Photographing the World Cup - What Makes a Great Football Photo

[Bright Hermit]

The World Cup is generating extraordinary images, both from professional photographers pitchside and from fans in the stands. The sport presents specific photographic challenges: fast movement, unpredictable action, huge crowds, dramatic light.

But the best football photographs are rarely just action shots. They are often the reactions, the bench moments, the fans, the spaces between the action.

For anyone who shoots sport, or who just appreciates sports photography: what do you think makes a great football photograph, and who are the photographers you think do it best?

[FairDos47]

The reaction shot is almost always more interesting than the action shot. The moment after a goal, the body language of a player who has just missed, the bench during a VAR delay. That is where the emotion lives

[Aisha]

Shooting from an unusual angle changes everything. The pitchside shots from ground level that make the players look enormous against the crowd are a completely different image from the standard telephoto

[Lucky Dean]

Light in North American stadiums varies wildly. The evening games under floodlights produce a quality of light that the afternoon games in harsh sun cannot match

[GreenEcho]

The fan photography is where I would be if I had credentials. The Brazilian fans who have taken over New York for this tournament are extraordinary subjects

[Matticus]

Action without context is just movement. The best football photographs tell you something about the game, the tournament, the moment, not just that a ball was kicked

[Cobra]

Getty and AP pitchside photographers work under constraints most photographers never face. High ISO, no time to review, thousands of frames to edit. The keepers are genuinely impressive given what they are working with

[CrimsonFury]

The Tartan Army at their best are one of the great photographic subjects in world football regardless of what is happening on the pitch