Good amount of pic's per event

I am trying to figure out what a good amount of pic's per event would be to consider it a success.

I plan to sell

4.6's 5.7's 8.10's and poster collage's per event.. NTM Game tape's of the game as well as photo's

What would be a good amount of 1-small photo's 2-game photo cd's 3-poster's

This is AAU Ball so I am going to try to have a certain number of photo's from each team and offer it to all kids through the coach's

I will put toget a sheet of services and try to have them passed out at the games we do.


Thnx in advance for your help.

ItzBitzHair wrote in post #5154549
I am trying to figure out what a good amount of pic's per event would be to consider it a success.

I plan to sell

4.6's 5.7's 8.10's and poster collage's per event.. NTM Game tape's of the game as well as photo's

What would be a good amount of 1-small photo's 2-game photo cd's 3-poster's

This is AAU Ball so I am going to try to have a certain number of photo's from each team and offer it to all kids through the coach's

I will put toget a sheet of services and try to have them passed out at the games we do.


Thnx in advance for your help.

I'm not sure what you plan on doing? Are you going to shoot and actually print for spec sales? I'd hugely warn against this from a budget pov as it will get expensive quickly with no guarantee of sales. IF you want to know how many images you should shoot at a game (or how many need to be usable), that can vary. In a typical hoops game, I'll shoot somewhere around 250 images. I don't shoot much in the way of bursts so mot of those are unique image captures. Of those, I probably wind up with something close to 150 images that could be used for teh purposes you mentioned above (I ditch anything, oof, or significant exposure/color problems. I also ditch poorly composed shots, and usually ditch images where I don't have faces and ball in the shot. Last sweep is to ditch anything that's too similar). I hope this answers your question and doesn't appear to be just a steam of consciousness. If I misunderstood, feel free to clarify and I'll have another go at it.

Itz:
Like Scott mentions above, be careful you are not PRINTING on spec as you may end up with lots of wasted paper. Better to put images on a web site and let parents/players and coaches view and then order from that.

As to number of pictures?? I have been shooting hockey and usually I end up with 400-500 images per game. This does not count many that are deleted in camera between periods. From these, I whittle down to about 60-80 keepers that go up on the web site for that game. All players and parents have access and they can order as they wish.

Your sheet of prices is a great idea. Give them the web site and the price for the sizes of photos you wish to offer. If you plan to offer images on CD, you may limit what prints you can sell in the future because many parents will buy the digital image and print themselves. This may work though for some people. I know I bought a single digital image of my kid in hockey one time for $25.

As to what you want to offer package wise, I have been using a price per 8.5 x 11 sheet, which can result in one 8x10, 2 4x6 or 5x7 or ~9 wallet sizes. This gives the parents some flexibility and keeps it easy to price things. If you are printing yourself, your cost becomes ink and paper, which will be the same (generally) for one size of paper, so make sure you factor in your actual costs and build in some profit as needed.

As a side note, and please don't take this the wrong way, but from what I have seen of your shots so far, especially basketball, you still need to do a ton of work before you have anything close to what I as a parent or player, would be happy to buy. Your last set was great from an exposure point of view, but the captures and crops really need more work to get players faces and key action points. Your track stuff I saw was OK in this regard, but really keep practising the BBall to get some good sellable images.

Cheers!

Chris

That was the question in a nutshell.. you said you ususally have about 150 usable one's per bball game...

i just plan to shoot and of what is available i will put in my online gallery and make a few collages for parents to veiw and buy.. i have all summer to get ready for next year by way of pix composition and proper exposure. From what i am doing i am getting out there and getter better every day. This site is teaching me so much but i have years to go to be perfect i know or close to perfect as i will never be perfect.

namasste wrote in post #5154597
I'm not sure what you plan on doing? Are you going to shoot and actually print for spec sales? I'd hugely warn against this from a budget pov as it will get expensive quickly with no guarantee of sales. IF you want to know how many images you should shoot at a game (or how many need to be usable), that can vary. In a typical hoops game, I'll shoot somewhere around 250 images. I don't shoot much in the way of bursts so mot of those are unique image captures. Of those, I probably wind up with something close to 150 images that could be used for teh purposes you mentioned above (I ditch anything, oof, or significant exposure/color problems. I also ditch poorly composed shots, and usually ditch images where I don't have faces and ball in the shot. Last sweep is to ditch anything that's too similar). I hope this answers your question and doesn't appear to be just a steam of consciousness. If I misunderstood, feel free to clarify and I'll have another go at it.

ItzBitzHair wrote in post #5154779
From what i am doing i am getting out there and getter better every day.

this is the key. take the time to improve and be comfortable and confident in your ability to consistently produce solid shots at every event. once you feel that way, then start selling. do it other way and at and you may find you are in panic mode since you're unclear if you can deliver. every game, no matter how good you get, is an opportunity to learn and improve. take every chance you can to shoot them and just get better and better. good luck!

btw, I would suggest you make single 8x10 prints of your BEST work and have those on site as samples along with the pricing sheets and contact info (business cards my man!). when a parent can actually see the final product (or a sample of), it helps huge.

Number of pictures is not really the way to look at it. Your percentage that are keepers is the key. Different games have different amounts of action and opportunity so the number of images can vary.

I consider it a great day if I keep 50% of my shots. Most of the time it is 20%-25% and in reality only 10%-15% are what I consider really good. This is for indoor sports. Outdoors the percentages go up because of better light and overall autofocus accuracy.

I'm with Chris, you need a ton more practice before you start trying to sell anything. Of all the shots I have seen you post I personally would have only kept maybe 2 or 3. Since you finally seem to be listening to the advice many have offered I am sure you will improve but you need to understand that at this point you have a very long way to go.

Trying to sell things before you are ready will cost you a ton of business in the long run.

I realize this and it will be a while before I am in a situation where I am REALLY SELLING photo's Right now I have 2 AAU Bball teams and this is who I am shooting my girls all i will do for other teams for money is team photo's (posed) I shoot all my practices and scrimmage games for prac and as I now have my 85mm my 24-70mm and my 70-200mm and therefore I finally have the Right eq.

and I am Improving every day.

right now my girls will use our photo's to give to family and friends as a fund raiser and only the one's that are ok and most will be just collage posters instead of actual game shot's

we have till next season for that.

thnx for all your advise and I am sorry if i ever seemed as though i was not listening.. I talkto darn much sometimes and that came off as me not listening.

I will not make that mistake again..

Thnx for all of you help with everthing...