Sports photography isn’t easy. Often done on a speculative basis, success only comes with a great marketing plan, a solid business plan, and a lot of hard work before, during, and after the game. We gathered a few tips to help make the process from shot to sale easier.
Getting the shot.
Face. Contact. Action. Ball. These are the elements of a great sports photograph. Your ability to get the shot—in sports photography more than any other field—requires more than “f/8 and be there.” Equipment matters since you very likely won’t be able to control the light. Here are a few recommendations:
Camera body with the ability to shoot multiple frames per second
Clean high ISO for low-light shooting
Telephoto lens with a large maximum aperture (fast glass)
Monopod
Accreditation and/or permission to shoot the sport
1. Know your sport.
The ability to anticipate where the action will be, to predict the drama by understanding the rules and rulings, to be prepared for the ecstasy and agony of the competitors are what will set you apart as a sports photographer.
2. Fill your frame with action.
Minimize distracting backgrounds. Choose the right depth of field. Make sure the play or the player is your subject. Shoot tight, crop tighter.
3. Pick the right shutter speed.
In general, you’ll want to freeze the action, so your shutter will need to be fast. If motion blur is desirable to help convey the story or set the mood, a slower shutter speed may work, but you’ll still need to ensure your shutter speed is fast enough to prevent camera shake.
Pro tip: Your shutter speed needs to be greater than the focal length of the lens. Try shooting in burst mode to ensure you don’t miss any of the action. Using strobes? Balance the flash power against flash duration to freeze the action.
4. Get accreditation and/or permission to shoot the sport.
Meet the sports director for the school or club, the president of the booster club, or the director of the league and get their blessing to photograph their players. You should know their needs (yearbook photos, website photos, championship photos, team photos, etc.) and be prepared to include these shots in exchange for the right to photograph the game/league/tournament.
You’ve got the shots, now get the sales.
You probably aren’t expecting to head out, take a bunch of game-day photos, and put them up for sale. While you're perfecting your shooting technique, you should also be putting together a strong business and marketing plan, including building your brand name and recognition, your customer base, and your portfolio.
Use SmugMug’s drag-and-drop customizability to add your brand to your website. Use sports photos in your portfolio.
Make sure your homepage meta description and keywords reflect what you do and where you’re located. Take steps to ensure you can be found in a Google search
At the stadium.
Network. You’ll likely start out photographing youth sports. Your sports-team booster club, team manager, and parents are going to be your biggest fans and referral sources, so be sure they know who you are.
Business cards and printed material: Create your SmugMug folders or events before games or tournaments and include the URL on your print advertising. Distribute that advertising during the game so people know where to find your photos as soon as they get home.
Turn your portfolio shots into print and product samples that show folks what you offer for sale. They're perfect for demonstrating how great their photos will look.
If you're working at a tournament or multi-game event, have a display set up on site and show the photos as they come from the field. Generate excitement and get them eager to buy ASAP! Using SmugMug print-credit coupons is a great way to ensure you'll make more sales after the tournament.
Put your CF card into a card reader and use Lightroom to import and copy the files into a folder (organized by date) on your external hard drive.
Use the Lightroom Library module to quickly cull all out-of-focus and otherwise unsellable shots from the set. Mark them rejected by hitting the X key.
Use the filter near the search bar at the top of the window to select the rejected-photos flag. Select all the photos in the filmstrip at the bottom and right-click > delete to clear out the rejected images.
Add keywords and metadata (copyright information, for example) to the whole set of photos using the Sync function in the Library module.
Use the Lightroom Develop module if minor editing, like adjusting exposure or quick cropping, is needed to get the best image possible.
Go back to the Library module and set the publish setting File Setting Quality slider to 50%. This keeps your proof images small so you can upload them faster.
Select all images to be published.
Use the Lightroom SmugMug publish service to create a new gallery on SmugMug and make sure you have proof-delay enabled. Having the images already selected puts them right into that gallery. You’ll be able to configure your gallery settings from within Lightroom, too.
Hit the Publish button and watch as Lightroom uploads your selected photos into your new SmugMug gallery.
Spread the word that the photos are online and available for purchase. Remember that marketing your work is critical to success. Use email and social media. Make sure you contact your liaison with the team and have them help spread the word, too.
Make a sale, and know which photos have been ordered.
Open Lightroom and navigate to the published gallery. Find the image your customer bought, open the Develop module, and edit that file for print. Repeat for each ordered image. Those images will be marked for republishing.
Open the publish settings and reset the Quality slider to 90% (print quality).
Hit the Publish button, which replaces your compressed images with your print-ready files.
Go to the SmugMug proof-delay page for the order and click the Release Order button.
Write your customer to let them know you’ve reviewed the order and sent it to the lab, and thank them for their support.
We hope these steps outline an easy strategy to get you started on your way to success in sports photography. Have any tips of your own to share?
