Shooting Kids soccer team help!!!

Ok So i was going to take pictures of a soccer team. I offered them my lowest package an 3-8x10's One was the team picture another was aportrait of them in there uniform and the other was of them in action.. So my plan was to go to like 2 soccer games and capture each player in action. Well after the first game i seriously barely have any its just so hard to capture every player in action. So how do you guys do this? Should i fake the action by having them kick a ball and just shoot that?

well question... did they tell you they are interested?

i know my parents pay enough (im a coach for the little tikes)..

and in the spring i was asked why the fall was more money... i told them trophies, pizza party, etc.. they were like.. sheeze and we have to buy pictures...

i do know that taking pics of each kid is tough... i do just sit on the sideline of my u12 son on travel games... and i walk away with pics.. but 11v11.. so id have to have 11 pics just covering each kid... so 3-4 is 33-44 (i know u know math.. hah)..

anyway.. i guess the real thing is if you dont know the physical players (as i do and still find this tough)... you would need to kinda have someone with you to be more observant... maybe know the 10 positions (keeper is easy..) to help ya out..

this is a tough one... if only 1 or 3 parents want it... i think it will be easier.... if it is the entire team... id say snap every picture all game long.. and you will have them in there somewhere...

Ask the team for a jersey # list and cross them out when you have one you can live with. It's challenging to get good action shots of each kid in a single game. I shoot my kids' teams all the time and it takes at least 3 or 4 games for me to get a good one of each. It just happens that in kids' sports, there are often some players that tend to stand out more, while others don't get great action (even if they get equal playing time), and sometimes that one kid's moment happened to be while your shotnwas blocked by the ref or was on the opposite end where you didn't have enough focal reach, or whatever.

If you have to fake action, I'd say don't bother. Just do team & individual in that case.

I handle T&I separately from action. For action, if I come up short on a player, after the game I ask the coach to throw a ball out on the field and just have the player kick it around a bit.

It's a really bad idea to offer this unless you cover the team all year and can do this, which usually makes it not worth it to begin with. I offered an action photo substitute for magazine covers and trading cards which worked maybe 2/5 times so just ditched it, and this was seeing the teams 4-5x and looking for the kids, all it did was hold things up.

Yeah well i already offered it ill see how it goes prob. wont offer it again though

I just started doing this for my kids team this year. I use the 70-200 f/4 at f/4 and set the iso so that I can have a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000. I sit w/ the sun to my back (I can move around if it's overcast) and have a little step stool that I sit on (obout 6" high). Camera is set to AI Servo. I just focus and click. Here are a few images from the past couple of weeks. Message me w/ any questions you may have. Not against getting on the phone too if that would help.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​317614324/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​314235110/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​307977003/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​299144949/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​295098531/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​295628024/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​295098079/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​295628238/

mo5751 wrote in post #13395504
Ok So i was going to take pictures of a soccer team. I offered them my lowest package an 3-8x10's One was the team picture another was aportrait of them in there uniform and the other was of them in action.. So my plan was to go to like 2 soccer games and capture each player in action. Well after the first game i seriously barely have any its just so hard to capture every player in action. So how do you guys do this? Should i fake the action by having them kick a ball and just shoot that?

Maybe you just need more experience. I usually sell teams a deal where I shoot the entire team in action and provide a poster of each for the banquet. It usually takes me two games to get everybody including the bench warmers who play only a teeny bit. This would be in soccer, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse.

Never try this for american football (getting the second string left guard could take you a month of shooting for example) and be careful of sports with substitution rules like baseball / softball because getting the benchwarmers is not easy. In a game like soccer (US HS rules with unlimited sub) you should have no trouble. I'll usually shoot the first game freely getting whatever action I see, and I'll have 300-400 images that I cull to ~120. The second game I have my list of players that I still need a good shot of and I only watch for those. I shoot less (usually only 150-200 images) the second time because I'm more focused.

In all it takes me about 5-6 hours work to shoot, cull, label and make posters for any one team. I am very good and fast with LR, macros, and culling / labeling in general.

The action shots you can't get during the game can certainly be captured before the game during warmups! Some of my best 'player' pics are taken during warmups and pregame.

dave

doidinho wrote in post #13401287

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/6​295628024/
Game7-288 by Doidinho, on Flickr

side question.. what age group is this? cuz this kid will go far if he sticks to it!!!!

doidinho wrote in post #13401287
I just started doing this for my kids team this year. I use the 70-200 f/4 at f/4 and set the iso so that I can have a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000. I sit w/ the sun to my back (I can move around if it's overcast) and have a little step stool that I sit on (obout 6" high). Camera is set to AI Servo. I just focus and click. Here are a few images from the past couple of weeks. Message me w/ any questions you may have. Not against getting on the phone too if that would help.

How did u get that hazy look in editing i really like it

doidinho wrote in post #13401287
I just started doing this for my kids team this year. I use the 70-200 f/4 at f/4 and set the iso so that I can have a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000. I sit w/ the sun to my back (I can move around if it's overcast) and have a little step stool that I sit on (obout 6" high). Camera is set to AI Servo. I just focus and click. Here are a few images from the past couple of weeks. Message me w/ any questions you may have. Not against getting on the phone too if that would help.

How did u get that hazy look in editing i really like it

And Thanks everyone for your comments next games im going to sit somewhere and not move from there because during the first game i would walk around and i think that just messed me up and the shooting during warm ups is a great idea too.

TeleFragger wrote in post #13402324
side question.. what age group is this? cuz this kid will go far if he sticks to it!!!!

These are 7 year olds.

mo5751 wrote in post #13402416
How did u get that hazy look in editing i really like it

Here is a little tutorial I did on getting the hazy look. The example pic is B&W, but you can do the same thing w/ a color photo and then mess with the individual color curves in order to get the desired toning.

http://robertmccadden.​tumblr.com …hazed-and-confused?ref=nf

He lives in Washington State, I thought the hazy look was just fog/drizzly sky!