NFL: Bears Vs Giants - Nice Catch

[dmwierz]

The Bears looked a lot better Saturday night Vs. the Giants than they did last week against the Bills.

Here are my favorite shots from the night: two consecutive images from 33-yard pass completion that set up a 5-yard TD pass on the next play.

"August 22, 2009: Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Aromashodu (19) makes a leaping catch on a pass from Jay Cutler during an NFL Football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, won by the Bears, 17-3."

http://www.pbase.com/dmwierz45/image/116476371.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/dmwierz45/image/116476375.jpg

[RickyH]

Both shots turned out great

[clickclickclick]

Awesome shots as always.

[Adama]

Hey Dennis, Great shots! I don't mean to hijack your thread (or for that matter always bugging you for tips) but do you have any guidelines for shooting football that I should keep in mind? I'm lugging out the 400 to shoot a college football game for my employer soon.

[AxxisPhoto]

Great shots as always! Die-hard Bears fan here! http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Leisures_and_Sports/football-043.gif

[dmwierz]

Thanks, y'all. Alex, shooting football is one of the most enjoyable sports to work, IMO. It's one of the only ones where you can "almost" go wherever you want, so a lot of the "secret" is knowing where to go. Phil had an excellent primer on how to shoot football that's still around.

I've had a few folks contact me to ask how to catch the ball in frame for shots like these. Honestly, the biggest "trick" I know is to shoot with both eyes open. Once I taught myself how to do this, my percentage of shots like this that had the ball (as well as baseball players catching the ball, headers in soccer, etc) increased appreciably. In fact, in the shots above, I had both eyes away from the camera as the play developed, saw Aromashodu break downfield, swung the camera to where he was, put one eye close to the eyepiece (keeping one eye open as long as I could), found him, tapped the * button to get AF, then once the ball was entering the field of view, mashed the shutter.

I takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straightforward.

[RickyH]

Thanks, y'all. Alex, shooting football is one of the most enjoyable sports to work, IMO. It's one of the only ones where you can "almost" go wherever you want, so a lot of the "secret" is knowing where to go. Phil had an excellent primer on how to shoot football that's still around.

I've had a few folks contact me to ask how to catch the ball in frame for shots like these. Honestly, the biggest "trick" I know is to shoot with both eyes open. Once I taught myself how to do this, my percentage of shots like this that had the ball (as well as baseball players catching the ball, headers in soccer, etc) increased appreciably. In fact, in the shots above, I had both eyes away from the camera as the play developed, saw Aromashodu break downfield, swung the camera to where he was, put one eye close to the eyepiece (keeping one eye open as long as I could), found him, tapped the * button to get AF, then once the ball was entering the field of view, mashed the shutter.

I takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straightforward.

I had a photographer say the same thing to me regarding soccer, & it helps. It does take practice, but I was getting the hang of it eventually.

[D2Sports]

I believe the photog across the field (bottom right) enjoyed the play but missed the shot. Sorta like I often feel. :(

Dennis, that's a great capture - as usual.

Thanks for sharing.

[MazerRakhm]

Nice stuff Dennis, glad to see you still shooting. I'll be at SF tomorrow for the HS kickoff classic.

[danaitch]

Gotta be the first shot for me - the 'inch off the hands' capture is something I strive for. I think I've had two this season. In about 12 games. :(

[DarenM]

It always amazes me on the color quality and sharpness of your photos.....any tips on exposure? Were you using flash or is this stadium lighting? Shooting Raw and then post processed or out of the box?

[dmwierz]

Kevin - Have fun today. That "three fer" is always a good time. Dan and Daren - thanks.

Flash isn't allowed above HS, so these are shot ambient. Focal Length 400 mm; Exposure Time 1/1000 sec; Aperture f/2.8; ISO Equivalent 1600. JPEG Highest Quality. The light at Soldier Field is average for a pro stadium. The only "Secret" I have (and it's not that secret since I've shared it with a bunch of folks) is I roughly follow the post processing discussed in this article from a few years back:

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1415

I have a PhotoShop action I developed that adds an auto-levels and an Unsharp Mask 85/1/4 to the Noise Ninja settings detailed above, and I run all selected images right out of the camera through this action. Occasionally I'll have to manually process an image or two, but I've found on more than 95% of what I shoot, this is all I do. Then I straighten, crop for effect and do any minor toning required. After this I resize the images for upload to the size required (varies depending on for whom I'm shooting, but normally this is to 3200x2133 pixels and 200 dpi) with another PS add-on called Genuine Fractals. Both of the images above are pretty aggressive crops - the action portions of the images occupied the lower left 1/4 of the frame in the original shots. They were taken from the opposite side of the field from where the action happened. I was kneeling at the back corner of the end zone, and the catch occurred at the other sideline, 5-yard line.

Of course, this ain't all I do, as all shots must also be fully captioned and renamed (per the customer's spec) and transmitted to the wire service. Sound like a lot of work? Well, it is. Last Saturday's game started at 7:00 PM. I arrived at the stadium at 4:00; shot warm-ups; covered the game; did my post-game review of over 500 images; down-selected to about 50 shots; ran all 50 shots through the action above; reviewed them again and the picked 40 best; cropped/toned/resized/captioned/renamed those 40; transmitted them all to the wire service using Soldier Field's internet; and finally dragged myself out to the parking lot at 12:30 AM, getting to bed at 2:00AM This is the "real" secret behind working an event like this - there is a LOT more involved than just hanging out on the sidelines shooting pictures.

I didn't even mention that I also sometimes do an edit/resize/caption/rename/submit during halftime of the top 10 images from the first half. Football is relatively easy in this regard. With some wire services, you will be submitting images during the event (like baseball, where you've got your laptop with you in the photo well), and are doing the work detailed above between innings every couple innings, or whenever you capture anything interesting - all while still trying not to miss any of the action.

Hope this helps.

[DarenM]

Wow...great response, I am sure the general public thinks all that happens is you take the picture and then you are done. Your response sure puts perspective on the entire process, You have my respect.

[dmwierz]

Thanks, Daren. Seems the "hot" topic over on SportsShooter, and elsewhere, is "how do I get credentials" and then the inevitable battle between pro's and those aspiring to be pro's.

I must get 5 or more emails/PM's each week from people wanting me to tell them how to get credentials to pro or NCAA games, and while I try to help out, it's firstly not well-known how long some of us work to get to this point, and how many youth events are worked in order to get to the HS level, and how long we work at the HS level before getting our first NCAA break, and how many NCAA games we work until we get into our first pro games, and after all this, how much work it is to cover a pro sporting event.

Here are a couple more shots from last week's game. I'm hoping to cover next Thursday's final pre-season game against the Browns.

http://www.pbase.com/dmwierz45/image/116645358.jpg
August 22, 2009: Chicago Bears tight end Greg Olsen (82) in action during the NFL Football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, won by the Bears, 17-3.


http://www.pbase.com/dmwierz45/image/116645360.jpg
August 22, 2009: Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler (6) in action during the NFL Football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, won by the Bears, 17-3.

[Adama]

Kevin - Have fun today. That "three fer" is always a good time. Dan and Daren - thanks.

Flash isn't allowed above HS, so these are shot ambient. Focal Length 400 mm; Exposure Time 1/1000 sec; Aperture f/2.8; ISO Equivalent 1600. JPEG Highest Quality. The light at Soldier Field is average for a pro stadium. The only "Secret" I have (and it's not that secret since I've shared it with a bunch of folks) is I roughly follow the post processing discussed in this article from a few years back:

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1415

I have a PhotoShop action I developed that adds an auto-levels and an Unsharp Mask 85/1/4 to the Noise Ninja settings detailed above, and I run all selected images right out of the camera through this action. Occasionally I'll have to manually process an image or two, but I've found on more than 95% of what I shoot, this is all I do. Then I straighten, crop for effect and do any minor toning required. After this I resize the images for upload to the size required (varies depending on for whom I'm shooting, but normally this is to 3200x2133 pixels and 200 dpi) with another PS add-on called Genuine Fractals. Both of the images above are pretty aggressive crops - the action portions of the images occupied the lower left 1/4 of the frame in the original shots. They were taken from the opposite side of the field from where the action happened. I was kneeling at the back corner of the end zone, and the catch occurred at the other sideline, 5-yard line.

Of course, this ain't all I do, as all shots must also be fully captioned and renamed (per the customer's spec) and transmitted to the wire service. Sound like a lot of work? Well, it is. Last Saturday's game started at 7:00 PM. I arrived at the stadium at 4:00; shot warm-ups; covered the game; did my post-game review of over 500 images; down-selected to about 50 shots; ran all 50 shots through the action above; reviewed them again and the picked 40 best; cropped/toned/resized/captioned/renamed those 40; transmitted them all to the wire service using Soldier Field's internet; and finally dragged myself out to the parking lot at 12:30 AM, getting to bed at 2:00AM This is the "real" secret behind working an event like this - there is a LOT more involved than just hanging out on the sidelines shooting pictures.

I didn't even mention that I also sometimes do an edit/resize/caption/rename/submit during halftime of the top 10 images from the first half. Football is relatively easy in this regard. With some wire services, you will be submitting images during the event (like baseball, where you've got your laptop with you in the photo well), and are doing the work detailed above between innings every couple innings, or whenever you capture anything interesting - all while still trying not to miss any of the action.

Hope this helps.

Haven't been at this for long but I feel your pain. I was at the Roger's Cup one day for over SIXTEEN HOURS. Got there at 8:30, set up, shot some morning matches at 11, then got a bit of a break at 5 and was able to eat. Then a long four hour match began at 7, and a final one after that. When all was said and done I wasn't even able to leave until 1 AM.

I'm just thankful my employer didn't want the shots the day of.

[danaitch]

I tried the 'both eyes open' yesterday for the first time. To be honest I feel a bit daft for not doing it before. I found my hardest problem was when to 'switch eyes' (inside my brain) and catch the peripheral action. It worked well about twice but mostly I just felt disoriented. I also noticed that my horizons have gone back to being off-level. :(

I shall keep working on it.

[Adama]

Dennis, just wanted to pop in to say I've been looking at some of your other football photos and your work is absolutely amazing. I'm taking a lot of cues from it to try to help me approach my next game better.

[Sibil]

Dennis, fantastic shots, as usual. Thanks for sharing your workflow and the insider's view on how things work for a sports shooter at pro games. That's a lot of high pressure work and for long hours. The pay must be very good since so many want to get into it.

Something left me puzzled...


........ Both of the images above are pretty aggressive crops - the action portions of the images occupied the lower left 1/4 of the frame in the original shots......

How did you get the shot in focus if the action was in the lower left 1/4 of the frame?

For an ISO 1600 shot and cropped heavily, the shot looks great. I know the trick is to get the exposure right, but still. Noise Ninja must be much better than Neat Image, which is what I use. Neat Image couldn't clean up an ISO 1600 image that well, after an heavy crop.

As far as the trick you explained on how to get the ball in perfect position within the frame, I have noticed that for me, there is about 1/4-1/2 second delay between my eye > brain > trigger finger. If I press the shutter about 1/4-1/2 second sooner than when the ball is entering the frame, I have a better success rate capturing the ball in a perfect position within the frame. Have you experienced the same thing, or is it that I am just too slow pressing the shutter?
Thanks

[clarence]

Something left me puzzled...

How did you get the shot in focus if the action was in the lower left 1/4 of the frame?

I'd like to hear more on this too... ideally to see crop lines on the original frame.

I've always wondered if I'm missing out by ALWAYS using just the center point for focus.

But my guess is that if Dennis was tracking the center point on the Bears helmet, then that would work out to the action (as shown) being in the lower-left quadrant.

[Adama]

The pay must be very good since so many want to get into it.

Dennis can speak better than I can about this, but I am of the understanding that, unless you capture a world famous image that gets repeat exposure in publications everywhere, sports/news photography salaries are very modest. Not ridiculously low but I highly doubt people get into sports photography ever looking to get rich.

d like to hear more on this too... ideally to see crop lines on the original frame.

I've always wondered if I'm missing out by ALWAYS using just the center point for focus.

But my guess is that if Dennis was tracking the center point on the Bears helmet, then that would work out to the action (as shown) being in the lower-left quadrant.

After my Mark III AF fix, I've made it a priority to instinctively change AF points when I want a certain type of framing. I'll often use the inner left/right AF point for shooting running subjects from a side, depending on what direction they're running.

[dmwierz]

It just so happened that the play developed across the field, and the action ended up being in the lower left hand corner of the frame. IIRC, I was using the receiver's helmet for AF. Sometimes things are nicely centered, sometimes not. If you do everything right (exposure, shutter speed, AF, etc), you can usually perform a pretty aggressive crop like I did with these shots.

Thank goodness for high megapixel cameras and Noise Ninja and Genuine Fractals, though :)

In the situation depicted in the above shots, the action is actually happening parallel to the plane of focus. What this means is, if I can nail the focus right at the beginning of getting the play in frame, I can then just concentrate of framing the shot and not mess with the AF button (the * button). Sometimes the theory here is better than the practice. I have been known to foul up a perfectly well focused series by hitting the * button in the middle of a play, when in fact I should have just left it alone. The more you shoot, the more intuitive it is when you're shooting parallel to the plane of focus.

Very rarely I will change AF points from center (like tennis). 99% of the time, I just leave it in the middle.

As for how much money there is at this level, there isn't much. As a weekend gig, it's not bad - I make more than enough to make it worth my time, but nowhere near as much as almost any full time job pulls down.

Actually, shooting youth and HS sports pays a lot better.

When I tell people how little even a double truck in SI (what a two page spread is called) pays, they are amazed. And, a double truck in SI is just about as good as editorial sports photography gets when one is a freelancer.

As for shutter lag, this can vary from camera to camera, and involves several things, including AF speed, the time it takes for the signal to go from the button to the shutter itself, as well as how long it takes the photographer to respond to his/her brain saying "mash the shutter, dang it".

[Sibil]

^^^
Dennis, thanks for the explanations

[clarence]

As for how much money there is at this level, there isn't much. As a weekend gig, it's not bad - I make more than enough to make it worth my time, but nowhere near as much as almost any full time job pulls down.

Actually, shooting youth and HS sports pays a lot better.

When I tell people how little even a double truck in SI (what a two page spread is called) pays, they are amazed. And, a double truck in SI is just about as good as editorial sports photography gets when one is a freelancer.

So do you shoot on spec by just putting your pictures on the wire and hope that one/some get picked up, published, and eventually a usage payment comes in?

In that Bears game, how many shots did you take, how many did you upload, and how many will you typically expect to collect royalties from?

[dmwierz]

Typical game - I shoot around 400 images. Of these, between 50 and 100 are uploaded. In a "good" game, I'm lucky if 3 or 4 of these are what I would consider keepers. I have licensed one image so far from the Bears/Giants game so far, that I know of. I may not know which images are published sometimes until I get paid and I see the itemized list of images - sometimes I see an image of mine published - sometimes somebody else, like the photo editor or a friend, sees it and contacts me - the latter is what happened with the one image licensed from the Bears game so far: my PE from the wire saw it in the New York Post and sent me a copy of the page.

I gave up long ago trying to figure out "how many will I typically expect to collect royalties from". Some games, the shot(s) I think are going to sell do so, other games the ones I almost threw away get picked up. It all depends on which stories are being written at the time, and which players any given publication is looking to get a photo of. This is why I try to get as many "stock" shots as possible, in addition to capturing the peak action.

Of course, it also comes down to having the best shot of the player they are looking for, and having it posted soon enough after the game to find its way to the licensing publication's editor when they're assembling their story.

Regarding payment, I work in the following ways: spec; day rates; day rates + mileage; hourly; per game; per player (including prints) and other ways that are custom for a given assignment.