How do I Create Magazine Quality Photos

I recently attended the Widnes -v- Celtic Crusaders Rugby League match and was afforded every hospitality by Widnes Vikings Rugby League Club.

I was using a Canon 350D Body with a Canon 100-400 IS Lens and shooting mainly on sports mode in JPEG.

When shooting sports photography, I appreciate that 80-90% of the photos are going to be discarded. Over the course of the 80 minutes I took some 500 photos and probably had some 50 fairly decent photos which, being self critical, I thought were reasonable.

I have submitted these photos to the Rugby League clubs who both thanked me, and asked me to assist them further, but mentioned that to be published in Match Day Programmes the pictures need to be of better quality (possibly by 1Meg).

Can anyone throw any light as to how I should do this - as I have not been photographing long?

Many Thanks

Paul Keevil

I am not sure what you mean by increasing the "quality" of your images. Do they mean that they want some bogus size increase? I can't remember which one, Alamy perhaps, but I know one of the stock sites asks you to increase the image size before submitting, and you could be up against a similar requirement even though the images you submitted are probably more than adequate for a magazine.

Do you have Photoshop? If memory serves me right (im at work so i cant check) you go to image size and select "bicubic" resampling and then upscale the image by the amount required.

There is a link at Alamy that explains upsizing.

Congrats on stepping into photography. May I suggest, learn your camera. "Sports Mode" isn't going to produce the maximum that the camera is capable of, just as "Portrait Mode" isn't going to give you the knockout portraits you'd expect from a studio.

You've got some excellent glass, do some reading on the basics of the camera and sports photography in general, and the quality of your shots should go up purely based on knowing how to push your equipment.

As someone mentioned, Alamy is the stock agency that requires upsizing. I simply created an action to resize my images 150% in photoshop, and that created an image large enough for Alamy.

Do they want 1MB compressed? If so, that's just plain silly. Do they want JPG, TIF, or RAW?

I agree.

First set the f-stop & shutter speed you need. Then adjust the ISO. Need an exposure crutch?
More on how the subject affects the exposure & why manual keeps me worry free: Post # 47

Sports Shooting Tutorials and Advice

How many of you are shooting sports in RAW ?
I do most corrections when I convert from RAW, which effectively means they are done in 12-bit (higher resolution). Just another benefit of taking a bit more time in the workflow, & you can keep that "upgrade money" in your pocket longer.

tech: RAW vs. JPEG - the real story
http://prophotolife.co​m …w-vs-jpeg-the-real-story/

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5433862
First set the f-stop & shutter speed you need. Then adjust the ISO. Need an exposure crutch?

Photosguy, I have never seen one person post a single link more than you! Not saying the article mentioned isn't any good, but now I expect to see this link everytime your avatar catches my eye! This is not a dig against you or anything of the sort. I just find it amusing sometimes!

Frank is now well known as the Master of The Links, The Keeper of All Knowledge, The Great Linkerator, and His Royal Linkiness.

...ah yes, but the link is great. Everyone should read it! I think Frank should stick it in his signature and refer to it (like René does with his colour problems one).

"Oprah, I read Need An Exposure Crutch and it changed my life!"

I don't need to see Oprah exposed, thank you very much!

I saw your post, "I took about 275 pictures using Aperture Priority mode. The shindig was outside in the sun. This morning I downloaded all of the pictures. I'm happy with the majority of them, but I noticed that some were overexposed and others were underexposed.", so when you're finished being amused, try M & live a little!
Seriously, sometimes people have to go through the process of seeing the link a dozen times before they're ready to get of Auto mode, & yes, Tv & Av are still "auto" in my book.

Linkmaster... WAIT! Let's not tempt the TF! Who knows what the result would be?

To the OP, do you have any examples, so we can see what you are shooting? I know none of my shots are close to being publishable, but I don't want to be. I just pp them for families and it works well. I don't know if the 350 will be good enough to do a sharp picture for publication in a magazine. Even if they put your photo in at 2x2, the resolution is meaningful with their processing.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5439730
ILinkmaster... WAIT! Let's not tempt the TF! Who knows what the result would be?

Oh how I have tried, but either the TF respects your mighty linkablity to much, or is simply taking their time thinking of the ultimate link related title.

Of course your current title might also pose a slight problem.

Not to sure if it'll help much but here goes. This past weekend was my second time even going to a rugby game so I'm still new to it.

The C&C I received basically was to get in tighter on the players so I worked on that, if I wasn't able I would upscale it to get the crop I needed. Then I would scale it down to the print size after whatever corrections needed to made.

My setting was Shutter Priority(TV) and shot in RAW as I'm not that comfortable in my abilities as this project is for my final grade. Once I hand it in it'll be time to muck about in M once again. Now that I think about it my last foray into M it seemed I was thinking to much about the shot instead of getting the shot and missing it entirely.

Good luck with it.

keevilp wrote in post #5432208
but mentioned that to be published in Match Day Programmes the pictures need to be of better quality (possibly by 1Meg).

File size (in Mb) is not important. It's file size (in pixels) that counts.
How big are the images?

Are you shooting in small or medium .jpg? You havent given alot of details, but i expect that the changes you may need to make could be as easy as bumping contrast or maybe a bit of sharpness.

Where has OP gone?