Reading the game

Learning goal

By knowing a sport's rules and the plays teams repeat, you will be able to guess a few seconds in advance where the ball or the action will go. You will notice the patterns a team repeats throughout a game, and on the next repetition turn your lens to where that pattern ends and keep the focus waiting there. You will get to know each sport's hot zones, where the moments of decision gather, and spend most of your time looking at them. You will read the body cues that announce the ball's next move from a player's gaze, shoulders and steps. You will notice the colored light that colorful advertising boards near a hot zone cast onto players' faces, and watch how different skin tones shift in this light.

The question

At the game where they went out with the rented lens, your friend follows the play well but is still a step behind. The nephew, instead of driving the ball to the basket, gives it to a teammate left open in the corner; when the shot comes, the lens is still under the basket. On the next break the ball goes the opposite way, and by the time your friend turns the lens the shot is over. At the edge of the court, the club photographer a few meters away keeps their lens turned to the corner before the pass has even left, and at the moment of the shot is already pressing the shutter release. Their camera isn't faster; their eye goes there sooner. Where will the ball go?

Context

In wildlife you learned that the small behaviors an animal makes right before a movement, crouching or leaning forward, announce that movement (Lesson Y.3). In family photography you tried setting up the focus and framing in advance at the place a child will pass or reach, and waiting for them (Lesson P.9). And at the first game where you shot the fast break, you saw the value of sticking the focus to the player as the break begins and waiting for the highest point of the jump (Lesson X.1).

In sports these two skills come together: reading the cues that announce a movement, and keeping the focus waiting where the movement will arrive. But sports have one more thing: the rules and the plays teams repeat. A game isn't random; for someone who knows it, every attack is full of cues to the next moment on its way.

Simple explanation

Why does a game repeat itself?

A set play pattern is a play a team sets up again and again in a particular situation throughout a game. A basketball team may always set a screen in the same corner and give the ball to its shooter in the corner. A football team may always swing its corner kicks to the far post. A volleyball team may always run its best hitter from the same zone. Watching these patterns in the first few minutes, even in the warm-up, tells you where to look for the rest of the game.

Once the pattern is noticed, the lens is turned not to where the ball is now but to where the pattern ends. The focus is kept waiting there. When the pass comes, the ball is already coming into the frame, and all the photographer has to do is catch it with continuous focus and wait for the moment. Knowing the sport's rules does the same job. Who will go in for the rebound after a free throw, where the goalkeeper will dive on a penalty, where the ball will land on a tennis serve, are decided by rules and habits.

Where to look?

A hot zone is the area in a sport where the moments of decision and the strongest emotions gather. In basketball, under the basket and the corners of the three-point line; in football, the penalty area and in front of the goal; in volleyball, in front of the net; in a race, the finish line. These zones carry not the largest part of the game but its most meaningful part. The photographer spending most of their time looking at them gives more valuable frames, even at the cost of missing the long passes in the middle of the field.

Hot zones are often also the places where the light is most mixed. Colorful advertising boards behind the basket or around the goal reflect a green, blue or red light onto players' faces. This color can turn the warm brown of dark skin into a cold gray, and the pink of light skin into a greenish pallor. Choosing moments facing the hall's main light, or in editing applying a local white balance to the face alone, brings the skin back to its own color.

How does a player say where they will go?

A body cue is an athlete announcing the direction of a movement, right before it, with their gaze, shoulders, hips or steps. A passer often looks at the receiver, or turns their shoulders toward them, before giving the ball. A footballer about to shoot plants their standing foot beside the ball. A volleyball player about to rise for a spike lengthens their last steps. These cues come about half a second ahead; half a second is often enough to turn the lens and catch the focus.

Good players sometimes mislead with these cues on purpose; they point one way with their gaze and give the ball somewhere else. That is why a cue is read not on its own but together with the set play pattern and the hot zone. If they all point to the same place, looking there is usually a good bet.

Visual evidence

In the game's first quarter, your friend holds the camera in their lap and only watches, and notices that the nephew's team sets up the same play twice. The center sets a screen in the left corner, the nephew drives inside and gives the ball to the shooter waiting in the corner. The pattern's first step is always the same: the center walking from their own half toward the left corner. Your friend notes this walk as a sign that announces the pattern is starting; when the center turns that way, they will turn the lens that way too.

When the pattern is set up once more, your friend turns the lens to the left corner before the pass has even left and keeps the focus waiting on the shooter. As the nephew drives inside, they turn their head slightly toward the corner. When your friend starts pressing the shutter release, the ball is already coming into the shooter's hands. The shooter, a light-skinned, red-haired player, is at the apex of the jump, the ball just out of their fingers.

There is a problem in the frame: the green advertising board behind the corner has left a greenish pallor on the shooter's light skin. The dark brown face of the opposing team's center, coming out to defend in the same corner, is leaden in the green light. In editing, your friend applies a local white balance to the two faces alone. The shooter's freckled pink and the center's warm brown come back, while the board stays green.

Common mistakes

Summary

The secret of knowing where the ball will go is knowing the sport: watching the teams' repeated set play patterns and keeping the lens waiting where the pattern ends, giving your time to the hot zones where the moments of decision gather, and reading the players' body cues. The color the colored boards in hot zones leave on faces is corrected with moments facing the main light or with a local white balance applied to the face.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will shoot a game first by watching it and then by reading it.

1. In the first ten minutes of a local game or a training session, watch without raising the camera and note at least one repeated set play pattern and one hot zone.
2. On the pattern's next repetition, turn your lens not to where the ball is but to where the pattern ends, keep the focus waiting there, and compare the result with the frames you shot following the ball.
3. Look at the faces of players near a colored board or light; if the skin has shifted, choose moments facing the main light or apply a local white balance to the face in editing.

Check yourself

• By waiting where the pattern ends, how many moments of decision did you catch?
• Which body cue announced the ball's direction correctly most often?
• Was the color the board light left on the faces corrected?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Once a set play pattern is noticed, where is the lens turned?

• A) To where the ball is at that moment
• B) To where the pattern ends
• C) To the spectators
• D) To the scoreboard

2. What is a hot zone?

• A) The brightest place on the field
• B) The area set aside for photographers
• C) The area where the moments of decision and the strongest emotions gather
• D) The field's center line

3. What often announces where a passer will give the ball?

• A) Their gaze and the direction of their shoulders
• B) The color of their jersey
• C) The score
• D) The referee's position

4. How is the face of a dark-skinned player in front of a green advertising board corrected?

• A) The frame is turned black and white
• B) The ISO is raised
• C) The aperture is stopped down
• D) In editing, a local white balance is applied to the face alone

Answers

1. B — When the ball reaches the end of the pattern, the lens and the focus are waiting there ready.
2. C — Places like under the basket, the penalty area or in front of the net carry the game's most meaningful moments.
3. A — Before the pass leaves, the eyes and shoulders often turn to the receiver.
4. D — A local correction brings the face back to its own color while leaving the board's color as it is.

Summary card

• Watch in the first minutes: find the set play patterns and the hot zones.
• Turn the lens not to the ball but to where the pattern ends; keep the focus waiting there.
• Most of your time in the hot zones: under the basket, the penalty area, in front of the net.
• Body cues: gaze, shoulders, standing foot, last step; read them with the pattern.
• Board light leaves color on the face; choose the moment facing the main light or correct the face locally.

Bridge to the next lesson

At the next game your friend now sees the play in advance, but one thing still goes wrong: at the strongest moments under the basket, the players' backs are turned to the camera, their faces on the other side. The club photographer, meanwhile, has moved to the other end of the court at halftime. From the stands, or from the edge of the court? The next lesson takes up where to stand at a field, and how much of a photograph the position decides.