casey_mccune

<p>I like using a variable zoom, i dont like the fixed focal length. I have a Sigma 24-70 f2.8. the zoom is perfect, but the focus is a little slow. the 2.8stop is also a tiny bit slow in some gyms but the zoom factor works great. you dont really want to crop in an image shot at iso1000 or greater as this will increase your noise ratio (the noise gets bigger and stands out more) i would greatly reccommend a 24-70 2.8 if you can find one with a faster focus then the sigma. I also have the 50mm f1.8 and its focus element is even slower then the sigma and a fixed zoom can kill you sometimes.</p>

<p>I always do 10%. sometimes ill give them more if they are willing to help promote you and let the parents know whats going on. that helps a lot. ive had a league ask for 20% when there are other photographers walking around selling stuff without league approval, and the league wouldnt even ask them to leave. so you need to know what your dealing with and ask the league to help, most of the time they wont but sometimes you find a really nice person involved with the league that will help you out without asking anything in return. (some will help for a discount on their pictures)</p>

<p>I suggest anticipation. seems like you have a great understanding of the game itself, so you should be able to anticipate action. basketball is so fast if you are just following the ball you will miss some good stuff. if you anticipate you might miss some, but you will capture some great shots. look around, you see a defensive player cheating towards the lane and the point guard doesnt see him, anticipate him jumping the pass. on a fastbreak, most of the time the guy with the ball will dish, so anticipate who he is going to dish to, then you capture him grabing the pass as well as putting upt he shot. you dont have to spend the whole game trying to anticipate action, but you need to take some chances here and there. like i said, sometimes you miss and you guess wrong and you have to try and react and go with where the play ended up. A lot of times you will get a great shot just before everyone else gets theirs.</p>

another one<div></div>

Norwalk vs. Temecula<div></div>

This is what the sky looked like overhead<div></div>

Southern California pop warner football with the out of control fires burning just miles away.<div></div>

i also use a d200 and i was able to shoot about 200-250 kids +30 team pictures before my battery started getting pretty low, so have plenty a back up on hand. Allow 20 minutes per team and i HIGHLY reccommend spreading them out a little more then that at first. it will give you time to look at what your capturing and make adjustments early.

 

to sum up...

camera: d200, shutter priority, 250ms, low iso (somewhere between 100-200), on camera pop up fill flash, manual white balance

 

posing: simple pose that can be replicated, relaxed, show personality the kids will react,

team pictures: split team in half, if there is an uneven number more in the back then the front. tallest kids in the back row, shorter kids in the front kneeling, or sitting, or on one knee. everyone standing up tall, shoulder to shoulder-no space in between. coaches on the end with banner behind. make sure everyone is looking at your camera as you will have parents behind you trying to capture the team pic for themselves and their kids will be looking at them. i usually say "everyone look here first, then after your parents are going to take some more pictures" so i take my 2 and move out of the way.

yes the flash was TTL. i usually take 2 pictures of each team, one with spot metering and one center weighted, also incase there are eyes closed etc. The individual pictures usually benefit from center weighted metering, although spot metering the face usually works pretty well also.

 

The speed light is enough for a fill on the team pictures and the pop up flash is enough for the individual/buddy. With the 18-55 lens, im usually closer to the 18mm on the group photo so im closer and the flash can fill more, on the individual im in the middle, somewhere between 30-45mm. Soccer is a little easier as they dont wear hats, baseball is a little harder because of the harsh shadows due to the hats, but either way the same technique works great. it doesnt completely remove any shadows, it just tones them down plenty to look more natural as our eyes see. Also it allows the camera to capture the nice blue sky, not a washed out white sky. everything looks more natural with the flash (sounds weird, but its really true)

 

Also as far as letting kids do whatever they want for poses, it really isnt practical when you are shooting 1000 kids in one day, you will never finish. Some people like different poses, some just want there kids in a standard pose, not all kooky.

 

Also you want to try and get down on the same level as them when you are shooting, instead of shooting down at them. for the individual picture i was crouched or kneeling, the buddy i was laying on the ground and the team picture i was kneeling.

 

One last suggestion, white balance your camera. The sun light setting works, so does auto, but there will be small variances due to the flash and you not being exactly the same distance for different kids. If you manually set your white balance you will get better results (not a big issue, but will save you some time in post)

here is the picture<div></div>

team pic taken with speed light on camera.

for buddy pictures you can get creative with the poses, but same lense/fill flash technique.<div></div>

If you are looking at an entire league, most of these options will not be possible. Here is a realistic approach to

shooting a large amount of teams. I just finished doing over 900 kids this last saturday in a large soccer league.

You want to keep the poses pretty simple so you can get rolling. I usually have them on one knee, holding a soccer

ball on their hip10, with their other hand on there knee (some kids still find this to be difficult). I shoot in the sun with

a soccer goal behind them using the camera pop up flash as a fill flash. For the team pictures i use a speed light

also on camera (since you are using it as a fill, it doesnt matter that its coming from the camera). make sure you

keep track of the order in which you take the kids (list of names) so you know who ordered what. I just use the

standard nikon 18-55 lense (the zoom will allow you to make minor adjustments since some kids are bigger then

others and you wont have to change your position to compensate.<div></div>

The fill flash doesnt entirely eliminate the shadows as you can see as the flash isnt as bright as the sun, but it really tones them down. The pictures look more naturally then having the kids lift their hats or tilt their heads back. Also when you shoot entire leagues as i do, it isnt possilbe to shoot the teams when the sun is lower in the sky. i start a league at 8am and finish at 3pm, so the sun changes position quite a bit. With the fill flash it wont matter. you can choose a spot to shoot the teams and shoot all of them there without having to move with the sun. For instance i like to shoot the teams at home plate with the backstop behind them, as you can see in this picture the sun was right about over third base, but it doesnt matter. The flash also lets the camera capture the beautiful blue sky in the background, when if you dont use a flash and compensate the exposure, you get a washed out white sky. the blue sky looks nice to me. I have shot tons of teams in tons of different situations and locations, this always works.

i highly recommend using a fill flash. I use an on camera speed light. when you are using it as a fill flash it doesnt matter that its coming from the camera. It produced great results! i use the cameras pop up flash for the individual pictures and the speed light for the team pictures. Im telling you this is the way to go, ill try and add in a sample so you can see an example.<div></div>

Does anyone that sells plaques ever update their product pictures? its 2008 and they are showing plaques with pictures from 1991? It just makes the plaques look so dated. I do the sublimation plaques because i wasnt able to find any slide in plaqes that looked good for good prices. The sublimation plaques run about 4.15 each, its a bigger initial investment, but can be made up in one league. Plus they can look SOO much better.

I think what he wants is for the number to actually be on the picture, not just renamed. I had this problem as well. There are scripts out there that you can find and run and they will add the file name onto the picture. I couldnt get the script to run as i didnt have the font the script called for and was in a time pinch. So what i did was create an action in photoshop that added text to the picture, and i left that part open for edit in the action. I then went to file, automate, batch. Selected the folder and action i wanted applied and it opened each file, began to add text to it and let me type the file number, i clicked ok and it saved and closed and moved on to the next. It took me about 45 minutes to process about 800 pictures, so it ran pretty quick. I know its not the easiest way, but it worked.

I also use a D200 and noticed its underexposing not too long ago. I dont remember it for the first year i had the camera, it seemed to just start one day out of no where. I was convinced it was a setting i might have changed. I still havent figured out if it was or maybe i just wasnt noticing it before. I also have a d50 and often have both cameras shooting the same thing with similar lenses (my 2nd photographer shooting next to me) and the d50's pictures come out just about right for print straight off the card, the d200 needs some seriously lightening. This has been my only problem with the d200 to date. im kind of glad to see other people with the same issue just to see im not alone.

For basketball i shoot with a Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 and it works ok. The zoom ability is much better then a fixed focus for obvious reasons. I also try my 50mm fixed 1.8 and it works ok but its focus doesnt seem to be as fast as the sigma so i get a lot of out of focus (not motion blurred) images. Neither one is perfect and sometimes one lense works better then another in certain gyms. I take more shots than when i shot other sports because my keeper ratio is lower. Thats the biggest tip i can offer for low light and night shoots, keep shooting. The more you take the more keepers there will be.

 

Its hard with a D50 because of the lack of ISO steps between 800 and 1600. I started with a d50 and upgraded to a d200 which has iso steps 1000 and 1250, so that helps a lot.

 

For night football there is no perfect lens. The 70-200 2.8 is usually a little too slow and not enough zoom. Everything will look a lot better with some work in photoshop after, and a good noise reduction plugin (noise ninja works great and is affordable for hobbyists).

 

If night and low light photography were easy, we would have a lot more competition. The best way to think of it is: be glad its difficult and you fight with it, or else you would have 15 more photographers standing on the same sideline as you.

Every league and organization is completely different. Most leagues are getting an extremely cheap package, around 3.25 per child and expect you to beat that price, or match it and give them more. Honestly a lot of leagues dont really care about quality of pictures, they care about their bottom line. Offer kick-backs only if you feel it necessary. Try and keep most of the money for yourself as you are doing all the work and paying for prints. If you do offer a kick-back, nothing more then 10-15% on additional items. I have worked with about 20 leagues ranging from 60 kids up to 1000 kids. Every arrangement is completely different. With your first approach, try and get a feel for what they are already getting, or are interested in getting. Have a few packages worked out ahead of time, but be ready to think on your toes. Some leagues will want coaches plaques thrown in for free, some leagues want you to donate picture packages to their fundraising raffles. You really have to be ready for anything when you approach a league or organization. Hope this helps!