About Sports Photo Settings
Sports Photo Settings is a free calculator and a set of guides for choosing camera settings for sport. You pick a sport and the lighting, and the calculator returns a shutter speed, aperture and ISO that give a correct exposure. The guides cover 29 sports and techniques, from basketball and football to swimming, motorsport and esports, and the settings chart lists the results for 20 sports in seven kinds of light.
Who makes it
The site is made and maintained by Ivan Corax, who also builds two other free photography tools: Modern DOF Calculator, for depth of field, and Subject Distance Calculator, for working out how far away a subject was. Ivan is on Instagram as @ivancorax.
How the numbers are worked out
The settings come from exposure and motion arithmetic, not from a collection of other people's tips. Light is measured as exposure value (EV) at ISO 100 and converted from lux, so a school gym at about 350 lux is EV 7 and bright sun is EV 15. A shutter speed comes from how far a subject moves while the shutter is open: a serve at 56 m/s travels 5.6 cm at 1/1000 s, so freezing the ball takes 1/2000 s or faster. ISO is whatever is left once the shutter speed and aperture are chosen. The guides show this working so you can check it, and the calculator is tested against every combination of sport, light, shot type and lens to make sure the exposure comes out right.
Light levels and camera specifications are taken from published sources, and a figure that turns out to be wrong is corrected, with the date on the guide updated when that happens.
What the site does not claim
The figures are calculated starting points. They have not been measured at every venue, and lighting varies a lot from one gym or field to the next, so take a test frame and adjust. The guides do not replace testing at your own venue.
Cost
Everything here is free. There are no ads, no accounts and no sign-up. If the site has saved you time, you can leave an optional tip through Ko-fi.
Corrections and feedback
If you find a mistake or have a question about a number, the contact page explains how to send it. The privacy policy is on the privacy page.