Sports photography

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RonHenry

Sports photography

Postby RonHenry » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:51 pm

Hi,
How many people here make any income from sports photography shows? Not necessarily professional sporting events but even small, local events such as high school basketball or kids' soccer? Sports photography is a big interest of mine so I'd like to know if it will forever remain a hobby or if there's at least a chance I can use it to buy more photography equipment if nothing else. I'm interested in opinions from both pros and amateurs. Anybody who makes money with sports slideshows or has attempted to do so.

Thanks in advance...

dlvery

Yep

Postby dlvery » Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:05 pm

I have just started my own business doing slideshows. I was focused onthe wedding, anniversary, etc types of shows and low and behold my first client show was for a girls high school volleyball team. It has given me a whole new target market. I will also be doing an eighth grade graduation 'year in review' video. So my eyes are opened to a new arena. Are you looking to do your own photography as well or just slideshows from others pictures? I prefer to do photoshows only but ended up doing a good bit of the photography for this show. I was not particulary comfortable with taking the photos myself as I am no where near a professional. I have an excellent camera (Canon Rebel) that I have always said knows much more about taking pictures than I do! :D

Good luck!

.
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Postby gpsmikey » Sun Nov 18, 2007 9:35 pm

I don't make any money at it (but I do use it to justify a new camera with
the "budget director" :D ). I shoot both my kids soccer teams (and produce
a DVD at the end of the year I give to the parents they they all seem to love
(I also include all the raw pictures for them to do with as they wish)). I also
shoot most of the pictures for the swim team. Just a couple of comments from
what I have found after shooting LOTS of pictures. Here are the things I have
found that work for me and give fairly reliable results:

- shoot in aperature priority mode and work with that to get as much depth of
field as you can and still maintaining a shutter speed sufficient for the sport (I try
and stay above 1/1000 as much as I can.

- I usually shoot at ISO 600 or 800 depending on the light - I will trade some
noise for stopping motion.

- I lock the autofocus on the center "spot" in the viewfinder (if you let it pick
one, it will almost always focus on something other than what you wanted :? )

- set the autofocus to continuous not single (the continuous will "track" the player
when you have press the shutter).

- I have found that center weighted on the metering seems to work the best
for my stuff - not "spot" - too easy to get the wrong "spot".

- I have also found a monopod does a wonderful job of helping stabilize the
camera when you are zoomed all the way in but still gives you lots of motion
freedom.

- It would be nice to have some big (fast) expensive glass (with really fast
autofocus), but it is amazing how many good shots I get with my Sigma 70-300
Macro Zoom lens (about $200). Yes, that $5,000 lens would be really nice, but
I have not managed to convince my wife yet :wink:

If you don't use a camera and lens combination that allows you to configure it
along the lines of what I am using, I think you will find yourself very frustrated.
You need to be able to zoom in quite a ways and you need to be able to configure
the camera to stay focused on your subject. I have the Nikon D70s, but there
are a number of Nikon's, Canon's etc that do that very well (in many cases
better than my D70s - usually for more $$$).

If you are going to be shooting indoor sports (with action, not chess :D ) you
are going to have to buy that expensive gla$$ to get the shots and use a camera
that has good performance at high ISO settings.

Well, that is what I have found. Hope it helps some.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Postby gg0709 » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:48 am

Greetings Mikey,

A friend whose son plays baseball has asked that I put a show together. He's got thousands (no exaggeration) of pics, & has given me some action ones, I'm relatively new to this & i'm having a hard time conceptualizing the "story line".

As I often do when I'm lost, I log on & try to learn from others; and sure enough, came across your post...Would you mind allowing me to view some samples of the shows you mentioned, so i can get some ideas? I also think having the parent view samples would help him understand why a variety of shots works better; it might help him choose from his many boxes of prints.

Thanks in advance,
G.

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Postby gpsmikey » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:59 am

Here is one (or at least a shorter version) of my daughters soccer team
recently - not much on special effects, but I thought it came out pretty
good. http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=6469
The show is (9 mins - about 80 megs)
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 8365&alb=0

Also check out Michelle Funk's stuff - she has some great ones on the
Eagle Rays and Cheetahs - here is the link to the Cheetahs show:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 8871&alb=0

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Postby gg0709 » Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:21 am

This certainly gives me much food for thought, Mikey. Can't wait to get home & try some of these ideas...

Much thanks!

G.

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