HELP- Gymnastics crop or not crop

<p>Just took over 2000 action pix of youth gymnastics - do I go thru all of them crop in nice then post to my website or just post them explaining that if they order prints thru me I'll crop and enhance . If they order thru my host site they will not get a tight image for most of my shots. BUT if I spend time cropping and sharpening its going to take me hours and hours of work then who knows if they will even be purchased. what do photogs do that photograph gymnastics do they go thru all images or justpost as is??</p>

<p>Would you buy an image without actually seeing how it looked? I wouldn't. <br>

Post-processing ALL of your images before you post them for sale, if they sell or not, is part of your overhead and is an incentive to only post your best work.</p>

<p>agreed. spend the time to put your best fwd.</p>

 

<p> one of my dilemmas is when I showed a few photos to some of the parents they were thrilled with some that I might have deleted they were in mid jump but no face was showing and they still lked that some had eyes closed , looking down again if I cant see eyes Im deleting where a parent may not care about eyes open just the fact that their kid is concentrating is good for them any ideas any rule I can follow for this??</p>

<p>Chris - Out of the 2000 there will probably be 1/3 that are not worth keeping. Just an average IMHO!<br>

You haave to go through them and get rid of the truly crappy - missed focus, half a body,etc. Be hard on your self!<br>

Use a host site where you can upload lo-res, mostly un-edited versions. Like Smugmug, Exposure manager, & Zenfolio. When an image is ordered, you go to original RAW file edit and croop to size of print ordered.Then replace the image on your site with this full res, edited version. I use Lightroom to do this. You can't get the images up fast enough if you edit, crop etc every image. Tweak the WB, & exposure and get them online.<br>

Tell (on your site) your potential customers they are lo-res, unedited versions which will be replaced by an edited, full res version for printing. If they want to see how it will look, have them email you and do the editing/replacement thing ahead of time, for them.<br>

Also in your onsite note, tell them to suggest a certain crop if they have one in mind. On zenfolio they can make an adjustment that I see when I view what they have ordered.<br>

Remember, practice to get the image 'right' in the camera, before going to the 'darkroom'! Just as important now as it was in film days.<br>

Love to see some of your images. send me the link.<br>

Steve (shoppix)</p>

 

<p>The pro who brought me along for a similar gymnastics shoot uploaded the unedited then edited prior to releasing to print to the printer.</p>

<p>PS I think we are far more critical of crop, contrast, saturation, etc. than the average buyer. I think if you tell them there is post processing, that would work too.</p>

<p>Right, Wade.<br>

If you only had 10 or 20 something images, then fix them and upload them. But with a thousand...! Should atleast straighten crooked ones, correct WB and brighten up the underexposed ones. Likely no one will buy an image that looks too dark. I'v seen some on some sites that you can hardly tell what's in the image! That's just dumb and waste of photogs time and the customers. And makes photog look less amature than he/she may be.<br>

Another suggestion is, perhaps after you have uploaded the bulk of the images, to take a few, make a copy and apply different crops, like square or landscape on a verticle shot. Also change some to B&W and upload. Show variations for your customer to buy.<br>

Remember the "4x6" out of a Nikon camera does not often convert to an 8x10 as nicely. Need to go to 8x12. And a 6x9 may look better than a 5x7.<br>

also, break up the images into different galleries somewhat following the days printed schedule - by age, aparatus, morning vs afternoon sessions, whatever. Don't put alll into one gallery. Customers do not realish the thought of going hundreds or a thousand images to find their gymnast. Don't put in too many of sme person in same basic position. Too many for customer to choose from and maynot buy anything.</p>

<p>I haven't shot gymnastics in a while, but I do shoot other sports (youth) on a regular basis. </p>

<p>What I have found works is to get the images up as quickly as possible - which means uncropped, unadjusted, unedited. If I happen to see / catch a really cruddy shot while uploading, I delete, but otherwise it's shoot and go.</p>

<p>Parents often have different views then we do as photographers as to what is "Good". I had one parent complain that her photos where washed out compared to those on my website, which I feel darkens the images by maybe a stop... Another parent did not like the crop I did (to highlight her daughter) and instead requested a "Full Frame", no crop version. Both of which I happily provided. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

<p>Chris:</p>

<p>I would crop and straighten all pictures. I would also delete anything that doesn't meet my quality metrics regardless of whether a parent would buy it or not. You're only as good as the worst picture you show. :)</p>

<p>I didn't have to crop and straighten hundreds of images very often before I started deciding that was a pain and made a conscious effort to get it right in camera as much as possible.</p>

<p>Can you sell images without doing this? Absolutely. Do I? No.</p>

<p>Eric</p>