Jeremy Lynn and Ricky Rubio battle for a loose ball. Credit: Greg Smith

Introducing...Jeremy Lynn. Houston Rockets point guard. Fast. Lean. Fluid. Intense. Determined. Built for action. And Ricky Rubio. Minnesota Timberwolves point guard. More speed. Creative. Equally intense. When these two clash, mano a mano, be ready. Great material for good sports photos.

When it comes to making good sports photos, there are several essential elements. And while these may seem basic, I see many photos in any given week that do not measure up.

So here we go. Let's raise our standards together.

Capture Peak Action
At a basic level, a good photo of sports like baseball, football, soccer and basketball needs to include face and ball at a peak action moment.

Sports is about human drama. Your subject's face portrays this drama. And the surprise or pain or passion shown in your image tells a story, or at least a part of it. So showing the face is important.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. In a few instances, such as a silhouette of athletes against a beautiful sunset, or an athlete being upended or catapulting through the air, the physical drama tells the story and face is less essential.

Peak action is also important. The greater the 'wow' factor, the better.

Where is the Ball?
The ball is part of the story. Without it, in most cases the story is incomplete. Houston Rockets forward Greg Smith blocking a shot by Minnesota Timberwolves forward Derrick Williams occurs at its peak, just as the ball is taking flight.

Must be in Focus
Even with those pieces in place, there's more. The image must be in focus, what's known as 'tack sharp'. Blurry images are incomplete.

Not to sound harsh, but blurry images really should be discarded. Unfortunately, many are not. But they're not publishable. If you want to grow as a photographer, you need to learn to edit your work and discard them.

Expose Properly
Proper exposure is also essential. Unfortunately, many indoor sporting venues are inadequately lit. But, if your image is too dark as a result of underexposure, it's not usable. There are techniques to overcome this and we will address those here as well (i.e., high ISO, remote flash setups).

By the way, the best advice I ever received from a former Sports Illustrated photographer was, "Never fall in love with an image." Having that mindset will help you more easily let go of an image that is underexposed or out of focus.

Exercise Your Need for Speed
Here are additional factors to incorporate into your sports photography toolkit. When shooting sports photos, your shutter speed should stay above 1/400th, though many sports photographers say 1/640th is the absolute slowest to shoot indoor action sports. (We will cover the relationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed in an upcoming blog, so bookmark us and stop back.) Exeptions would be if you are using panning techniques to create motion blur (another future topic).

Outdoors, you'll want to use even faster shutter speeds. For example, 1/2500th is the absolute slowest for baseball if you're trying to see the laces as the ball hits the bat. And 1/4000th is better.

J.J. Barea dribbles past Jeremy Lynn. Credit: Greg Smith

See the Background
In addition to tack sharp, clean backgrounds are important. A clean background will allow your viewer to better focus on the action. If there are cars, fences, scaffolding, towers or other objects discernible in your image's background, it will also distract your reader's eye.

Techniques to help clean up your backgrounds include using a lens aperture set at f/2.8 or f/4. That will allow you to focus on your subject but defocus your background. Or you may need to change your perspective (move to a different location) so that you eliminate distractions (again, future blog in the works).

Level Your Horizon
Finally, your horizon needs to be level. An image that is not framed level to the ground or parallel with the vertical lines of buildings or flag poles needs to be adjusted accordingly. The adjustment for most images is fairly easy using Photoshop, Lightroom or other photo editing programs. 

This should be a good starting point for making better sports photos. Take your camera and make some more images. Practice and then practice more.

Let me know if this helps. Send me your questions or challenges. We'll tackle them here. Or share your successes and we'll share them here as well.

As far back as seventh grade, my favorite day of the month was the day that Sports Illustrated hit the newstands. Sometimes I would mark it on my calendar. Other times I just knew it was time.

On that day, as soon as the last school bell rang, I would ride down to the corner drugstore on my two-speed Schwinn. There, I would walk briskly to the magazine rack at the back of the store. Without pausing, I reached into the stack of fresh copies and picked out one that hadn't been opened yet, whose pages were still untouched.

Then, I savored the moment. I would stand, almost transfixed, slowly turning the pages to look carefully at each picture. The athletes' facial expressions - exulting and grimacing - and sprawled, flying and contorted bodies amazed me.

That was my introduction to sports photography. And that was my dream.

My first NFL assignment landed a photo in Sports Illustrated.

Today I'm living my dream. After a 22-year career in advertising, I'm doing what I love. Exhilarating. Challenging. Exasperating at times. But immensely satisfying.

Because you're reading this blog, you may know the feeling. You have a new DSLR camera, or piece of fast glass, and you're wanting to make better pictures of your son or daughter. Or maybe you're a college photographer with assignments for your school's sports department. Or maybe your smaller digital camera just doesn't capture the images the way you wanted And you're wondering what type of camera to shop for. Or, you've been using your camera and lens for several months, but the images just don't turn out the way you'd like them to. Why? What should you do? How can you improve?

These are the questions I receive along the sidelines, in the stadium aisles or coffee shops I frequent. And in this blog I want to help, by offering insights, advice and tips on how to create Better Sports Photos.

Like many of you, I'm self taught. But I've also learned from some of the best (e.g., Mark Reis, Dave Black, Bob Rosato, Joey Terrill, Mark Terrill, John McDonough, Keith Ladzinski, Rod Mar, Robert Seale, Brad Smith and Rich Clarkson). And I keep teaching myself, I keep studying. I don't believe I've arrived, but rather, I'm a work in progress. And I have the notion that I can help others learn. If what you learn here helps you make better sports photos for whatever purpose, then I will have accomplished my goal.

Today I still savor the newest issue of Sports Illustrated. It's the first thing I grab at the physical therapy clinic or grocery store. Only now, in addition to looking at the great images, I'm also reading for photo credits. And along with recognizing names of other photographers I've met or studied under, now I'm on the lookout for images I've made.