brian_bahn

<p>This gives me an opportunity to show two shots I took just messing around but are a great example of high FPS and fluorescent lighting. These were some of the very first shots I took with my D300. Went to our friend's daughter's swim meet and before the meet started she came up into the bleachers. I had the 85 1.8 on and couldn't get any farther away to take a quick shot of her so I'm pretty close. Well not being use to 6fps it took two lightening fast shots before I took my finger off.<br />When looking at them afterward I was amazed at the color difference of the lights in the background.<br>

Here is the first shot.</p>

<p>I'll be happy to start it this week. Was excited to shoot in new high school pool that actually didn't look like a dungeon. County Championships.<br>

D300 with 80-200 2.8. All were ISO 800 2.8 which got me around 1/400.<br>

I've been happy with the D300's Auto WB so far but do need to start setting a custom one before I shoot because I think some shots could be slightly better...but all in all I've had the D300 for about 2 weeks now and I couldn't be any happier.</p><div></div>

<p>Wanted to add my SmugMug site in case anyone was interested in seeing it. Liek I said I just started setting it up. Manily just to put up some samples right now.<br>

<a href="http://lane4photography.smugmug.com/">http://lane4photography.smugmug.com/</a></p>

<p >I would like to ask for some opinions and advice on selling photos. I have searched this and other forums for threads relating to this and as usual it seems a new thread regarding my specific situation would help me a great deal.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >I have started setting up a SmugMug page to sell action shots of youth sports. My intention to start is to shoot a few friends’ kid’s teams. My friends will make the parents aware ahead of time and gauge interest. This is of course after letting the league know too of which most are involved in the league as well so I don’t foresee any problems. I want to start with just a few teams because it is just me and obviously I don’t want to overbook myself. I am not looking to make a full time income from this. Starting out getting a little side cash doing something I enjoy is enough for now.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >A few specific questions I have:</p>

<p > </p>

<ol type="1">

<li >If I solely sell photos from my SmugMug site will I need any type of contract or legal documentation with the league?</li>

<li >I would like to offer more than just straight up action shots and have seen some templates I would like to purchase and use(eventually make my own). Does anyone do that type of sales from their SmugMug type website (Photoreflect, etc)? How do you have it structured?</li>

<li >Also I intend to offer parents to buy a CD of the digital files if they would like that rather than prints. Again, how do folks offer this? By e-mail? I can’t see a third party printing site allowing that type of “side” business.</li>

<li >A lot of the threads I read here and elsewhere suggest this is a quickly dying money making source. As I said I am not looking to make a full time income. Also I think the area in which I live would support it for awhile, we tend to lag the metro areas in pretty much everything by two years or so it seems. Is anybody still doing this with success? There are a couple of sites in my area offering it but it seems team focused and more on high school level. From looking at their sites I am confident I can exceed their quality level on shots and website layout.</li>

<li >Does anybody have any examples of marketing pamphlets and/or order forms they would care to share so I could get an idea of what I’m looking at before I start laying something out.</li>

</ol>

<p > </p>

<p >Any and all comments are appreciated.</p>

<p>Lots of good info here. Thank you all. Much appreciated.</p>

<p>Dick you are right, I didn't buy the D300 to set on Auto, I bought it because I know it is more camera than I can handle right now but leaves me a lot of room to grow, which is my intention with figuring out the fine tuning such as not blowing out the skin tone in a poorly lit gym. And I definitely am not blaming the camera for this one. You don't buy a Ferrari and get an automatic.....and at this point I'm basically circling the parking lot!! LOL.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the tips. I should have used the Ev compensation...Like I said the first match I was just about ready and then he was on and I started shooting. Then between his matches I was reviewing the pics and didn't realize they had the bright areas on the skin so much...not that they're bad, but some were good and some weren't that was what was bothering me.<br>

Some of the first shots I took I could tell right away they were blown so I dropped from 1.8 to 2.0 and they looked good on the LCD and even the histogram didn't look clipped but I was looking fairly quickly. On the second match I didn't even think of droppng the Ev by 1/3 or so.....was just excited to be shooting with my new toy....and wrestling at that!! LOL<br>

Thanks.</p>

<p>Veej,<br>

I had to be at ISO 1600 to get a shutter speed to freeze the action.</p>

<p>Benjamin,<br>

Thanks. I had it set on matrix metering so you could be right, maybe the black mat and darker background could have done it. Good point. Another technique I need to get proficient at is the metering for specific situations. This was my firend's son and as I was settign the camera up his match came up early becasue the one before him forfeited and BAM he was on the mat so I didn't have time to check the histogram once he started. Then his second match I took a few sample shots and it seemed ok, maybe because the metering wasn't as "fooled"<br>

I was shooting RAW and JPEG so once I get them into PP I can probably save them.</p>

<p>Here is one that was good. As you can see the door in the back is bringing in light so you're probably right I should have metered more specifically.</p><div></div>

<p>Second time out with the D300 so I obviously have a way to go with learning it. Here is a shot from a wrestling tourney in a gym with old fluorescent lighting plus some "skylights" that were more liek white plastic.<br>

Anyhow, I left WB on Auto because I didn't have much time to mess with learnign to set a custom WB..I do now after the fact. Was in Aperture mode set to f1.8 at first but then f2.0 after the first few shots because I was afraid DOF would just be too thin...and it was. Even at 2.0 a lot of shots were soft(some may be due to me learning D300's AF). ISO 1600 and I was gettign shutter usually 320 or 400.<br>

My question is on a fair amount of shots it seems the highlights are blown...now I still have a lot to learn photography wise but it seems to me indoors and with a shutter of 320 or 400 I really shouldn't have blown the highlights. Does that seem right?<br>

Thoughts?</p><div></div>

<p>One more.<br>

BTW Laura I'm jelous...I can't wait for Baseball...but still a little chilly in the Northeast.</p><div></div>

<p>This brings up a good question. I am currently deciding on a PP program. I did the trial version of Elements 7 and I did liek it and intended to get it but about that tiem I decided to switch systems and go Nikon.<br>

Now I am considering Capture NX2...so are you saying NX2 has at least some level of noise reduction ability? If so I would definitely liek that. I realize it probably wouldn't be as good as dedicated NR software like Noiseware or Noise Ninja.</p>

<p>Scott,<br>

I actually shot both JPEG and RAW with these. If I know I'll have the card space I usually do that so I have both options. Eventually when I settle on what NoiseWare and PP software(NX2 most likely) I will shoot mostly RAW.</p>

<p>Took my new to me(used from Adorama) D300 to our friend's daughter's swim meet last night. Now I got the camera Wednesday and the 85 1.8 lens Thursday. So I literally had about an hour Wednesday to look over the quick guide to get to know the controls so I could at least get some shots. I switched from Oly so things are different.</p>

<p>Let me say this.....Wow......what a machine. Even after only two hours of using it I know I've made a big upgrade.</p>

<p>One question I have is what Noise Reduction setting have you folks found is best for High ISO? I used Aperture mode and set it to f2.0 to get a little more DOF than the 1.8....I was getting 1/320 to 1/400 shutter at 1600 so I was satisfied with that and I really wanted to see how 1600 looked on it. I am very happy with how they look for no PP or noise reduction software. I was confinedto the stands as well so the 85 would be great on the deck but still not bad from the stands.</p>

<p>Anyhow....I did notice when going through the settings the NR setting was at "standard" which I assume will steal a little sharpness. Should I set it to "Low"? What have you found to be optimal? I'm wondering if these could be a little sharper...I do realize some may be motion blur and also thin DOF.</p><div></div>