Baseball action

Clixphoto

This is my first season of shooting youth sports action for my website. Here are a few samples from my first tournament. Some of them were taken through the backstop fence. Let me know what you think and I would love to hear other experiences with this type of photography.

Wes
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5.


http://www.clix-photo.com/

tjk60

pretty good if you are just getting started. if you are taking for parent sales, crop tighter, and watch your horizons. also for the first two and the last one, when backlit or strongly sidelit, try dialing in a bit of +EV to open up the faces....

Clixphoto

tjk60 wrote:

pretty good if you are just getting started. if you are taking for parent sales, crop tighter, and watch your horizons. also for the first two and the last one, when backlit or strongly sidelit, try dialing in a bit of +EV to open up the faces....

Great advice. I use manual settings for most of my portrait work, however, I will admit I used the sports preset on my 50D for all of these. Can you still set exposure compensation in a creative mode?

A short funny story that goes along with this. I figured I would be a one man show because I am in a rural area. I felt like a pro with my 50D and 70-200 2.8. About an hour in to it, I catch another photographer across the field. He had a 400 or 500mm prime on what looked like a 1Ds and another 1Ds with a 70-200 2.8. I felt suddenly smaller. I still had fun.

Wes

hschlessphoto

definitely crop tighter. It took me a while to realize that with my basketball shots, but it really does make the shot better. Your horizons arent that far off, but that small fix would make them that much better. good luck!

tjk60

Clixphoto wrote:

Great advice. I use manual settings for most of my portrait work, however, I will admit I used the sports preset on my 50D for all of these. Can you still set exposure compensation in a creative mode?

A short funny story that goes along with this. I figured I would be a one man show because I am in a rural area. I felt like a pro with my 50D and 70-200 2.8. About an hour in to it, I catch another photographer across the field. He had a 400 or 500mm prime on what looked like a 1Ds and another 1Ds with a 70-200 2.8. I felt suddenly smaller. I still had fun.

Wes

We all know that feeling! I'm not sure about the Canon (I shoot Nikon D700/200) and they don't have creative modes, maybe some one else can chime in here. I would forgo the programmed modes and shoot Aperture Priority with ISO high enough to keep you at 2.8 and keep shutter north of 1/1000 (I shoot for 1/2000). I'm pretty sure all cameras that have EV compensation work in this mode....

Dbl

Exposure compensation of up to + or - 2 stops in 1/3 increments only works in P, Av, Tv, and A-dep modes. Right from the 50D manual. If you are comfortable using manual I would use Av with the changing light conditions and get your camera off of the sports setting. And as mentioned use some + EC to get good exposures on the faces. In bright light I start at +2/3 EC, your light I would start at +1/3 EC.

I like to see a shutter speed of 1/3200s or higher personally, preferably 1/6400s. I try not to get much higher than that in Av so that if the meter bumps me up to 1/8000s and is looking for higher than that I don't end up with overexposed shots. It gives you a bit of cushion. I prefer frozen action but if you like to see a bit of blur in the baseball you might be happier with slightly slower speeds.

Another tip to help with back lighting and shadows under caps is to lower the contrast in camera in your picture styles. I normally use -1 or -2. With the 50D you also have the Highlight Tone priority and Auto Lighting Optimizer, give them a try. The combination of the above two will give you nicely exposed faces and uniforms under a wide range of conditions.

Clixphoto

Thanks for the great advice. I'm getting more comfortable with manual so I will try these suggestions out this weekend. As far as the close cropping goes, I once read that having the ball in the picture made the most successful action shots. This is the reason I left open area in some of the shots. I also was influenced by the "rules" for shooting moving birds or cars that say give a little more room in the frame in the direction the object is traveling so it will have somewhere to go. Thus the space in front of the batter hitting the ball. I take it you guys feel the tighter crop outways the capture of the ball.

Wes
http://www.clix-photo.com/

Mitchell

Pretty good for a first time out.

You need to get out of the mode of thinking about leaving room for the ball and sporting composition, etc... Forget it! You need to start thinking about what kind of photos moms want to buy. They don't think about all of the things you are throwing around.

Moms want one thing.......... A good shot of my kid's face. Action is nice, but unless you can showcase the face of their beautiful child, they will not be interested in buying.

You need to crop tighter and highlight the faces. Make sure the faces are properly exposed. These look a little dark. Watch your backgrounds. This is tough in most ballparks, but you can shoot wide open to minimize the distraction.

Here's a few of mine from last year. These sold well because the moms liked the faces!

Clixphoto

Nice pics. I see what you mean. I actually sold my first pics with the website today. They were some of the worst pictures I posted to, go figure. Cause for me to celebrate anyway. My first online pro sale. And were off!

Wes
http://www.clix-photo.com/

Mitchell

Clixphoto wrote:

Nice pics. I see what you mean. I actually sold my first pics with the website today. They were some of the worst pictures I posted to, go figure. Cause for me to celebrate anyway. My first online pro sale. And were off!

Wes
http://www.clix-photo.com/

My best pic for sales had great action. You could see faces, but the background was horrible. It was taken against a sideline of parents that were too close to blur.

I normally would have sent it to the recycle bin, but I liked the action. I sold several 8x10 and the parents bought a large, poster sized print!

I'll see if I can dig it up. The bottom line is, you never know.

Captn14

Wes - with kids this young you really don't need to have a shutter speed of more than 1/2000...That should be plenty. Shoot at 2.8. Not sure what glass you have but that is an essential part of shooting sports. Plain and simple. You need some long glass to get the quality images that make parents say "wow". Shoot tight and crop tighter.. Mitch said it best.

Faces
Faces
Faces

Mom's love em. Ya gotta have the glass to get the eyes.

Pamani

great shots here. i went out and took photos and my neighbors kid little game today just for practice. its amazing... people thought i was a pro just cause i was holding a a dslr with a zoom lens. i think i got a few decent shoots, but i haven't loaded them in my comp yet.

Clixphoto

Thanks for the compliments.

I'm using Canon equipment. I bought a 50D just for the sports part of my business. I also picked up a 70-200 2.8 without the IS for $830 off of ebay. I was nervous as to what kind of condition it would be in at that price but I was pleasantly surprised. The lens gets me as much attention as anything. I just use that as an opportunity to hand out my card.

I shot this past weekend with some of the suggested settings and should have them on my website by tommorrow. I have been really busy this week with senior pics so I'm a little behind on my uploading. I will post a few when I get them up and see if you think I'm going in the right direction.

Wes
http://www.clix-photo.com/

z28ken

Already lots of good advice in the thread. In case you haven't seen it, there's a very nicely written guide to youth baseball photography by Paul Alesse on the Fred Miranda forums (look in the Sports Corner resources) (hope it's okay to refer to other forums!).

I shoot Little League ball as well and have found that going +1/3 to 2/3 EC does a great job of helping expose the faces, while blowing out the whites of the uniforms. Fortunately, this tends to not be a huge issue with parents and in some cases, I can correct it with PP.

Clixphoto

Post processing would be nice if I had the time. This past weekend I shot 954 shots and narrowed them down to 375 for sale online. The only work I'm able to do on them is some simple cropping. I feel like the faster I get the images online the more sales I will get. I think parents are still fired up about the recent action whereas later in the week some of the fire has died. Am I off bass here?

Wes

Mitchell

Clixphoto wrote:

Post processing would be nice if I had the time. This past weekend I shot 954 shots and narrowed them down to 375 for sale online. The only work I'm able to do on them is some simple cropping. I feel like the faster I get the images online the more sales I will get. I think parents are still fired up about the recent action whereas later in the week some of the fire has died. Am I off bass here?

Wes

You're right on the money here. Most of my sales occur within 48 hours. I've had occasional sales one week after a busy weekend tournament. Usually what happens is that one of the team parents will discuss the photos at practice the following week and other parents go home to look at the photos. I think they forget about the photos during a busy tournament associated with travel.

I've never had a sale beyond 2 weeks of the game.

OhEddie

In order to help drive people to my coverage of the local High School team, I give them something for free.

Before the game, after the game, in between games, and sometimes during the games when the light is too low for good fast action shots, I shoot the "fans".

This has turned out to be very popular, except for those few people that just don't like to have there photo taken.

I shoot the Moms and Dads. I shoot the little brothers and sisters. I shoot the pets too. Then I load them all in an unprotected gallery for them to have for free.

Here is my current "fans" gallery ...

http://hadephoto.com/gallery/7382709_9oxRh/1/498271703_QJURh

beetle8

Clixphoto wrote:

Post processing would be nice if I had the time. This past weekend I shot 954 shots and narrowed them down to 375 for sale online. The only work I'm able to do on them is some simple cropping. I feel like the faster I get the images online the more sales I will get. I think parents are still fired up about the recent action whereas later in the week some of the fire has died. Am I off bass here?

Wes

Wes, if nothing else getting them online faster than fast is going to be in the top 3 of my suggestions for someone trying to turn a buck on youth sports.
One of the best things you can do to help this along is get the shot right in camera,
the next would be don't over shoot, the higher your ratio is the less time you'll spend culling. Meaning if you shot 1000 click and are only uploading @350 then you are at a pretty low ratio, all though I will commend you for culling and not just dumping the card onto the site for the parents to wade through.

With any youth sports and even more so with little league the parents are going to game after game, with busy lives, If you are luck enough to get them to your site, but when they get there the images are not ready, well then your chances of getting them back are minimal.

Back when stats were working I aggressively tracked my traffic and the bulk of views and sales come in the first 48 hours as someone has already mentioned. totally true. I have had events where I have multiple sessions, I'm shooting and someone else is culling and taking advantage of wifi uploading to precreated galleries on SM, and I have sales before I even get home from the event.

Clixphoto

Most of the ones I culled were either a) not technically good enough or b) the best shot in a string of four or five during a batters swing or a fielders throwing motion. I tried to keep the number under 400 because I didn't want parents to have to wade through all the boring kids to get to their superstar. About fifty of those that didn't make it online are of my superstar.:D

Clixphoto

Here are a few from this past weekend taking into consideration your suggestions from previous posts. I have had quit a few sales this week.:D What should I work on for next weekend?
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


Thanks for all the help.

Wes
http://www.clix-photo.com/

Tylwydd

Have no experience in selling photos but I really like #1 (right in focus and no disturbing background) and #3 (I'm biased cos the dust motion is the detail that I prefer in baseball shots) for the first series and #5 of the second series.

attorneyjay

Mitchell wrote:

You're right on the money here. Most of my sales occur within 48 hours. .

I've never had a sale beyond 2 weeks of the game.

I'd agree that photos should be posted ASAP. It usually takes me 24 hours due to PP and my day job interfering. Interestingly, most of my sales are at least several days, often several weeks, and sometimes several months after an event. My marketing is handing out a business card or two at a game, as well as contacting high school ADs and coaches and some players online after an event. Some teams know me so as long as they see me at an event I know they'll spread the word and I'll have plenty viewing online.

Admittedly, I could probably sell more by being more aggressive. But, even though I do want to sell photos, I also don't want to get caught up in the intensity of the business part of it such that I take all the fun out of sports photography. After all, I started doing this just for the fun of it - not selling at all.

zack75144

OhEddie wrote:

In order to help drive people to my coverage of the local High School team, I give them something for free.

Before the game, after the game, in between games, and sometimes during the games when the light is too low for good fast action shots, I shoot the "fans".

This has turned out to be very popular, except for those few people that just don't like to have there photo taken.

I shoot the Moms and Dads. I shoot the little brothers and sisters. I shoot the pets too. Then I load them all in an unprotected gallery for them to have for free.

Here is my current "fans" gallery ...

http://hadephoto.com/gallery/7382709_9oxRh/1/498271703_QJURh

I like this idea, the only draw back is with the free gallery, they know exactly how cheap the prints cost. I'd probably up the price to a buck or so for 4x6.

beetle8

zack75144 wrote:

I like this idea, the only draw back is with the free gallery, they know exactly how cheap the prints cost. I'd probably up the price to a buck or so for 4x6.

I have give a couple away for free here and there. When I do it I turn off the available prints and just allow the DL, because I agree with you, even though everyone knows how much a 4x6 costs at the drug store, when they are buying from your site they won't think of it that way unless the at-cost price is in their face. I had the same discussion with SM last month when the Quick Pricing feature failed and a bunch of my stuff went out at cost before the prices were fixed.
I don't know that that ever got me anymore sales though.