Sports Portrait Question

willaibach

Need some advice from all you seasoned pros! I've been shooting team portraits from time to time at my kids' school, mostly as a fill in for teams that missed the regularly scheduled yearbook shot for whatever reason. However, parents and school have been more pleased with my portraits and prices, and they are now turning a lot more of the team shots to me. This is great, but means I've got a few logistical things to figure out.

Most of the team shots I've done have been for smaller teams (wrestling/jv basketball) and I've known most of the kids on the team. However, in a couple of weeks I will be shooting both the MS and HS football teams, each with over 30 kids and I don't know most of them. So I need a way to keep the shots and names of kids organized. A friend suggested a small whiteboard. . .write the kid's name and take a shot of the kid holding it before each reg shot. Sounds pretty good and foolproof, but will mean the shoot would take a lot longer by adding an extra shot to each kid.

Do any of you have better ways of keeping names/portraits organized? Thanks so much for any advice!!

mercphoto

willaibach wrote:

Need some advice from all you seasoned pros! I've been shooting team portraits from time to time at my kids' school, mostly as a fill in for teams that missed the regularly scheduled yearbook shot for whatever reason. However, parents and school have been more pleased with my portraits and prices, and they are now turning a lot more of the team shots to me. This is great, but means I've got a few logistical things to figure out.

Most of the team shots I've done have been for smaller teams (wrestling/jv basketball) and I've known most of the kids on the team. However, in a couple of weeks I will be shooting both the MS and HS football teams, each with over 30 kids and I don't know most of them. So I need a way to keep the shots and names of kids organized. A friend suggested a small whiteboard. . .write the kid's name and take a shot of the kid holding it before each reg shot. Sounds pretty good and foolproof, but will mean the shoot would take a lot longer by adding an extra shot to each kid.

Do any of you have better ways of keeping names/portraits organized? Thanks so much for any advice!!

You may have figured out why your shots are better (you take more time, you have fewer people to photograph, etc.). And that's probably also why your competitors prices are higher (he's got more logistical work, more photos to go through, a harder time keeping things straight, etc.). Get yourself an assistant and have each kid sign in. Take their pictures in that order and be extremely strict about that. Take the same number of pics per kid to make it easier to find any given child.

People don't often realize just how hard shooting a lot of T&I can be, and that behind the scenes work will factor into the price. Also, many times a T&I contract includes a kick-back to the league from the photographer, and often the parents don't realize part of that "high price" is going directly to the league as yet another fee for Johnny and Janie to play ball.

willaibach

Thanks for the advice, Merc. I think I will give that a shot. I'm actually shooting MS and HS on different days, so if I find that system doesn't work for one shoot, I can try something else for the other.

My prices are actually only a couple of bucks cheaper than the competitor, but I am in a really unique position in this particular situation. I am shooting at my kids' school, which is also where my husband works, and I graduated from there. I know most of the coaches and many of the parents. I am usually on campus every day anyway, so shoots are not an extra trip to somewhere I wouldn't be going anyway. I can take my little kids with me, and they can hang out in Dad's office. Because of this, I have a lot more scheduling flexibility than the competitor, and only shoot one team a day, rather than trying to fit in an entire season's worth of teams in one shoot. I'm not trying to shoot other schools at this point, so can cater a bit to this school and it's a win-win situation. I feel like I am learning a lot, and when my kids get older I will have the experience I need to consider launching into a more full time business. Plus, the connections I make with the parents have helped fuel Senior portraits. It's a pretty ideal situation for me right now, and I am so grateful to you fellow smuggers for helping me figure out stuff along the way!

Dbl

Can I point you to an older thread? http://http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=81276

This may answer some of your questions and some other thoughts to consider when starting into the T&I market.

As far as organization that is something that becomes more important when you start shooting kids you don't know. I use a fairly simple set up of envelopes and writing images numbers next to names. Some folks take a white board or a sign and actually shoot the player and name in the first frame. I find that not to work for me, but there are numerous ways to this.

ASkip

willaibach wrote:

Need some advice from all you seasoned pros!

Most of the team shots I've done have been for smaller teams (wrestling/jv basketball) and I've known most of the kids on the team. However, in a couple of weeks I will be shooting both the MS and HS football teams, each with over 30 kids and I don't know most of them. So I need a way to keep the shots and names of kids organized. A friend suggested a small whiteboard. . .write the kid's name and take a shot of the kid holding it before each reg shot. Sounds pretty good and foolproof, but will mean the shoot would take a lot longer by adding an extra shot to each kid.

Do any of you have better ways of keeping names/portraits organized? Thanks so much for any advice!!

I'm not a pro, but I got to assist with the HS lax team photos last year. By the time they take pictures, there's a pretty good roster and the photos are all taken in full gear, including jerseys with big numbers on the front. They took all the headshots in numerical order, one smiling and one serious picture per kid. With the guys all lined up and a couple assigned to be marshals, the 60 plus kids were done with individuals and groups photos in about an hour.
The hardest part was getting the reflector to reflect properly (my job) and setting up the background screen in the wind.
If you don't want the jersey number in the headshot, you can still take one photo with the jersey number showing and move in for the real photo. (or just crop the photo) saves time vs a whiteboard at least.
With numbers and a roster, should be pretty simple, no?

I was talking to a pro photographer this year who said that for all the pictures he takes, he uses a program, which I have forgotten the name of, that lets him annotate all his photos with names and numbers. He puts in the roster with the names and jersey numbers, then for every photo, he enters the jersey number and it somehow cross references the pictures for him so he can look up all the pictures of Bob Smith later. Maybe that's overkill.
Have fun.

mercphoto

ASkip wrote:

I was talking to a pro photographer this year who said that for all the pictures he takes, he uses a program, which I have forgotten the name of, that lets him annotate all his photos with names and numbers. He puts in the roster with the names and jersey numbers, then for every photo, he enters the jersey number and it somehow cross references the pictures for him so he can look up all the pictures of Bob Smith later. Maybe that's overkill.
Have fun.

Photo Mechanic possibly?