Shooting soccer league photos

GadgetRick

So I have been asked to be the photog for a new league in my town. Not going to shoot the games, rather, just the individual photos and team shots. Having never done this before, I've been researching this and I'm quite excited about the opportunity. Should be fun and I should make a few bucks, too.

Anyway, wondering if anyone out there who's done this has any tips (have read through some threads here in Dgrin) and, more importantly, if anyone has a sample contract I can use. I'm finalizing the deal this week and haven't been able to find a contract for this.

Thanks.

GadgetRick

Bump.

Noelimages

75% of my business is youth sports. Generally, if there are 100 kids or more I give a % donation back to the park/orginazation. Find out how many teams/kids to determine if you need a additional photographers and base your agreement on number of photogs and assistants needed. If you agree to 100 kids and only 50 show then word your contract so that you wont get stuck with paying labor and not getting the revenue. If possible, limit it to one day preferably when games are NOT being played.

Photo Day:

Take advantage of parents for setting up poses and/or order forms Posing a 4 year can be very challening . Have suggested poses and limit it to one or two. Keep it simple because parents and kids can get restless waiting. Get quality shots but keep the line moving.


You can do well ($) because alot of photogs don't want to deal with it because it can be a headache.

GadgetRick

Scoped out the field yesterday. Doing the shoot over two days before their games. Was no way around that right now. Next season--assuming I keep the business--will be different.

Having my friend/photog helping me. He's going to shoot the team shots and the goalie shot. I'm going to shoot the rest of the individual shots. I'm keeping it to 2 poses each. Should be able to move them along (hopefully).

SweetScenePhoto

Having done groups like this before (I did ballet troops and basketball teams) - I recommend you have someone there who can handle all the paperwork & money. That way, you can focus your time and energy on the photos! It'll be quicker and easier in the long run for you!

Have your own soccer balls - incase they aren't provided to you from the league (you can't always count on coaches/players to bring them). I gave each team coach a free 5x7 of the team photo (limit 2 free per team). I did the sports portraits outside the leagues (our basketball league doesn't offer photos and wants to leave it up to the individual coaches -- whatever!) so I didn't donate any proceeds to the league - but would be happy to add that to my order forms for next season (maybe I'll get more business -as the winter portraits kinda die here). Thanks!
Don't forget to get a funky shot while you're at it - this one was a huge hit with the team - and every parent ordered a 5x7 of this one:


I used my own order forms, that I combined from a few sports photography companies - to fit it to me and who I was serving. Email (or message me) and I will send you the forms that I have. SweetScenePhoto@live.com

Good luck to you! How exciting!
~Jasa

BradfordBenn

I agree with the bringing own clean soccer balls. A friend purchased a digital version of one of his kids and asked if I could touch up the ball as the white patches, weren't white anymore.

GadgetRick

Yes, picking up a soccer ball for the shoot for sure. I also have someone to assist (she's a friend and is involved with the league) with collecting the envelopes. Should be fun once we get into it.

Mitchell

Were you able to find a shady spot on the field for your individual photos?

I think this is critical to your success at producing quality, consistent photos. If no reliable shade is available, consider buying a 10x10 canopy to make your own shade.

This is one of the few times I try to shoot a little bit down on the subject. This helps control your background. Choose a spot with some nice grass as your backdrop.

GadgetRick

Yes, got a shady spot. Did the first group yesterday. Here are a few shots:

1:


2:


3: This was the only face I could get him to make. Parents were ok with it.


4:


5:


6:


7:


8:


I had every intention of doing something else with poses but, well, kids will be kids and I didn't have a helper to pose them for me. So I just went with it. Unfortunately, I don't like all of the poses (some are too straight on, etc) but not much I could do about it. Learned a lot yesterday.

One other thing I noticed, some of the jersey colors were very difficult to get the color right (still not 100% happy). Had to make a choice between skin and jersey and I chose skin. Here are a couple of examples:

9: The green isn't quite right. Not deep enough.


10: Got the yellow close but not quite there.



All of this shot with 580EX II flash shot into silver reflective umbrella. f2.8 1/200 and ISO 320.

GadgetRick

Oh joy, just contacted Black River Imaging--I was turned on to them by others and had ordered money envelopes from them--they have software specifically for this type of shoot. Great. Unfortunately, they don't write a Mac version of it! The only way to order through them is to do it individually and assemble the packages myself. Not a very good solution. Wish they'd been a bit clearer about this before I went through this.

Spoke to a Phillip there, kind of a jerk to be quite honest. I asked him if they plan to write a MacOS version. He replied, "Well, there's only like a 5% market share with Macs so it doesn't make sense to write software for such a small amount." When I explained, this may be true but LOTS of photographers (much more than 5%) use Macs, he just sort of laughed. Loved the attitude...

Ugh...