Help with shooting Youth Football Team pics

MelodiousMelody

Can anyone suggest a site where I can purchase the materials needed to shoot the team pics?

Also, will I need to use a wide angled lens for the team/Coaches shot?

perroneford

B&H and Adorama are always good sources for materials. Your question about a suitable lens to use is cause for concern though.

MelodiousMelody

I'm fairly new to photography and normally shoot sports action shots. I have 2 telephoto lens and and a 55. I was aked if I could shoot team photos for a lil league team, but do not have a wide angle lens. I was hoping to get some insight from a seasoned photographer.
Thanks for your concern and reply.

Mike J

What material are you thinking you need? Are you going to shoot these outdoors or inside? Do you need to use a backdrop/green screen? Are you planning to use any strobes? As perroneford said, you can get all of that stuff at the usual places. For team photos, I put on my 24-120 lens on a FX body. You don't need anything fast as you will typically have 2 rows that you need to keep in focus so you need some DOF. For the distance that I need to be from the kids to keep them in control, I usually end up in the 50mm'ish range.

MelodiousMelody

Thanks so much Mike!!!!

Mike J wrote: »

What material are you thinking you need? Are you going to shoot these outdoors or inside? Do you need to use a backdrop/green screen? Are you planning to use any strobes? As perroneford said, you can get all of that stuff at the usual places. For team photos, I put on my 24-120 lens on a FX body. You don't need anything fast as you will typically have 2 rows that you need to keep in focus so you need some DOF. For the distance that I need to be from the kids to keep them in control, I usually end up in the 50mm'ish range.

MelodiousMelody

I actually found the templates on line. It's 2 teams, 22 kids and 4 coaches. I will be shooting outside.

Thanks again <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/nod.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
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MelodiousMelody wrote: »

Thanks so much Mike!!!!

perroneford

After almost 25 years of doing this, I consider myself pretty seasoned. However, your question left a lot of unanswered questions. We didn't know the size of the group, indoors or out, what kind of "material" you were talking about, etc. Those are crucial factors in getting you any meaningful replies.

One photographer has stated that he uses something around 50mm. While that's great, much depends on distance from the group. I've had to take them at ~20mm because of a lack of space to move back. There are other ramifications as well. Going to a wide angle will involve more of the background which may not necessarily be desirable.

If I were doing a shot like this, and was fairly new, I'd be looking to have some kind of wide zoom (maybe 24-70) to ensure I had a good focal length to use. Personally, I'd fill flash it, but that's a whole different conversation.

MelodiousMelody wrote: »

I'm fairly new to photography and normally shoot sports action shots. I have 2 telephoto lens and and a 55. I was aked if I could shoot team photos for a lil league team, but do not have a wide angle lens. I was hoping to get some insight from a seasoned photographer.
Thanks for your concern and reply.

lifeinfocus

MelodiousMelody wrote: »

I actually found the templates on line. It's 2 teams, 22 kids and 4 coaches. I will be shooting outside.

Thanks again <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/nod.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->__________________

Where did you find the templates?

And I second the post about wide angle. A 24-70mm would be my choice. I took a photo recently of 40 people from a church choir. Needed a wide angle to capture them well.

PHil

Mike J

perroneford wrote: »

One photographer has stated that he uses something around 50mm. While that's great, much depends on distance from the group..

I agree with having the flexibiliy which is why I stated that I use a 24-120 lens when doing these type of shots. Using this lens, I usually end up in the 40-50mm range on a FX body. Totally agree with using flash fill on these types of shots as well...

Templates - you indicated that you found some templates. Were these photoshop templates? The alternative is to use something like this: http://www.bayphoto.com/sports-dance-schools/team-portraits/templates.htm
Using their ROES software, you just drag the photo into the template and type in the desired text. Other labs have similar things....

MelodiousMelody

I found a few on Easy digitals.
I really appreciate the feed back as I am learning and will definitely need guidance from seasoned photgraphers


Thank you so much!

MM

MelodiousMelody

Mike!

This is exactly what I was looking for. Easy digitals ahs them as well, but I like thses much better.

Mike J wrote: »

I agree with having the flexibiliy which is why I stated that I use a 24-120 lens when doing these type of shots. Using this lens, I usually end up in the 40-50mm range on a FX body. Totally agree with using flash fill on these types of shots as well...

Templates - you indicated that you found some templates. Were these photoshop templates? The alternative is to use something like this: http://www.bayphoto.com/sports-dance-schools/team-portraits/templates.htm
Using their ROES software, you just drag the photo into the template and type in the desired text. Other labs have similar things....

MelodiousMelody

Mike here is the link:

http://www.artisticaction.com/memorymate.html

MelodiousMelody wrote: »

Mike!

This is exactly what I was looking for. Easy digitals ahs them as well, but I like thses much better.

Mike J

Just keep in mind that these are not photoshop templates you download like the Easy Digital ones are. These work with Bay Photo's ROES software so the process is different as I mentioned.