How to Photograph Little League Baseball Games

Right now is an exciting time for many Little Leaguers around the country.  As these youth baseball teams navigate their way threw the various district and state playoff games on a quest to a Little League World Series I see more and more parents with camera's at the games wanting capture these special moments.  So I decided to put together an article to try and help you capture those moments.

First lets talk equipment. It does not matter if you have a Canon or a Nikon or even a Sony.  Even if you don't own a DSLR, a cell phone will work.  The goal is to capture a moment that you and your child will remember for a lifetime.

Yes having the newest camera body with a 70-200 f/2.8 lens will produce the best images.  No matter what cell phone you use, it will never compare to images taken with a telephoto lens.  But a blurry, dark image is better than no image at all.


But if I had a wishlist, I would want a DSLR that shoots a lot of frames per second.  I personally use the Canon 7D which shoots around 8 frames per second.  You also want a fast lens.  As I mentioned a 70-200 f/2.8 is the default go to lens of the pros.  I have written a few reviews of different 70-200 lenses from Canon and Sigma in other posts.

But any telephoto lens will work, especially for day games.

Now for the actually shooting of the game.  Typically you will not be allowed into the dugout to shoot so you will have to scope out spots where you have a clear field of view and you do not block any other spectators.  I have found this often means I am standing in the hot California sun.

I try to shoot games from several positions.  I typically start at the end of the dugout on the first base side.  Many fields have a low fence or even no fence after the dugout area.  This gives you a great view of right handed batters faces as well as the infield.  You can get some nice profile pictures of the first baseman and second baseman.

The biggest obstacle to contend with trying to photograph the game from this position is the first base coach.  Depending on the layout of the field and how far back the fence sits from the foul line, the first base coach may block your view of the batter.  And I have found very few coaches stand still.  Most are constantly moving in the coaches box, which means you may have to change your position several times an inning.

You can also photograph from the same position on the third base side.  From the third base side you can get some great shots of slides into second and third base.  This position also allows you to photograph right handed pitchers opening up to throw the ball.

Remember to get low when shooting the game.  If you can get on the players eye level or even lower it adds some drama to the image and makes the players look bigger.  When you are looking down on the players it tends to make them look smaller.  While being low is not the most comfortable or practical shooting position, if you can do it you just might capture a great shot.

The other great shooting spot is anywhere along the back stop behind home plate.  When I first started photographing sports I found myself trying my best to position the lens so I shot between the openings in the chain link fence.  While this works it is difficult and frustrating to do.  What I realized after a while was if I stood back around two feet from the fence and used spot focusing, I could shoot right through the fence.  The fence often times does not even show up in the photograph!

Most of the pictures in the post were shot through a fence.  The image below you can tell that it was shot through a fence, but I think it gives a cool appearance to it.  This image was actually shot through two fences, the one that keeps spectators out of the dugout as well as the fence that that players go through to get to the field.  Some people may not like the image but I think it gives it a nice effect.

When the fence does show up in the picture, you can usually reduce its appearance by bumping up the contrast slightly in image editing software.

Depending on the angel of the fence, the sun and even stadium lights can put a nasty glare off the chain link fence.  You can reduce this glare by shooting in shaded spots.  I have even used the shade from the metal poles that support the backstop to take pictures.  Even during night games shooting right next to these poles can reduce the glare just enough to get a shot.

Behind home plate I think you can get some amazing shots that look like the pitcher is trowing the ball right at you.  I also love the shots from behind the batter.

This image was shot through a fence behind home plate.

This image was shot in a little walkway behind the plate between the fence.
The problem I had with this game was that it was played at noon and created
a glare on the fence.  This worked well because the concession stand created a
shadow and blocked the glare.

Another place I love to shoot from is the outfield.  Little League games have a small field and often a low outfield fence that allows you shoot over.  Even if it is a high fence you can often find gaps in the fence to shoot through.  To do this you need at least a 300mm lens and even then you will have to crop the image down.  The image below was actually shot with a Canon 70-200 and it required a lot of cropping, but I really like the image.  I know "pros" will tell you to never crop, but I disagree.  

Sure by never cropping you assure the best resolution and sharpest images, but what about all the action you miss by spending so much time worrying about framing your shots.  I would rather have a really cool image like the one below that is overly cropped than no image at all.  And lets face it, not many of us can afford a 400mm lens and even if we could, we would never want to lug it around at a Little League game.

Depending on the time of day you shoot, it can be difficult to get the correct exposure.  We tend to think shooting in broad daylight will produce the best images, but usually this makes it tough.  White uniforms and baseball hats make it tough.

The problem is the hats cast a heavy shadow on the face.  This tends to make the face nothing more than a black circle.  In order to get some detail in the face you have to overexpose the picture.  The problem with this is the rest of the photo is overexposed.  Especially things like white uniforms.

This is where a program like Lightroom comes in.  There are all kinds of little tricks you can do to expose the image correctly, but the easiest way I have found to do this is to turn down the highlights and decrease the shadows in the image.

In order to use Lightroom to do this, you have to have a slightly over exposed or even slightly underexposed image.  If you are way off, their is nothing you can do to save the image.

With these few tips you should be able to get some great shots of your little ones memorable game.

If you would like to see more of my sports photography you can visit VincentMartinez.smugmug.com or KernSports.info.  

I am also available for hire to shoot you event anywhere in the country.  I am based in Southern California and have very reasonable rates.