Posting pictures from events

Rene` · November 21, 2006

Ok folks,

I need some help!!! I take pictures from wrestling matches and football games. I live in a small town so I know them all. Sould I post a ton of pictures or should I only post the best??? I don't want people to get so tired of looking that they don't buy any pictures.

I am new at this....so I need some guidance from someone with experience.

Thank's in advance,
Rene`
memoriesbyrene.com

Onrey · November 21, 2006

Rene, I would try picking out the best photos like you said, but don't forget candid shots also. One thing I have noticed is alot of parents will buy photos I would have never guessed they would. So keep that in mind also. And I would also place a Comment under the photos saying something to the effect of " these are not all the photos taken if you would like to see all of your child please contact me for a private showing" if thats possible for you. Also, I carry a nice binder with me and print 8x10's of my best action shots and people will take that book everytime to look and see if I have anything new in it then pass it around. It's amazing , you can tell parents you have a great shot of their child and some still wont look, BUT when they SEE that shot printed out, they come running to see all of them.

Another thing, I don't rely on my smugmug site for sales, I set up vewing stations and allow the parents to view all photos there, they place orders and pay me up front, I proccess photos, and mail or deliver in a week or less. Online sales work for many photogs and many photogs do not like it. I guess both have pros and cons. I have only a few people ask me if I can upload to my web site for sales, If it's not many I can oblige, otherwise I explain to them I dont have High Speed Internet to upload, could you imagine uploading 1000's of photos with dialup? :cry

Good luck and good shooting,

pat.kane · November 21, 2006

This is an overly simplistic statement, but completely true --

You can't sell an item that the purchaser can't find.

If you want to maximize sales, you need to maximize the amount of photos you put in front of the end buyer.

I define "find" in multiple ways.

The buyer won't "find" an image if they give up looking because of a slow connection, too many photos being available (i.e., click fatigue), photos are difficult to locate on the web site, etc.

Onrey gives a very good example of how he helps the customer "find" an image -- by putting it in a binder for them to flip through.

Another example is to keyword your images. I use the player's name and number. That way, the customer only has to click on a keyword to "find "every image shot of the person they're looking for.

Putting the image in front of the customer quickly is also another good example of making your images easy to find, e.g., your on-site viewstations, especially when they're well located (i.e., the customer has to pass your stand on the way out of the event).

Outside of the obvious culling of shots for being out of focus, completely missing the play (if sports), etc., it really is a personal choice on what you want to present to the customers. More images available likely translates to more sales if it is easy to "find" the image they are looking for.

Good luck.

JimM · November 22, 2006

I don't post the ones that are out of focus or the ones that don't show faces, but I post everything else. Typically over 200 images per football game.

Angelo · November 22, 2006

Rene` wrote:

Ok folks,

I need some help!!! I take pictures from wrestling matches and football games. I live in a small town so I know them all. Sould I post a ton of pictures or should I only post the best??? I don't want people to get so tired of looking that they don't buy any pictures.

I am new at this....so I need some guidance from someone with experience.

Thank's in advance,
Rene`
memoriesbyrene.com

Rene:

Are you an artist or a merchant?

Why would you ever present work that WASN'T your very best? Are you going to have a discount section of your site for "damaged goods"?

If as a photographer you consider yourself an artist than prepare and display only your very best images... even if that's only one. One fantastic photo, presented so dazzingly that people sit up and say "WOW!" is what will distinguish you from the dozens of people at the same event snapping away at anything that moves.

edit: welcome interested parties to view your site with a proper link in your signature and profile

lizstabbertphoto · November 27, 2006

Angelo wrote:

Rene:

Are you an artist or a merchant?

Why would you ever present work that WASN'T your very best? Are you going to have a discount section of your site for "damaged goods"?

If as a photographer you consider yourself an artist than prepare and display only your very best images... even if that's only one. One fantastic photo, presented so dazzingly that people sit up and say "WOW!" is what will distinguish you from the dozens of people at the same event snapping away at anything that moves.

Exactly! Post to impress. Let them think that every shot you took was perfect, the not so great ones will be our little secret

JimM · November 27, 2006

When trying to sell event and sports photos, I have found you want to publish the sellable ones. No bad exposures or out of focus ones, but the more different kids you have in the images, the better chance of selling more.

claudermilk · November 30, 2006

It's a fine line. My method has been to show only the best. However in the last few events I've shot, some of the dancers started asking about why there weren't more. Even after explaining my method (obviously OOF, blurred, technically bad shots, but also unflattering were discarded), they still preferred a larger selection...so I compromised & allowed more through but still not all. So far we're all happy...

cdonovan · December 2, 2006

lizstabbertphoto wrote:

Exactly! Post to impress. Let them think that every shot you took was perfect, the not so great ones will be our little secret

I LOVE that secret, and I completly agree, if they aren't good shots photographically speaking or good pictures of the person in general then I don't post them...Any work that I post in the gallery is flattering becuase people aren't going to buy shots of themselves looking bad!

I shoot horse shows and there is ample opportunity for people to look bad, falling off, or fence refusals, jerking reins and spurring etc etc etc...those pictures hit the dirt or don't even get snapped, for one thing, I know I wouldn't be happy to find a picture of myself on a website in a comprimising postition, and that i certainly wouldn't want to buy it either, so I treat everyone in front of the camera with the same respect!!:D

StevenV · December 2, 2006

an older thread on "posting for parents" vs. "posting just your best"
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=21687

I guess it all comes down to "what's your purpose?" and "who's your audience?"

johng · December 4, 2006

my advice is this:

make sure you get a number of shots of various players. Based upon the nature of your post, you're not shooting to spec (i.e. you haven't been paid to cover specific athletes). So, make sure you have at least 5 shots of every player.

Now, my advice is take enough photos so that those 5 shots are all good shots.

NEVER include an OOF shot or a poorly exposed shot - either fix your shooting to get better focused and exposed shots or take more pictures. The reason is this: you never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression. And, even if you have no competition now, you might in the nearr future or next year. If 1/4 of your shots are poor in quality and your competition comes along and provides the same number of shots but all are high quality, you'll lose business.

So, make sure you take enough shots of all the players to end up with 5 of each. If you're covering the same team over and over, ss a season progresses you'll learrn who your customers are - take more shots of those players and don't waste youre time and energy photographing kids whose parents are not buying.

But I've also found if there is only 1 shot of a kid, don't count on sales to that parent. You'll also find that your best customers are not necessarily the parents of the star athletes. For instance in football, your best customers may be the parents of a lineman or a safety - not the QB or the running back. So, having 50 shots of the running back and zero of that lineman can hurt you.

MichaelKirk · December 7, 2006

Sometimes you can....
depending on what you shoot and your stype you can take some "poorer" quality images and turn them in to usable pieces. Take a look at my link. Now most of these photos were usable to begin with, but some were not and now I turn them into conversation pieces. I get a lot of coments about these pictures - they don't really sell (but then again I have only been selling 2 months now), but they draw people to my site to see whats different.

http://www.mlkimages.com/gallery/2127778

Michael

johng wrote:

my advice is this:

make sure you get a number of shots of various players. Based upon the nature of your post, you're not shooting to spec (i.e. you haven't been paid to cover specific athletes). So, make sure you have at least 5 shots of every player.

Now, my advice is take enough photos so that those 5 shots are all good shots.

NEVER include an OOF shot or a poorly exposed shot - either fix your shooting to get better focused and exposed shots or take more pictures. The reason is this: you never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression. And, even if you have no competition now, you might in the nearr future or next year. If 1/4 of your shots are poor in quality and your competition comes along and provides the same number of shots but all are high quality, you'll lose business.

So, make sure you take enough shots of all the players to end up with 5 of each. If you're covering the same team over and over, ss a season progresses you'll learrn who your customers are - take more shots of those players and don't waste youre time and energy photographing kids whose parents are not buying.

But I've also found if there is only 1 shot of a kid, don't count on sales to that parent. You'll also find that your best customers are not necessarily the parents of the star athletes. For instance in football, your best customers may be the parents of a lineman or a safety - not the QB or the running back. So, having 50 shots of the running back and zero of that lineman can hurt you.

Posting pictures from events

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