Guide to volleyball photography

Exciting games, fast rallies, great emotions - volleyball is one of the most popular ball sports in Germany alongside soccer and handball!

It is a captivating mixture of teamwork, strategy and explosive energy. Two teams battle to hit the ball over a net and bring it to the ground in the opponent's court, while at the same time having to react with lightning speed to fend off the opponent's attacks. What triggers pure excitement for the audience becomes a major challenge for us photographers: rapidly changing situations, little light and tight workspaces.

The right Lens for your subject

As already mentioned, we often have to deal with poor lighting conditions in volleyball in combination with fast movements and correspondingly short exposure times. That's why you should work with the fastest possible Lens. Most people would probably go for fixed focal lengths with an aperture of f/1.8 or even f/1.4, such as the SIGMA 85mm f/1.4, but I would personally advise against this. Of course, the amount of light that hits the sensor with such an open aperture is good for us.

However, you face two challenges with these Lens: Firstly, you're not as flexible with the fixed focal length. In volleyball, it can always happen that the action from the other side of the court suddenly shifts a meter in front of you. If you're then sitting 2m away with 85mm on the camera, you're very likely to see very little of the player and/or the ball.

What is the best way to find a game?

Of course, this mainly depends on which league you are looking for. In general, I would recommend the lower leagues to start with, as the game runs a little slower there and is therefore easier to photograph. So it's best to simply look for clubs in your area, check their website or social media channels to see when the next home game is. Then simply send a friendly email or social media message asking if you can come along. In the vast majority of cases, this is not a problem unless it's a cramped school gym, but more on that in the next point.

If you already have experience in sports photography and are interested in higher leagues (1st/2nd Bundesliga, everything below is still as described above). On the clubs' websites, you will usually find either a contact person for the press or even a ready-made form to obtain accreditation, i.e. a "photographer's pass" for the relevant match. Depending on the size of the club, however, it may be that due to limited capacity, accreditation is only open to press photographers and appropriate proof is required. In case of doubt, however, there is never any reason not to send a friendly e-mail and ask if you would simply like to try your hand at it.

For national and international competitions, i.e. the German Cup, European Cup, European Championships or World Championships, things get more complicated, because here the request for accreditation is only possible via the press portals of the German, European or international volleyball association and registration alone may already require proof of press work. However, as this is unlikely to be relevant for most of us, I will focus my tips below on the national leagues and below.

The procedure on site is usually quite simple: for the smaller clubs, you can simply come into the hall before the start of the game, find your spot and start taking photos. In the national leagues, you either start at the ticket office or (if available) at the press desk, where you then get your accreditation, usually to wear around your neck, which shows that you are allowed to enter areas where spectators are not allowed to go. More detailed information will usually be given to you on site, i.e. which areas may be off-limits to you or whether you need to pay attention to anything special (e.g. pyrotechnics at the kick-off). It's best to use the time while the teams are still warming up and playing in to test your settings.

Then you're ready to go!

The perfect location! The choice of location

In general, there is of course no "one" spot in volleyball from where you can take the perfect photos, but it always depends on which game situations (attack, defense, block, cheering?) you want to capture. So let's start with a brief overview of how the pitch is set up:

Each half of the court measures 9x9m and both halves are separated by the net. The first referee stands on an elevated position, directly in the middle of the net, opposite is the second referee and the scorer's table. The team benches are to the left and right of the scorer's table.

There are always 6 players per team on the court, who are generally only (allowed to) play the ball in their half of the court. The matches are played over three winning sets, i.e. a maximum of five sets in total, which go to 25 points and require at least a two-point lead to win. The exception to this is the fifth set, which only goes to 15 points

Each rally begins with the serve, whereby the ball must be played directly over the net. Each team may then touch the ball up to three times after the opponent has touched it before it must be played to the opponent. It does not matter whether the ball is played with one hand or with both hands at the same time. If the ball touches the floor or the ceiling, a point is scored, depending on who touched the ball last.

But where is the best place to take photos?

Roughly speaking, there are four situations that definitely offer good motifs: Defensive actions, attacks, blocks and players' emotions/cheers after winning a point. The latter are the easiest in terms of location: you can capture the cheering moments from pretty much any side of the pitch, as long as you're not standing right behind the team bench.

In general, you usually want to see the athlete's face in sports photos, as the face shows the most emotion to the outside world. Roughly speaking, this means that you should be somewhere in the players' field of vision. Defensive actions usually take place in the back third of the court (as seen from the net). Depending on how much you want to have the players in the side profile, you should position yourself on the long sideline of the court, ideally between the center of the side and the net post.

You can choose from roughly the same positions for attacking and blocking: Either directly in front on the short sideline (but then with a correspondingly strong telephoto zoom) or directly to the side next to the net. If you're lucky, there might be a grandstand or gallery at the front so that you can work with your camera above the edge of the net. This gives you a full view of the faces on the opposite side of the court without the net in between.

The area between the net and the center of each half of the pitch is definitely the place I would recommend for the start, as you can simply concentrate on the game situations there without having to constantly change your position. A practical side effect is that you usually also have a good view of the team bench from there, where the coaches and substitutes in particular like to provide good picture moments, as they are usually at least as emotionally involved in the action as the players on the pitch!

Which accessories do you need?

My personal must-have accessory for all (ball) sports is the lens hood for my Lens! Not because they are absolutely necessary due to the lighting conditions in the halls, but mainly to protect my Lens. If you do get hit by a ball on the lens, the lens hood acts a bit like a predetermined breaking point and can therefore prevent a lot of damage to the lens.

Otherwise, you should of course also make sure that you have a suitably fast memory card with you, as you will be taking a lot of continuous shots and the faster they can be saved, the faster you can follow the next situations again - sometimes a lot of photogenic situations happen in quick succession! That's why the memory card should have a storage capacity of at least 128 GB. Especially if you have little experience in volleyball and sports photography in general, you will most likely shoot too often rather than too little and should have a corresponding buffer. It happens very quickly that you come out of the hall with 3-4000 photos!

Our memory cards

Personally, I always shoot in RAW, simply because I like to keep a lot of leeway in post-processing (especially with the white balance) and a nice to have is definitely a small stool, as seating such as beer benches are rarely provided for the photographers. I've only ever experienced this at the DVV Cup final in Mannheim. But you don't usually need one of these, as you can - if you want - change positions a lot to get the most varied shots possible. Otherwise, you will probably spend most of the time kneeling, as the jumps in particular are much more effective from below.

Some colleagues also like to have a monopod with them, but this only really makes sense if you are working with high focal lengths, i.e. 300-600mm. You don't normally need it for the "standard telephoto" 70-200mm f./2.8, except for video, as you don't have to hold it up for long periods of time and the magnification is not so strong that a small jerk will ruin your entire composition.

In the end, it is also important that you can transport your equipment easily. It won't do you any good if you end up arriving in the hall loaded down like a pack mule and don't have a hand free for the camera. That's why investing in a good photo backpack is a good recommendation.

More about Oliver T. Rubert

I started out in the portrait segment and shortly afterwards lost my heart to event and sports photography:

My name is Oliver T. Rubert and I have been working in the field of event and sports photography for over 5 years now. In addition to the moments that pass by quickly, my work focuses in particular on what happens off the pitch: emotions. Whether it's the team on the field, the coaches or the fans - everyone is passionate about their sport and their team and it's precisely this atmosphere that makes sporting events so special for me. This spirit is what I want to capture in addition to the action scenes.
Starting in 2016 with a small Nikon D3200, I have remained loyal to the system and have now been working with two Nikon Z6s for 3 years.

In addition to sports and event photography, I have found my creative playground in cosplay, both as a photographer and as a model. Even though - or maybe because - it is a very strong contrast to my professional, photographic work, it helps me to constantly challenge myself and deal with new techniques and stylistic elements, which I might not be able to experiment with for my clients.

You can find my photos on Instagram at @otr.photo, my work as a cosplayer and model at @otr.cosplay.
My website: www.otr-photo.de