Hi Ian
There is a lot of good info here, isn't there. I have asked questions prviously in other forums about on site event photography, and never recieved all positive replies. Almost always got the 'mom with digicam' response.
Now, wrt to editing, my observations of event photogs here has been that t hey do very, very little. A couple years ago the event photogs at the indoor soccer tournament did none, not even a quick levels to brighten the pics. Not sure if it was good or bad for sales, they haven't been back to the soccer tournament since.
I watched a fellow with a very nice set up at a curling bonspiel. Not too sure how much editing he did, but some. He printed on site, on 81/2 x 11 paper. He offered a variety of print packages that would fit onto 81/2 x 11 paper for $22. So you could get an 8 x 12 (more or less) 2 5 x7s of the same shot or a group of 2 x 3 1/2s. He also had a few custom mats on offer and would combine two or three different shots for the customer into his mats.
WRT my shots, #1 is over exposed everywhere! I am finding I would like an ISO lower than 100 some days! I think I am finally figuring out how to shoot in the sunlight - we only get about 20 days worth it seems!!!!
Anyway, once it is blown like that, what would you do to recover the OE areas?
And I can vouch for the magenta skin in #7 - it was about the freezing mark that night!
In any case, I am going to bet only a handful of people that look will notice that.The link is up on the tournament web site, and I found out the hard way that if I change things her linked page doesn't follow th changes but gives the red x of death!
I have also found out that this tournament includes some out of town teams, but the majority of the teams invovled will be together again next weekend for a year end picnic - certainly time for me to put together a complete set of contact sheets in a binder for display, for those without internet access.
This weekend, I will be alone with my camera. My family is just too overcommitted to help out, and in reality I should be looking after the things I committed to earlier. However as a fellow photographer and soccer coach said to me last night, 'you've got to jump at these chances when they present themselves'. It will certainly be a huge learning experience for me.
I'm pretty sure you can get to ISO 50 with the 20d. The question is
whether you want to or not For the mkII, others have questioned
the accuracy. I think Canon even says it's there but not perfect.
You'd find that setting under ISO expansion.
WRT the OE. I'm not sure what I'd do. Maybe select the face and
outside leg, mask and apply level adjustment. Looking at the image,
I think the white in the undershirt and the black in the shorts make
metering more difficult. But it would be better to under expose than
over expose.
Again, good luck this weekend!
Ian
Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
Caution to the wind
If you want to throw caution to the wind try this!
Warning these ideas are not for professionals, this is for the first year shooter who is working on a limited equipment basis.
First make yourself an order form for orders you will not be able to fulfill on site. (Most of them)
Go to site a day or two before event and find outlets, then go to home improvement store to get heavy duty extension cord and 6 outlet surge protector. Also buy tent to protect your equipment and staff and of course a table and chairs. If you have time print business cards and get vinyl banner!
Make flyer and pass out pre-game. Offer cd's and pictures of children at event, and detail what will be available later after the event. This upcoming football season I will be taking preorders for football players families $30-50 per cd to shoot as many pics as I can of your child. This way I won't waste time taking photos of johnny if his parents won't pay for pics later. This gets you away from shooting all the kids down to a select few I.e. Instead of shooting 10 players per game, you may only shoot two players per game.
Buy an inkjet printer. I recommend the picturemate. It takes about two years, I mean two minutes to print but picture quality is excellent. In addition it is dry when it comes off the printer and is archival quality. Only prints 4x6. Buy two or more printers if you can afford it.
Buy an cd burner if laptop doesn't have one.The cd option frees you from having to print day of game or at all. I prefer not to print at all. I shot over 30 events football, basketball, softball, baseball, and bodybuilding (8000 pics) last year, and didn't print a picture till after school ended. Just bought printer last month.
After game have staff member pass out contact info for any other kids pics you may have taken but will only be available on website or if they have filled out order form.
These other suggestions are better than mine, but if you just want to get out there and do it try this way!
Any day I can make more than $150 dollars shooting is a good day. Beats shooting for free. You only need 3-5 customers to make $150.
I shot both days, 4 full 1 gig cf cards - about 1600 photos.
Day 1 was variably cloudy, so lots of changing light.
Day 2 was cloudy, grey and cold, so the kids were wearing hats, jackets etc, ao the outfits aren't the greatest, but the light was easier to deal with (unchanging).
I shot completely on spec, and alone. I had my wallet full of business cards, but never really got them out as my hands were full of camera and monopod.
The tournament was an ideal set up for a novice in that it was 3 v 3 on small fields - not lots of space to cover, but lots of room for the kids to be isolated from one another. Given that they are so young I wasn't expecting and didn't find lots of body contact.
I have posted the shots by game time and age group. I hope this helps parents find their kid, rather than wading through a single gallery full of 800 - 1000 shots.
By the end of Sunday I was getting messages asking for photos, so there is a real need for immediacy that I could not fulfill. I have chosen to do minor editing (cropping, levels adjustments etc) before posting....always show your best, right? And I am posting way more things than I would for my own kids games, where I try to limit the number of chosen shots to the best of the best.
As of this a.m. I have sold 4 copies of one shot. I have asked for patience, and have messages from a couple of parents that they will order once they see them all.
From a shooting perspective, this was both fun and relatively easy. The posting is time consuming. I really could have used a helper to hand out advertising. The field set up and schedule of this tournament made working (shooting) alone doable, but anything larger scale would have required at least one more photographer. I do believe that on site printing would have worked very, very well.
so, when I get done with sales, I will let you know the final numbers.
Ann,
thanks for the followup, and I'm very glad it went well. I will check out your shots in a moment.
I take it you didn't do any onsite printing from your post, but got a very good idea what would be involved in doing so. The experience was obviously worth it.
Keep us posted on your progress.
Mongrel
If every keystroke was a shutter press I'd be a pro by now...
Comments
There is a lot of good info here, isn't there. I have asked questions prviously in other forums about on site event photography, and never recieved all positive replies. Almost always got the 'mom with digicam' response.
Now, wrt to editing, my observations of event photogs here has been that t hey do very, very little. A couple years ago the event photogs at the indoor soccer tournament did none, not even a quick levels to brighten the pics. Not sure if it was good or bad for sales, they haven't been back to the soccer tournament since.
I watched a fellow with a very nice set up at a curling bonspiel. Not too sure how much editing he did, but some. He printed on site, on 81/2 x 11 paper. He offered a variety of print packages that would fit onto 81/2 x 11 paper for $22. So you could get an 8 x 12 (more or less) 2 5 x7s of the same shot or a group of 2 x 3 1/2s. He also had a few custom mats on offer and would combine two or three different shots for the customer into his mats.
WRT my shots, #1 is over exposed everywhere! I am finding I would like an ISO lower than 100 some days! I think I am finally figuring out how to shoot in the sunlight - we only get about 20 days worth it seems!!!!
Anyway, once it is blown like that, what would you do to recover the OE areas?
And I can vouch for the magenta skin in #7 - it was about the freezing mark that night!
In any case, I am going to bet only a handful of people that look will notice that.The link is up on the tournament web site, and I found out the hard way that if I change things her linked page doesn't follow th changes but gives the red x of death!
I have also found out that this tournament includes some out of town teams, but the majority of the teams invovled will be together again next weekend for a year end picnic - certainly time for me to put together a complete set of contact sheets in a binder for display, for those without internet access.
This weekend, I will be alone with my camera. My family is just too overcommitted to help out, and in reality I should be looking after the things I committed to earlier. However as a fellow photographer and soccer coach said to me last night, 'you've got to jump at these chances when they present themselves'. It will certainly be a huge learning experience for me.
Thanks for the support.
ann
My Galleries My Photography BLOG
Ramblings About Me
whether you want to or not
the accuracy. I think Canon even says it's there but not perfect.
You'd find that setting under ISO expansion.
WRT the OE. I'm not sure what I'd do. Maybe select the face and
outside leg, mask and apply level adjustment. Looking at the image,
I think the white in the undershirt and the black in the shorts make
metering more difficult. But it would be better to under expose than
over expose.
Again, good luck this weekend!
Ian
If you want to throw caution to the wind try this!
Warning these ideas are not for professionals, this is for the first year shooter who is working on a limited equipment basis.
First make yourself an order form for orders you will not be able to fulfill on site. (Most of them)
Go to site a day or two before event and find outlets, then go to home improvement store to get heavy duty extension cord and 6 outlet surge protector. Also buy tent to protect your equipment and staff and of course a table and chairs. If you have time print business cards and get vinyl banner!
Make flyer and pass out pre-game. Offer cd's and pictures of children at event, and detail what will be available later after the event. This upcoming football season I will be taking preorders for football players families $30-50 per cd to shoot as many pics as I can of your child. This way I won't waste time taking photos of johnny if his parents won't pay for pics later. This gets you away from shooting all the kids down to a select few I.e. Instead of shooting 10 players per game, you may only shoot two players per game.
Buy an inkjet printer. I recommend the picturemate. It takes about two years, I mean two minutes to print but picture quality is excellent. In addition it is dry when it comes off the printer and is archival quality. Only prints 4x6. Buy two or more printers if you can afford it.
Buy an cd burner if laptop doesn't have one.The cd option frees you from having to print day of game or at all. I prefer not to print at all. I shot over 30 events football, basketball, softball, baseball, and bodybuilding (8000 pics) last year, and didn't print a picture till after school ended. Just bought printer last month.
After game have staff member pass out contact info for any other kids pics you may have taken but will only be available on website or if they have filled out order form.
These other suggestions are better than mine, but if you just want to get out there and do it try this way!
Any day I can make more than $150 dollars shooting is a good day. Beats shooting for free. You only need 3-5 customers to make $150.
Okay, here is what I did:
I shot both days, 4 full 1 gig cf cards - about 1600 photos.
Day 1 was variably cloudy, so lots of changing light.
Day 2 was cloudy, grey and cold, so the kids were wearing hats, jackets etc, ao the outfits aren't the greatest, but the light was easier to deal with (unchanging).
I shot completely on spec, and alone. I had my wallet full of business cards, but never really got them out as my hands were full of camera and monopod.
The tournament was an ideal set up for a novice in that it was 3 v 3 on small fields - not lots of space to cover, but lots of room for the kids to be isolated from one another. Given that they are so young I wasn't expecting and didn't find lots of body contact.
I have posted the shots by game time and age group. I hope this helps parents find their kid, rather than wading through a single gallery full of 800 - 1000 shots.
The tournament organizer has the links on their web site, look here:
http://www.sparksoccer.ca/3v3_Tournament/index.htm
By the end of Sunday I was getting messages asking for photos, so there is a real need for immediacy that I could not fulfill. I have chosen to do minor editing (cropping, levels adjustments etc) before posting....always show your best, right? And I am posting way more things than I would for my own kids games, where I try to limit the number of chosen shots to the best of the best.
As of this a.m. I have sold 4 copies of one shot. I have asked for patience, and have messages from a couple of parents that they will order once they see them all.
From a shooting perspective, this was both fun and relatively easy. The posting is time consuming. I really could have used a helper to hand out advertising. The field set up and schedule of this tournament made working (shooting) alone doable, but anything larger scale would have required at least one more photographer. I do believe that on site printing would have worked very, very well.
so, when I get done with sales, I will let you know the final numbers.
ann
My Galleries My Photography BLOG
Ramblings About Me
thanks for the followup, and I'm very glad it went well. I will check out your shots in a moment.
I take it you didn't do any onsite printing from your post, but got a very good idea what would be involved in doing so. The experience was obviously worth it.
Keep us posted
Mongrel
I took a quick look at a few of the photos and you've got some nice
action shots!
All I can say is WOW! to have made it through the tourney shooting by
yourself is fantastic. Congratulations on a fine job!
Ian