Matt: Always Be Editing – And Edit Ruthlessly
That’s my name. You know why, mister? You drove a Hyundai to get here. I drove an eighty-thousand dollar BMW. THAT’S my name. And your name is you’re wanting. You can’t play in the man’s game, you can’t close them – go home and tell your wife your troubles. Because only one thing counts in this life: Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. You hear me? A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING. – Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Picture me as Alec Baldwin (minus the BMW) screaming at you to ALWAYS BE EDITING. I’m not talking about cropping, toning, sharpening, or any other post processing, just where you put the line between the pictures you show others and the ones you don’t. It may not be as important to photographers as selling is to salesmen, but editing is a close second to actually making pictures. In this post, we’re going to take a look at getting more out of each shoot by editing in-camera, and then ruthlessly editing after the shoot to make sure that your final product reflects as well on you as possible.
Using your camera’s LCD to review pictures is looked down upon in many circles. That the act was named “chimping” certainly didn’t help, but make no mistake, professional sports photographers use their LCDs. With the caveat that it’s critical to avoid jumping on the screen after a big play and missing the reaction, using the LCD can be a big help to refining your plan to get a complete take on your shoot. In last month’s Training Ground we critiqued a racing picture where the photographer was trying to make a picture out of a tiny detail, and it reminded me of the first time I shot NASCAR. A friend who had shot the race at the same track told me to make sure I got some pictures of a certain turn where the cars cut over a curb and briefly go up on two wheels. Somehow I ended up spending a whole 90 minute practice session shooting the same turn, varying only the fence cut I was using to get a very slightly different angle. I didn’t look at the LCD (the cars were coming by constantly and I shot every one) and when I got back to the media center, I realized that I had about 400 copies of more-or-less the same boring-ass picture.
Had I been editing in-camera, I would have realized that 1) it really wasn’t a very interesting picture, and 2) I didn’t need any more than one picture of each car from that spot, especially when there was so much more going on at different places on the track, including – most frustratingly – a better version of the picture I was trying to get in the very next turn. Too bad I had to wait until the next race to get it:
So you can figure out what you’re doing after you’re done for the day, or you can do it during the shoot. Doing it during the shoot means that you can get certain pictures out of the way, stop chasing pictures that aren’t going to work, and move on to more creative possibilities.
After you’ve done your real-time editing, it’s time to choose what pictures from the shoot are going to make the cut. Whether it’s sending pictures to a wire, loading them into a set on Flickr or putting them onto a proof CD for clients to review, you need to be ruthless in what you show to others. This point came up in an exchange I had with one of our listeners, and it’s applicable to every single photographer out there, albeit much more for those who want to eventually shoot professionally than those who are content just shooting for fun. Don’t show pictures that suck. Don’t show pictures that are marginal. Don’t show a bunch of pictures of the same person doing the same thing. Don’t show pictures that you have to talk yourself into showing. Don’t show pictures that would have been awesome if the subject hadn’t been blinking. Don’t show pictures solely because they have an interesting backstory or were difficult to get.
You can shoot 1000 frames at a football game, 960 of them awful, but if you only show the 40 winners, it will look like you had a great game. This, of course, isn’t ideal because you’re spending a lot of time making and then setting aside 96% of your pictures, but if you can learn from the bad pictures, don’t repeat the mistakes and figure out how to get better, then it’s part of a learning process. But if you show 60 crappy pictures along with the 40 winners, it’s going to look like you don’t know what you’re doing no matter how awesome the 40 winners are. Bad pictures drag down good ones, NEVER the reverse. Be ruthless, show your best pictures, and put a couple of the bad ones in that month’s Training Ground and we’ll do our best to help.
I do want to address the case of photographers who sell directly to parents/schools/clubs because on the surface the incentives might appear different. While a photographer on an assignment only needs the pictures his/her editor demands, selling directly means that you can’t sell the pictures you delete. But if the goal is getting better, building a reputation, and strengthening your pricing power, then you’re better off not selling a bad picture even if it means passing up the money from time to time. Just because parents are willing to by a bad picture because it’s of their baby, doesn’t mean you need to sell it. Eventually you (or another photographer) will sell them a quality picture and the bad one will look worse in comparison.
Finally, when it comes to your portfolio, you need to be even more ruthless. Lose all the duplicates, lose everything that isn’t the very best you can do at the moment, and yes, lose even the great pictures that don’t fit. Above, I mentioned pictures where the backstory mattered or where the degree of difficulty is the only great thing about them. Again, I’ll use myself and one of my own pictures as an example:
This picture was made at a San Jose Earthquakes match. I left the sideline for a bit and went into the section reserved for the Earthquakes supporters group 1906 Ultras with a wide angle lens and an off camera flash. It was very rowdy, and many of the Ultras are ex-cons, and somehow I managed to get the picture that pretty much nailed what it was like to be in that section that night. I left, thinking that it would go straight into my portfolio. A few days later, I ran it by someone I trust, and the upshot was that as a sports photograph, it was devoid of context, and if you have to read the caption to get it, it doesn’t go into the portfolio.
As a photographer your pictures speak for you. Your editing skills determine which pictures do the talking. If you’re not where you want to be as a photographer or an editor, put pictures into the Training Ground posts, and we’ll set you straight. On the plus side, neither Ryu or I can fire you, but then again we’re not giving away a Cadillac Eldorado or a set of steak knives either.
Ryu: It’s all in the detail
I’m writing in this as I make my way to Leicester. Sunny wonderful cheery Leicester. In case you got really confused, there is not direct line between Paris and Leicester, but if there was ever one… well, I’m sure it will be very popular. Can’t wait to get there and hang out with all the Leicesterians.
Off I go. Today, I’d like to talk about something called detail. Since the start of BLFS and most recently the Training Ground (TM), I noticed that people are obsessed about getting the entire body of the athlete into the frame. Therefore I thought I take this time and place to steer you away from the big picture and get yourself acclimated in the realm of small pictures.
1. Foot and Hand Disease
Pay close attention to the athletes’ feet and hands. Not too close that you are in their way, but close enough that you can take an uncropped shot of just their extreme extremities. I’m no Rex Ryan, but I find the hand and feet of athletes very interesting. You might be surprised to find that some of them do have very soft looking hands and some of them have very cool looking shoes. I’d make sure that you get them in action so that the shot will be indistinguishable from your mates’ hands whilst he chugs another pint of the cold one. Especially with the pros, athletes are like fine tuned machines and when you concentrate on specific parts of their body, it will allow you to picture them in a different light. But I’ve warned you, don’t get too close. Get a long lens.
2. Haute Couture
I was going to get a tattoo this weekend, but life happened and now I wont’ until probably Tuesday. If you have not been living in a cave for the past two decades, you might have noticed that there is a very close link between athletes and fashion. Brands who sponsor them are keen to have their stars wear their latest gear and athletes know that they are performing in front of millions. Look out for athletes with cool looking dos and body art as well as their latest gears. If you can take the photo so that their fashion statement becomes the focus of the image, you might be onto something. But as I’ve mentioned above, make sure you don’t end up with a photo which needs a 2 page explanation as to why this is a sports photograph. Context is everything, so compose carefully. Too bad the likes of Dennis Rodman isn’t around these days, but searching for a local death metal football team might be a great start.
3. Face Time
That thing that stares back at you when you are standing in front of the mirror. Not emotion per se, but more so the ear, nose, mouth, eyes, or facial hair. Some athletes are known for their facial features and if you can zero in on it, it might make an interesting image. Silhouettes will also work. Think of it like a caricature artist. They pick a specific part of a person’s face and make it uglier, ahem, exaggerate it. Unfortunately, modern DSLR technology will not allow you to deform an athlete’s facial features. The easiest is the eye, but make sure that you have your focus on the eyeball and not on the lashes or brows. It happens a lot more than you think. You also would want to get a shallow DOF to enunciate the specific part of the face so that it is separate from the rest of the face.
The key with details shooting is that you are fully aware that you are shooting a sports photograph. Therefore when you go into specific details of an athlete, you might end up with a shot that might be cool, but makes no sense as a sports photograph. Make sure that when you are selecting these photos that you ask yourself, “If I had no idea that this was a tennis match, will this photo of Serena’s obnoxious rant, I mean her right wrist stand on its own as a sports photograph?”. These are the tough questions we ask ourselves daily. Also important is that you invest yourself in a long range lens. It’s one thing to get close to these athletes, but sometimes it’s smarter to get them from a healthy distance. Focusing something whilst in the telephoto or super telephoto range can be tricky, so make sure you give yourself ample opportunities to fail miserably when you are going for these shots.
Details, details, details, not to be mistaken with location, location, location. Oh, that might be my next blog post. :)
Ryu
Matt: Letting the Air Out
“It seems that a truck got stuck at the
entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Too high for the clearance.
Well, for hours, the experts tried to find some way to unwedge
the vehicle, but to no avail. Finally, a ten-year-old girl in a
passing car suggested simply letting the air out of the truck’s
tires, thus lowering it to the clearance level, which they did.
And it worked.” – Working Girl (1998)
The quote from Working Girl was used to illustrate the story of a businessman who bought a radio network after his plan to buy a collection of TV stations proved unworkable. I use it to steer photographers towards high school sports when they complain that they can’t get credentialed to shoot the pros or major colleges.
I know from experience, as this is how I got started. After shooting my first two professional sporting events (a cycling race and a rodeo) I thought it would be no problem to get credentialed for major sports. As it turns out, freelancers don’t get credentialed to much of anything in the absence of a specific assignment from a recognized (and relevant) media organization. And assignments aren’t ordinarily handed out to inexperienced photographers. After learning all of this (i.e. getting laughed off of a few phone calls and asking a lot of questions) I spent two full years shooting almost nothing but high school sports.
This may sound like a long time, and it may sound like the photo equivalent of toiling away in the minor leagues, and those things might be true. But the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks. You can usually get permission to shoot your local high schools fairly easily by calling the athletic directors. Some will say no, but you can just call another school until you find one who will say yes. Once you get permission, you will find the access far better than anything you will get shooting the pros, and one yes will likely mean shooting all of that school’s sports. In most cases, as long as you are not on the field of play, you can shoot, and this leads to pictures that you can’t get elsewhere. The access combined with the variety of sports presents a great opportunity to work on technique and creativity while building your portfolio in a low-pressure environment.
As you are doing this, you can practice other skills that photographers need to have, selling yourself to prospective employers, and selling your work to prospective clients. When I was doing this, I networked with other photographers to get in contact with editors looking for freelancers so that I could show them my portfolio, and sold prints to parents, both directly and through a website that covers high school sports. The freelance gigs gave me experience working on deadline, and the money went into upgrading gear. After two years (actual times will vary), I had enough experience and gear to step up to shooting pro and college events.
Podcast: Episode 7 – Last Minute Substitution
Podcast: Episode 7 – Last Minute Substitution
In episode 7 we talk about shooting surfing, using wide angle lenses to get a different perspective on sports photography, and a lot more. Listen and download links here:
- Subscribe and listen via iTunes
- Get RSS feed
- Get MP3 (Click to listen or right click to save it to your computer)
News – Our best and worst shoots this past month.
Ryu enjoyed shooting the Homeless World Cup and didn’t enjoy having to be at the whim of things he couldn’t control, and Matt had a nightmare music festival weekend shoot, but two great days shooting the Pirates & Giants play baseball.
We introduce… Tim McKenna
Ryu interviews Tim, a sports photographer based in Tahiti.
Tim’s portfolio site
Tim’s fine art e-shop
Master class
While the bulk of sports photography is done with big glass, using wide angle lenses can bring a whole new perspective to your sports photography. Ryu and Matt talk about different situations where you can experiment with wide angles. A gallery of some of Matt’s wide angle sports pictures can been seen here.
Training Ground
In our new segment Training Ground we critique pictures from listeners who bravely ask for it in our Flickr group.
You Win
Our August 2011 competition was “Airborne”
The winner is Miguel Schincariol from São Paulo, Brazil and his steeplechase picture can be seen on the rotating image at the top of our website.
His flickr photostream is here.
Here are the links to the winning photos: 1st, 2nd and 3rd place photos.
The September themed competition is “Dirt”. Goto our BLFS flickr group page for competition rules.
Training Ground
Post your images to our flickr group for constructive or destructive critique here.
GAS of the month
This month, Matt’s GAS is the Ray Flash, a speedlight attachment that produces a portable ringflash look without the expense and weight of an actual ringflash.
Ryu’s GAS is the Aqua Tech Softhood, a lightweight, collapsable replacement lens hood that saves weight and space when traveling, that also has the benefit of being far cheaper than the OEM hoods it replaces.
Special thanks to…
Jingles by Spencer Griffiths
Icon by Arvin Bautista
Ryu: Shooting small ball
Well, I’m at an undisclosed location somewhere in this world. If it wasn’t for the NDA, I’d tell you where, but because there is a NDA, I can’t. Yes, you’re allowed to guess, but I won’t tell you where I am. ;)
In any case, what I want to talk about is football. European season is well underway in most leagues and aside from strikes in Spain and Italy, we are now footballing. Soccering, if you ask Matt. :)
But today, I’d like to talk about the smaller football. Five a side and such. In Brazil it’s called futsal, just so you can tell you friends that you learned something from this site.
About two weeks ago, I shot the Homeless World Cup which was held in Paris, France. Had no intention of shooting it, because I thought I was way too big to be shooting an event with amateur athletes. But obviously, I realised that A) I’m an idiot and B) as expected I know nothing. I found myself dumb founded by the quality of football show cased during the week and to top it off, the games were hell of a lot more emotionally charged than the professional counterpart. There were multiple points during the week that it felt as though there were lots of dust in the air…
But, this is a sports photography website and therefore I am going to go into specifics in what to expect when shooting the small ball.
1. Boards, those damn boards.
Five a side as well as most indoor football games are played with boards. They surround the pitch and they do serve an integral tactical element when playing small ball. You can play off the wall as well as cornering an opponent. But from a sports photographer point of view, it’s pure nightmare. They are high and they obscure plenty of action. If you are in a similar predicament as I am, there are two options. Either you use a wide angle lens to get over the wall or get yourself a stool like the Walk Stool to give yourself a good angle on the action. You can stand, but it will give you a very bad angle.
2. Just like basketball
Small football is…small. Which means that the pitch itself is small as well. Which means the 400 f2.8 or 300 f2.8 is absolutely useless. I’d leave those at home and equip yourself with 200mm being the longest and a widest lens that you own. The action is more east-west than north-south. Meaning a lot of horizontal action rather than a vertical one. You will be whipping your camera left and right throughout the day, just like shooting basketball. And just like basketball, I completely ignored the action on the other end of the pitch.
3. Time flies
In most cases, this type of football is very short. The Homeless World Cup was 14 minutes long per match. This is about 1/3 of a normal football match, but the action is as exciting or even more so than normal football. To quote Vin Diesel, the shit is fast and furious. Be prepared mentally and pre-plan the shots you want to take and be aware when and where the emotional highs and lows will take place. Since things happen so quickly, if you don’t pay attention you will be left with nothing.
Just so you know, I talked a bit more about the Homeless World Cup in the next podcast. So, please tune in. Needless to say, it was a great tournament and I had a great time. As a professional photographer who shoot professional sports, you don’t really sit and think about what sports mean for the everyday person. The positive impact a sport can have on a person is immense, especially in a context of the Homeless World Cup. Although I probably won’t have that many opportunity to shoot amateur sports in the future (that’s just how it is with work at the moment), I cannot wait to shoot an even like the Homeless World Cup in the near future.
Ryu
PS This blog post has not been sponsored by the Homeless World Cup. :)
