher your ISO should be. Light is always going to be difficult when shooting a match on an indoor pitch. If you’ve got a tungsten light, alter your settings to account for that, otherwise your colours could end up being very yellow and over warm.”

Master your penalty technique

There are certain moments in a game, such as a penalty or free kick, when you are likely to get a great photo. To make the most of these moments, Latham suggests shooting in RAW – a large, uncompressed file type supported by Manual – RAW Camera.

“I shoot in RAW when I know I’m going for specific shot,” she explains. “If someone’s taking a penalty, that’s the time to sit by the goal and shoot in RAW because it gives you the ability to edit with more clarity and refinement. Your colours and light have more depth to them and it allows the scales to go a lot higher and lower.”

Work on your movement

Shot captured, now it’s time to refine the overall image and transform your good photo into a great one. For that, Latham has one app she uses above all else. “Snapseed is really easy to use but gives you a high-quality end result.”

“There’s a ‘Details’ button that will help sharpen things up. If things are a little bit wobbly or you’ve captured a player running really fast and their edges are just a bit blurry, you can easily change that or tweak a filter to make the image look a bit more arty.”

Football photography mastered, we’ll see you on the pitch.