Ok, I suck

[S.Horton]

Went out with a friend on Sunday to shoot Hockey.

First time for both of us.

He shoots about 1/4 as many shots.

He has to shoot through glass, I've got the ladder. (And the beer, so I say I won there)

His keeper rate is excellent.

I'm editing 1,900 photos.

I suck compared to someone with 25+ years of experience. Absolutely. And I'm paying for it BIG TIME because I have to wade through the editing process. I have no life now.

Signed,
- Sprayed and paid

PS - I'll catch up, maybe, in a few years.......... :rolleyes:

[woloi]

The spray and pray technique always seems like a good idea at the time...

[condyk]

Spray and pray is a mugs game based on insecurity. Get over it and move on ;-)

[GilesGuthrie]

Went out with a friend on Sunday to shoot Hockey.

First time for both of us.

He shoots about 1/4 as many shots.

He has to shoot through glass, I've got the ladder. (And the beer, so I say I won there)

His keeper rate is excellent.

I'm editing 1,900 photos.

I suck compared to someone with 25+ years of experience. Absolutely. And I'm paying for it BIG TIME because I have to wade through the editing process. I have no life now.

Signed,
- Sprayed and paid

PS - I'll catch up, maybe, in a few years.......... :rolleyes:



Thus endeth the "so, you've got a dSLR: this is why you're not automatically a pro photographer" lesson.

Well done for sticking your head above the parapet SL. I'm always trying to make sure I take less and less pictures, concentrating on trying to get the ones I do take right.

My last sports day was in August. I took 430 shots, of which 250 did not survive the rating process in a 5-second slideshow. Of the remaining 180, 130 did not survive a sharpness check. Of the remaining 50, only around 30 were actually interesting in any way, and since 10 of those could be considered duplicates, I ended up with 20 shots that I'm proud to show off.

4.6%. It's not a rate to be proud of.

[Jim G]

I started off making the most of my 20D's 5fps and banged up against the buffer on a daily basis.

In the past six months I've hit it once. It took a few months of having wayyy too many photos to post-process and too low a keeper rate to get me picking my shots and I've been working on refining that ever since. I think it's going to be a life-long process!

[steved110]

I try to pretend there is film in the camera. Wading through 2Gb of crud in the hope of a few gems is a total waste if time, all it does is wear your gear out, and irritate you.

We all do this once, so don't feel bad.

Very few of us shoot the kind of stuff where you need the machine gunning, and even then it's usually only for a couple of seconds.

I hope you didn't shoot in RAW....that would seriously add to your winnowing work-load...;)

[Stefan A]

hope you didn't shoot in RAW....that would seriously add to your winnowing work-load...

Seems to me, this would actually decrease the workflow time - at least the way I do it. Since I work exclusively in Lightroom, it's a snap.

As far as the OP - I have never shot sports and I can see how it would be a PITA afterwards.

Stefan

[S.Horton]

Thread = about experience.

My friend not only grew up on film, he just knows better. Experience pays.

And I'm poking some fun here as well. First time with hockey, favor for a friend, no worries with 1,900 RAW files -- Lacrosse tournaments produce 3, 4X that volume.

The only thing that surprised me was unexpected -- Two shooters, synchronize the clocks, just plain forgot to do it!

Funny shot to share:
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/254292961_Hpr34-L.jpg

[Karl C]

A valuable lesson in this thread.

For those of us who cut our photography teeth on film, it was a great experience. Film made you very self-disciplined regarding available exposures and you worked accordingly - made you think about the shot. None of this "spray and pray".

When I started shooting waterskiing, everything was done in RAW. After one season and spending a lot of time post-processing, I decided to utilize JPEG, since the photos were only being used by the local club. Using JPEG, continuing with my film mindset, and being smart with my shots, made life a lot easier.

For all the bashing film receives, it did/does provide solid basic skillsets. How to compose, meter, create the shot, and get it right, for the most part, IN the camera. Not in PS.

Keep practicing - you'll get better.

[FlyingPhotog]

Thus endeth the "so, you've got a dSLR: this is why you're not automatically a pro photographer" lesson.

Well done for sticking your head above the parapet SL. I'm always trying to make sure I take less and less pictures, concentrating on trying to get the ones I do take right.

My last sports day was in August. I took 430 shots, of which 250 did not survive the rating process in a 5-second slideshow. Of the remaining 180, 130 did not survive a sharpness check. Of the remaining 50, only around 30 were actually interesting in any way, and since 10 of those could be considered duplicates, I ended up with 20 shots that I'm proud to show off.

4.6%. It's not a rate to be proud of.

There is another side to that coin though. Though you only kept 4.6% of what you shot, selling 100% of them would be a good thing, now wouldn't it? :D

[BillsBayou]

If you could run a DSLR at 8fps for the entire hockey match, you'd still end up with almost no keepers. Then again, you could shoot every shot with care and end up with no keepers.

I shot a baseball game and ended up with 3 keepers out of 80 shots. I liked the shots, but they weren't good baseball shots. The problem is I didn't know what good baseball shots looked like. I shot first and learned later. Most all of my shots were properly exposed. I was shooting manual and RAW. I framed it to what I thought was the best composition of action and scene. I just didn't know how to shoot baseball. Once I hung out in the Sports section long enough, I took a critical look at my shots and realized where I had done everything right and yet everything was wrong.

If you're going to do a shoot where you want more than snapshots, learn before you go.

My first trip to Gatlinburg resulted in 2 waterfall shots that were "okay". I looked at the results when I got back and couldn't figure out what I did right. That's when I craked open the books, manuals, and surfed the Internet to get closer. Now I show up with the best equipment I have (still not ideal) and I know what to do. I know when I pull the trigger on a shot if it's going to be a good shot, or if I'm shooting a bad shot with the best I can do under my current conditions. (If only my wife would not make me take her and my daughters, I'd improve my shots by 1000% by being there at the right time of day and the right time of the year ;) )

The thing is, you can be technically perfect with your equipment and still be wrong for the type of photography you're shooting. "Know before you go" is a goofy cliche, but it's nonetheless true.

[S.Horton]

Yes, excellent lessons in this thread!

Overall keeper rate is 202 of 1,694, with some very aggressive crops more for fun than commerce.

Now, the organization wants three days of shoots, continuous, two rinks, fundraising in the tens of thousands.

As for selling photos, in hockey, the market appears to be youth/parents with video.

FWIW I don't see much difference besides disk space between RAW and JPG in the workflows; I don't shoot the buffer full (it isn't that bad). I'm a confessed pixel-peeper, so RAW is my weapon of choice!

BTW, I did B/W as a child, just took a 30 year break. :rolleyes:

Bonus points if you know which POTN member this is (second shooter and my teacher, basically):
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/254391425_RemuY-L.jpg

Here's the gallery:
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/gallery/4322840_yoBuY/1/254391425_RemuY

[Tandem]

...and then there is the proud mama with a credit card that purchases all 32 shots (including the duplicates) of her precious little darling that encourages a high keeper rate.

[S.Horton]

^^ LOL! I've had that!

Oh, the stories that brings to mind!

[marie]

Bonus points if you know which POTN member this is (second shooter and my teacher, basically):
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/254391425_RemuY-L.jpg

:D

Pac Ace ?

lol
one of Belmondo's gang from the big rickity bus days :razz:

[S.Horton]

Wow. Is there ANYONE on this forum who does NOT know you, Leo? (I can see you lurking)

[perryge]

Haha that's a fun story. One of my old teachers used to tell me that one of the most important things to learn is when NOT to make a photograph, when not to take a picture. When you are gonna shoot a burst, timing of the first frame of course is by far the most important.

I've said it before, I'll say it again.

"Spray and pray" is not the answer.

[cskn0125]

I once had a job where I shot 4000 pictures in 2 days, and by the next day they had to be edited and in my clients hand in Montreal (I was in BC). Keep in mind, that's a lot of pictures and across the country. Haha.

The good think is that I only needed 1500 finals - but about 90% were edited. No batch processing either.

Funny thing, this was my first photo job and my first paid photo job. So damn fun though!

If you view my website, they are the paintball pictures.