Ack -HELP! First baseball team photo coming up!

[Dah-Dee]

I've just been asked to take a team (and individual?) photo(s?) today of my son's Little League team (7/8-year-olds). 11 boys, 4 coaches will be in the picture (including me, supposedly).

I'll have about 5-10 minutes, starting at about 6:40 p.m. (eastern), to take the picture(s?) before their first playoff game this evening. Good grief. Anyway, I'm guessing it'll probably be on a baseball field (in the outfield grass under a scoreboard?).

What lens should I use with the XTi? I have a 17-85 IS, 70-200 IS, 50 1.8, 18-55. I'm thinking the 17-85 will be the one, but really not sure. I'll probably use a tripod unless you guys tell me not to/don't need to. I'll probably use the remote switch and/or timer so I can sneak into the picture. Should I use a (420EX) flash? Please help! Pretty please?

:oops:

[30DShooter]

That all depends on what time of day the photos are. 17-85 will work for sunny day without needing to boost the ISO a lot (overcast you might need to increase ISO). 70-200 will require you to stand too far back in order to get everything in the shot. I would say either the 17-85 or the 50mm. If it's really sunny out I wouldn't use flash. But if it's overcast or the sun is behind clouds you might consider. Just have it on the body just in case you decide to use it.

[Brad Gosse]

I would say...


Use the 50 and or the 17-85
Yes use a tripod
I would use the flash in daylight to avoid your subjects being too dark from your light meter having to deal with sunlight

If you can have your team facing the sun to give their faces more light,

[Dah-Dee]

Thanks, guys! :) 17-85, tripod, flash. Check! I think it may be overcast later, but not sure, so I'll try to be ready just in case.

[MJPhotos24]

Personally I use the 50mm 1.4 for portraits on AV mode, -1, ISO 160 or somewhere around there, then shoot 3 pics of each kid...one at 2.5, one at 2.8, one at 3.2 with the face of course being the focus point. This makes the kid stick out from the background big time with the low DOF and you wouldn't believe how many compliments I get for that. I also use the 580EX flash, which is the best you can get IMO and always have it turned to high speed firing, and +2/3 or in that area depending on the natural light available. 5-10 mins though is going to be tough for that age, mine usually take 15-20 mins for 10-12 kids and one team photo.

EDIT: For team photos I up the f/stop to about 11 so everyones in focus

[Dah-Dee]

Personally I use the 50mm 1.4 for portraits on AV mode, -1, ISO 160 or somewhere around there, then shoot 3 pics of each kid...one at 2.5, one at 2.8, one at 3.2 with the face of course being the focus point. This makes the kid stick out from the background big time with the low DOF and you wouldn't believe how many compliments I get for that. I also use the 580EX flash, which is the best you can get IMO and always have it turned to high speed firing, and +2/3 or in that area depending on the natural light available. 5-10 mins though is going to be tough for that age, mine usually take 15-20 mins for 10-12 kids and one team photo.

EDIT: For team photos I up the f/stop to about 11 so everyones in focus


Thank you for so much detailed and helpful information. :)

I'm going to print this thread out and take it with me tonight. :oops:

[dshootist]

I would see if there is another time to shoot this team. 10 minutes is a fraction of what you need to shoot this. While wrangling 7-8 yr olds to play baseball is bad enough, you really don't need to rush your images on top of that with a hectic schedule before a game. Is there a time during/before their next practice when you can everyone front and center with washed uniforms and hats? The added bonus of shifting the time of the shoot is to better figure in your available light. I do understand your time constraint issues with LL. Our team's schedules have been so hectic over the last few years, that in order to get team shots, I just took game shots and made a montage from those. If you have to do this shoot this weekend, have poses in mind before you have everyone line up and do the group shot first. This way, if someone goes off on their own, you can just set up their individual shot later. If light is good, go with the 70-200 so you can create some nice DOF in the indivdual pose and I'd say the 17-85 for the group. Good luck and post when done!

[Dah-Dee]

Well, thanks again to all for the excellent comments and suggestions. Wow! Very helpful. :)

I think the team photo came out pretty good, will try to get it posted here soon. I think the individual photos came out okay, but I forgot (ROOKIE!) to change the f-stop from 11.0, so there will be too much DOF. Rats. I'll post a few of those, too.

Thanks again!

[30DShooter]

Well, thanks again to all for the excellent comments and suggestions. Wow! Very helpful. :)

I think the team photo came out pretty good, will try to get it posted here soon. I think the individual photos came out okay, but I forgot (ROOKIE!) to change the f-stop from 11.0, so there will be too much DOF. Rats. I'll post a few of those, too.

Thanks again!

Too much is better than not enough. You can always soften the image. You wouldn't want to shoot the individual pic wide open anyways. Shot wide open and focusing on the face, the belt area would be OOF. Personally I would shoot that somewhere around 4-5.6...but that's me. Can't wait to see what you got!!

[MJPhotos24]

Too much is better than not enough. You can always soften the image. You wouldn't want to shoot the individual pic wide open anyways. Shot wide open and focusing on the face, the belt area would be OOF. Personally I would shoot that somewhere around 4-5.6...but that's me. Can't wait to see what you got!!

I shoot all the time for portraits at 2.5-3.2 and don't you can never tell the belt is oof...the bat behind them out of focus yes but that just makes the kid stand out more. 4-5.6 I personally wouldn't be happy, noone else would probably notice it, but I would :)

[Dah-Dee]

Well, here are samples of my 'work' :oops: -- please be gentle!

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k63/Dah-Dee/IMG_1732.jpg



http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k63/Dah-Dee/IMG_1737.jpg



http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k63/Dah-Dee/IMG_1745.jpg


No cropping done yet; I'm guessing that might be appropriate, for example, in the team picture. Right?

Thanks again for all the helpful comments/suggestions!

[dshootist]

Cropping here is a definite yes-yes. I don't think there's any major criticism from this camp, but it looks like the team photo may be a little back-focused (plus you might want to clone in a few light bulbs on the scoreboard). It was good to get a little room around the players with the individual shots, though they look a bit too posed (not necessarily a bad thing; parents do like to see the kids looking at the camera). Good lighting and with a little bump in saturation plus some winning graphics, I'd call this a successful shoot! Good work!:D

[kenyc]

Nice work, I agree with the cropping.

KAC

[MJPhotos24]

not to shabby, but will suggest a few things. One being the scoreboard doesn't add much and the fence/pole distracts. If you do a print of the team photo I would cut that thing right out (scoreboard), because they want to get in close to there kids, not the scoreboard with lights out. With small teams like this its hard to add in the scoreboard and have it worth while, but big teams (20-30 people, older usually) the scoreboard or stadium can add to the photo - this isn't the case IMO for these little guys.

Personally I would have tried to move them back away from that fence as much as possible to blur it out more. This also goes for the individual pics, when I do one teams photos that plays in a similar field like the one I see here I have them come to the side field with no fences or anything and have grass/woods in the distance as the background blurred pretty good so the kid sticks out (using f/stop and not PS). Not the perfect background I want but better than the choices around.

Pose wise, the 2nd one I had a LOT of kids do this year as I gave them a choice - last year though they almost all chose the one I liked. Weird, they didn't this year...but hey it was there choice. One thing I want to do is grab a kid and have him do about 8 poses, all different so each time I shoot I can have them on paper to show the kid before they come to me (have an assistant do it) so they are ready and know what they want.

Again though not to shabby for your first team shoot. :)

[dmwierz]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=112409

You want to avoid "stacking heads", meaning lining up one head under another. You also want to show as many team names and logos as possible as well as faces (obviously).

Clean backgrounds are always better than ones with stuff in them. If you want the scoreboard, I would move the team farther away and shoot with a smaller DOF to blur the background more than it is - otherwise it distracts from the team.

[Dah-Dee]

Thank you all *again* (!) for the encouraging comments and very helpful suggestions! :) I'm printing out this thread so I'll have help in improving my results when I do this again.... next year?

Thanks again!

[photodrew]

Here are a couple of team shots I did.

1:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/photodrewman/chopinAs_800.jpg

2:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/photodrewman/RedSoxThillens_800.jpg

# 2 I was rushed, didn't really look at how they lined up b-4. The scoreboard there is quite large, the kids would have been dwarfed had I tried to include the whole thing.

My first priority was coaching the teams, I took the photos prior to their game.

I guess my point is to take your time to ensure the kids (& coaches) are lined up properly.