Kid's Under-4 Basketball

bobcool

My son's first organized sport - Little Dribblers Basketball. The gym was a Jr. High gym and had sparse, horrible lighting. How bad, do you ask? Well, I had to try and get the shot only when they were directly under one of the lights - if they were two feet away from directly under the light, the shot was underexposed. Here's the exif for the shots (I shot full manual on my D80):

50mm 1.8 lens
Manual w/b with white paper
ISO 1000
S/S at 1/250
Exp. Compensation +2
f/2.0
spot metering

I didn't dare increase the shutter speed for fear of all the shots being underexposed, so these were the best I could do. I'm still learning, so I'd like any C & C you'd like to offer - thanks for your time..

gus

Great shots...love #1 & 4 (thumbs )

Skippy

bobcool wrote:

My son's first organized sport - Little Dribblers Basketball. The gym was a Jr. High gym and had sparse, horrible lighting. How bad, do you ask? Well, I had to try and get the shot only when they were directly under one of the lights - if they were two feet away from directly under the light, the shot was underexposed. Here's the exif for the shots (I shot full manual on my D80):
50mm 1.8 lens
Manual w/b with white paper
ISO 1000
S/S at 1/250
Exp. Compensation +2
f/2.0
spot metering
I didn't dare increase the shutter speed for fear of all the shots being underexposed, so these were the best I could do. I'm still learning, so I'd like any C & C you'd like to offer - thanks for your time..

Awwwwwwww how cute are they and look how professional they are about the game

One thing about shooting these kinda of things, you always learn something from them ..... under the conditions you were shooting you did very well indeed .... Skippy

bobcool

Thanks so much for the replies! So, if you were a parent, would you pay $1 each of a photo like this of your child? Is a buck a piece too much? Too little? My profit is only going to be ~55 cents per pic after processing and PhotoReflect charges.

What do y'all think?

Frog Lady

- these are cute. I think you did well considering the conditions. And I'm sure parents would fork over a buck (at minimum!) These make me remember when my boys played bb at the Y. My (now 10 yo) started w/ the equivalent of the lil' dribblers and they would run 10 feet carrying the ball, stop, dribble once, then carry the ball another 10 ft.

C.

pahl

bobcool wrote:

Thanks so much for the replies! So, if you were a parent, would you pay $1 each of a photo like this of your child? Is a buck a piece too much? Too little? My profit is only going to be ~55 cents per pic after processing and PhotoReflect charges.

What do y'all think?

Them are great!
Let me know how you do on selling them.
I am going to give some of mine away this first season and see how it goes from there.

bobcool

Update
Well, I've decided to forego using PhotoReflect and just use my smugmug account to post proofs in private galleries and turn off originals. Since I'm only charging a buck for each 4 X 6 I need all the profit I can get to put back into my camera fund.

I contacted the coaches wife and asked her if she'd be willing to pay $1 each and after seeing the photos she said, "I'll take all of them!." So, hopefully other parents will also want closer, non-flash action shots of their kids. If they say no, then I'll make a mental note to not bother shooting their child to honor their request.

I'm going to post the "how much do you charge" question in the business section of this forum to compare my rate with others as well.

Thanks for all the feedback!

pahl

just use my smugmug account to post proofs in private galleries and turn off originals.

How do you just post proofs and turn off originals?
Does this keep them from just printing the photo on there owner printer at home?

I just started working on my smugmug

http://pahl.smugmug.com

pahl

How do I view your smugmug photos?
I would love to see how you got it set up.

bobcool

pahl wrote:

How do you just post proofs and turn off originals?
Does this keep them from just printing the photo on there owner printer at home?

I just started working on my smugmug

http://pahl.smugmug.com

If you login to your page and then click on customize, you can turn off Originals so people only see small, medium, or large proofs. I suppose people could still print a 4x6 from the large proof, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

My gallery is at http://www.cooleyfamily.smugmug.com - feel free to browse...

digitalpins

lol those are great.. I love 1,3 and 7

Stormdancing

Those are fantastic shots! They are so cute when they are little like that and playing the "big guy sports". I shot 4th, 5th &6th grade football last fall and those little guys were just too cute. The parents loved the shots. No one had ever covered the younger age group sports in our school district.

Do what I did. Charge a little more for your shots - say $2.00 and donate a percentage back to the program for equipment etc. Coaches and parents both love that idea and the kids reap the benefits.

RandySmugMug

very cute
i'd keep ev at 0 or even -.3
shoot in raw and recover ev in pp
ss of 1/250 seems to be ok for these little guys

$4 for 4x6 is a nice cheap price that parents will pay

RandySmugMug

bobcool wrote:

If you login to your page and then click on customize, you can turn off Originals so people only see small, medium, or large proofs. I suppose people could still print a 4x6 from the large proof, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

My gallery is at http://www.cooleyfamily.smugmug.com - feel free to browse...

if you don't set a price or $0 smugmug will sell the pic anyway and never tell u

Seneca

By looking at their wrist...I take it they guard the same color wrist band, correct? I am presently a commissioner of 1st and 2nd grade basketball league. So seeing these kids play is awesome...so cute.

Great shots.

bobcool

RandySmugMug wrote:

if you don't set a price or $0 smugmug will sell the pic anyway and never tell u

I think I'm okay here, Randy - I turned off the ability to order prints from smugmug, so the only way they could get them for free is to print from the Large proof, which wouldn't be of the same quality.

Please correct me if I'm wrong here...

bobcool

Seneca wrote:

By looking at their wrist...I take it they guard the same color wrist band, correct? I am presently a commissioner of 1st and 2nd grade basketball league. So seeing these kids play is awesome...so cute.

Great shots.

You got it, Seneca! They line them up at halfcourt before each period and match the wristbands by color and tell them, "this is who you follow around." So during the game, you can hear the parents and coaches yelling, "Blue!" "Red!" "White!" Very fun. Also, when either team scores, the whole gym erupts in cheers - the kids eat it up, like on the 4th picture in the series. Good times!

bobcool

RandySmugMug wrote:

very cute
i'd keep ev at 0 or even -.3
shoot in raw and recover ev in pp
ss of 1/250 seems to be ok for these little guys

$4 for 4x6 is a nice cheap price that parents will pay

Great suggestions, but until I get my preferred raw program (I'm leaning towards Bibble Pro) I continue to shoot in jpg. If I left the ev at 0 or -3, then it would be way too dark (very bad lighting), and I'd have to play with it more in PP to lighten it back up.

Yes, ss of 1/250 fits pretty good since they are not moving that fast .

I'm not comfortable charging $4 per 4x6 yet, and I've already told a couple of parents that it's $1 per shot, so I'll stick with this price for now since I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon.


Thanks for the feedback!

Phyxius

Bob, super cute shots and well done in the tough lighting!

saurora

Those are great!!! You captured some great expressions. I never would have guessed 4 year olds would be so "professional" about the sport. I love #1!!! She's going pro eventually, I'm sure!