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Shooting Sports 101 – Football

September 7, 2010 By Anne 1 Comment

High School Football

f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 100

The undisputed heavyweight of the high school sports world.

I could create an entire blog devoted to high school football photography. In fact, there’s no time to be funny or clever here – we just need to get down to business.

Here are some of my tips from spending countless Friday-night hours on the sidelines.

Logistical Tips


1. Get There Early! Most football games are played on Friday nights. Take advantage of the fleeting daylight savings time hours and set out to shoot early in the season. Believe me, the difference in available light in early September compared with late October is staggering.
2. Stake Out Your Spot – Park yourself in the end zone or in the corner of the field. You will get yelled at if you get too close to the coach’s box.
3. Follow the ball – this is where most of the action is.

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1000

4. Look out! Tackles happen in the sideline – exactly where you’re standing. If the rumble of sweaty boys starts to gain strength – MOVE!
5. Take a knee – shooting sports from a sitting or kneeling positions is a really great perspective and enhances the action and drama.

Camera Settings

1. Shutter Speed – It is really hard to stop action with a shutter speed of anything slower than 1/250. If you go slower, you’ll get more light into your camera, but you will most likely end up with a blurry image.

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 800

2. Bump up that ISO as high as it will go. (I know, I know – the grain! Keep reading because I’m addressing that in the next section.)

3. Open your aperature as wide as it will go (smallest number possible). If you’ve got some fast glass and can go as low as f/2.8  – you’ve got the ingredients to make some terrific images!

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 800

4. Use spot focusing.

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1000


Equipment and SoftwareTips

1. Investing in a cheap monopod can come in really handy for high school football. Because of the lighting, you’re going to have to slow your shutter speed waaaaaay down and a monopod will reduce natural camera shake.

2. Noise reduction software. Personally, I really like Noise Ninja. Again, because of the lighting, you’re going to want to bump up your ISO as high as it will go. The higher the ISO the more grainy or noisy the image. Noise Ninja is a photoshop plug in that resides in your filter section. It does a really nice job of getting rid of a lot of that noise.

Cheats - OK so you don’t have the kind of setup I’ve described above – not a problem – here’s an idea that will also work.

If you really want to capture some great action shots of your son or nephew, a cool cheat is to set up shop during warm ups. Usually, both groups run patterns for a long time before the game starts.

f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 100

You can usually venture closer to mid-field which is closer to the lights AND the ref won’t give you a hard time for being close to the field before the whistle blows.
Since the players run patterns as a part of their warm-up routine, you have more opportunity to capture YOUR kid with the ball. If you frame the image right, nobody will be able to tell that the shot occurred prior to kickoff.

Don’t forget to capture some non-action shots. I talk about that more in this post.

And of course, if there is a DAY game scheduled – get there and make some great images!

f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100

f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100

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5 Tips for B/W Image Conversion in Photoshop

August 23, 2010 By Anne 1 Comment

I must admit. I’m not a very patient person.

Actually, I am patient, but I posess a finite amount of patience and by the time my son is played with, fed, bathed and put to bed, my patience resevoir is tapped out. When I’m ready to sit down in front of the computer, the last thing that I am able to do is spend a ton of time photoshopping my images.

I suppose it’s good to know this about myself, otherwise I’d be broke replacing so many laptops and windows after throwing said laptop through said window.

I envy these people who seem to be at their best when they are applying every single filter every single fix to end up with the perfect end product.

Me, not so much.

For the most part, I am fine doing a little bit of post-production work on my images. I bump up the saturation, apply the unsharp mask, maybe mess around with the shadow/highlight and that’s about it.

OK, OK… if I’m working with an image that I’m in, maybe I’ll do the thinning technique that Scott Kelby wrote about. Seriously, this dude should win a Nobel Prize for this tip alone!

Here are my quick and dirty tips for b/w image conversion. These are in no particular order, because sitting down and ranking them would require the patience that I spent wiping the winter squash out of my hair after my son threw it at me.

Here’s the original image that I’ve converted.

1. Channel Mixer – In my opinion, using the Channel Mixer gives you the most control and power over your conversion. When you select this option, you’ll see a control box that let’s you adjust how much the red, green and blue filters will kiss the image.

2. Grayscale Color Mode – this is the quickest way to turn a color image into black and white. Go to the Image menu, Mode submenu and then select Grayscale.

Now, while this is the quickest way, it is far from the best way. Check out the results below. It looks a little muddy.

I’ve found that the grayscale mode works best for color images that already have a lot of contrast and possess color on the extreme ends of the spectrum. If you have an image like this and not alot of time, this might be a good method to use.

3. Desaturation – Another option is to reduce the saturation option all the way within the Hue/Saturation tool. This will remove all color from the image.

4. Duotone - I love this method because not only can you make b/w images, you can select any two colors you want – red and white can be REALLY cool! See:

5. Use whichever method YOU think looks best. Who cares what I or anyone else has to say! They are your pictures – do what YOU want.

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Non-Action Sports Photography

August 2, 2010 By Anne 22 Comments

Parents – get ready to do your happy-dance! Back-to-school season is upon us.

I don’t know about you – but the Arrested Development Chicken Dance IS my happy dance.

What’s especially exciting about back-to-school time is that it coincides with the fall sports season!

Shooting sports is a real passion of mine. I loved playing sports as a kid, and now I find the challenge of sports shooting to be especially rewarding.

For me, sports photography is about 2 things; capturing peak action and capturing emotion. For those of you who have played sports at some point in your life, you know that playing from the heart is everything. Great sports photographs aren’t compelling only because they’ve captured the bat on ball in baseball or the moment of impact in football, they display the emotion of the athlete.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to be launching a regular feature here at Live Laugh Shoot where we pass along tips for shooting specific sports like football, wrestling and soccer.

But before we do that, we’re going to tackle non-action sports photography or the emotion off the field.

Capture Connections This particular game was a real pleasure to shoot because the coaching staff was superb. All of the coaches were fathers and had kids on the team, but it was hard to tell who was who’s son because each coach was so supportive and positive towards each of these kids. I made this image right after the player lined-out after leaving a few on base. Before letting him head back out on the field to play defense, the coach sat him down for a quick pep-talk. It was a really sweet moment.

Boxing is all about heart. The cliche of the underdog in boxing is one that will always benefit you when shooting anyone wearing a pair of boxing gloves. This story is built into our collective experience and one that most people can connect with. A boxer hanging on the ropes with a soulful face is as impactful as a close-up of a face with spit flying out of his mouth as his opponent’s glove shatters every bone in his face. Plus, you have to wipe blood off of your lens.

When the game is over – don’t pack up your gear! Even thought this gaggle of boys was probably laughing at the mom-jeans I was wearing that day, I still love this image. I have such fond memories of sports and I miss my teammates almost every day. They are some of the best friends I’ve ever had.

Experienced sports photographers will usually do their best to follow the ball. The ball is where the action is.  I really like this image because it tells such a great story of high school rivalry.

The Jube Shot! Capturing the jubilation shot is addictive. If you sense that victory is near, keep your camera sights on your child and capture the cheers as the final whistle blows.

What are your favorite sports images?

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5 Tips for Better Black and White Images

July 19, 2010 By Anne 10 Comments

My son hasn’t been sleeping very well. In fact, it’s been about 4 days since I’ve had more than 3 hours of sleep in a row, so this feature is really appropriate since it’s been a while since I’ve been able to even see colors.

Black and White is George Clooney

While color is Christiano Ronaldo

Black and White is Scarlett Johansson

While color is Portia de Rossi

All are beautiful but for me, b/w images consistenty have more depth. They tell a very different story. Color, while visually dynamic, can be a distraction that takes you away from the emotion of the image.

I don’t know about you, but I always find myself looking at b/w images a little bit longer than their color counterparts. Good b/w images make me want to pour myself another cup of coffee and linger over the print for a few extra minutes. For me, it even goes beyond the romance of b/w. Really good b/w images possess a certain timelessness that I’m really drawn to and because of this I am trying to improve my b/w picture-making ability.

This post was not just an excuse for you to start your week off with a shirtless Ronaldo (you’re welcome!) this post is designed to pass along tips designed to take your black and white images to the next level. This is the first part of a 2-part series. In the follow up, we’ll talk about conversion techniques in Photoshop.

1. Shoot with a low ISO. The lower the ISO the less noisy or grainy your images will be. Great b/w images are tact-sharp and this is easier to acheive with as ISO setting of 100.

2. Shoot during overcast or gloomy days. We’ve talked about this before and you can check it out here. Early morning is one of my favorite times to shoot because the cloud cover provides a wonderful, even light that is perfect for portraits, especially b/w portraits.

3. Dress in simple solid colors. Patterns can distract from the subject of the photo. Typically, I want people looking at the face in my photo and not my KISS t-shirt.

4. Minimize the background. Again, backgrounds can distract. I am forever on a quest to capture timeless images. Backgrounds can very easily date an image.

5. Practice! Get out there and keep shooting! Becoming a better photographer for your family is a marathon, not a sprint. Since your’e not paying for film processing, you’ve got no excuse. Experiment with different settings and different perspectives.

What about you? What are some of your b/w tips?

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Canon 50mm 1.4 – A Love Letter

June 21, 2010 By Anne 2 Comments

This post is written for my site partner, Julie. If you don’t know Julie, you can get to know her a little here.

Julie is unapologetically in love with Canon’s 50mm 1.4 lens. Don’t get me wrong, we both own it, we both probably would have paid twice as much for it and we both use it all the time. It is the undisputed heavyweight of our combined equipment stock.

The difference here is that when Julie pulls this lens out of her bag, all she sees is Colby from Survivor.

She is in love with this lens. Seriously, she’d make out with it if it would just give her the green light.

Mary-Catherine you and your tree have got nuthin’ on my girl Julie and her 50mm!

There are several great things about this lens. It’s small and lightweight, so it won’t take up a whole lot of room in your bag, it’s pretty inexpensive (around $300-350 new) and the image quality is hard to beat.

This is the lens to buy if you hate using flash during indoor photography. Using the lens at the wide-open 1.4 aperture, the pictures that you make are going to be so close to what you see with your naked eye. (Uh-oh – I used the word naked AND posted a picture of Colby in a review of the 50mm 1.4 – Julie is going to need to be resuscitated.)

You’ll notice when opening the lens up and focusing on your child’s nose, the depth of field is so shallow, that the ears are going to start going a little off-focus. I think this can be a cool effect in some cases. As you start closing that aperture, you’ll start to get the whole head in focus.

In my experience, there is simply no other lens worth using in low-light situation. It often seems like this lens actually creates light.

In summary, this lens produces tact sharp, amazing images. If you’re anything like us, you’ll attach this beauty to your SLR and months later, realize that months have passed before you even think about swapping it out.

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Photoshop Tips (Vol. 3): Skin Softening

June 18, 2010 By admin 4 Comments

I am going to show you how to “powder your nose” in Photoshop today.   Except it’s not just your nose, and it’s not you, and well frankly there’s no powder.  Have I lost you yet?  Cause I sure am confused!

Ok, seriously, it’s the subject of your photo, probably your kid(s), and this will soften their skin and give it a nice soft glow.   Remember, if you run into someone whose skin truly is naturally flawless, you could just give them a little kick in the shin, or competitively point out what awesome traits you were awarded as part of your genetic makeup, finishing up with a waving pointy finger and a sassy “Nahnny Nahnny Boo Boo” OR “SO there!” (My online “life” is so dreamy…. sigh..)

Not inspired by violence and/or name calling?  Just give ‘em a look like this one:

The following tips and tricks can be credited to a combination of my learning at UCSD extension Digital Photography courses and Scott Kelby, a Photoshop GURU.  He can be found online at www.scottkelby.com and has authored a fantastic book called The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers. I highly recommend adding it to your library.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS4, you can accomplish the same results with other versions, but keep in mind that the steps may be different. Camera Raw is not available in other versions such as Elements.

Scott Kelby promotes opening images with Camera Raw, so this is how I do it and I really like it.  In windows you can just use the Open As option, highlight the image you are trying to work with, change the selection to Camera Raw and click open.

Steps:

  1. Click on the new radio button
  2. Set the clarity amount to -100
  3. Set the sharpness to +25
  4. Using the size slider, increase the size of your brush
  5. Paint over the skin to soften it generally avoiding areas with more detail, like the eyebrows for example.

Here is a before shot:

And after shot: (In this photo,in addition to some color adjustments,  I also brightened the whites of her eyes and sharpened some areas.)

Filed Under: Photoshop Tips Tagged With: ,

How To Make a Great Picture of Your Newborn

June 7, 2010 By Anne 4 Comments

My mom has always said that almost every experience in life can be traced back to an episode of Seinfeld. One of my favorites is when they go to the Hamptons and visit the ugly baby.

Let’s face it, newborns can be a little funny looking. My son was beautiful from day 1, but I’ll admit to snapping a few shots of him when he was looking a little… off.

You don’t believe me? Please see exhibit A:


Here are a few tips for making great pictures of the early days.

1. This is BY FAR, the most important tip! Take advantage of perfect skin days – I don’t know about you, but since he was born, my son has lived the majority of his days with some kind of mark on his face. I didn’t have much baby acne to contend with, but between stork kisses, scratching himself, dry skin, blocked tear ducts and drool patches it seemed like I was always dealing with something.

If you find yourself in a similar pattern, know that your son or daughter will wake up one-day and be mark-free. Moms – this is a call to action! I don’t care if you’re tired, if you have to go to the bathroom, if the doorbell is ringing – if you find yourself in a perfect-face-scenario, grab your camera and get shooting, because it could be a week or two before this opportunity presents itself again! Believe me, if you hang up on your mother-in-law because your little girl is emerging from a nap with nothing but a rosey-glow, hand that MIL a print of your perfect girl and I guar-an-tee that she will understand and forgive your transgression.

2. Help Prop Him Up – As you know – newborns don’t have neck control, so you’re going to have to help your son out here. Here’s where your boppy is going to come in handy. Put the boppy on a table or ottoman or some kind of surface. Throw a solid color sheet over it and then place your son on his stomach in the center of the boppy with his arms and chest on the pillow. You’re going to need to move quickly, because your son probably won’t be too comfortable here for too long.

3. Take From Above – sometimes we need all the help we can get, and newborns are no exception. Taking pictures from above can not only be a great way to show a different perspective, but it can also be a really flattering angle for your baby.

4. Take pictures right after she’s eaten or nursed. I remember being so struck by the gorgeous rosey-hue of my son’s cheeks right after he nursed. It was so beautiful it almost brough tears to my eyes. Capturing this kind of detail will make your relatives all gooey inside.

5. Use texture in your background. Here’s where you can experiment and really have some fun! Do you have a big fluffy towel? Maybe a shaggy scarf? Use this kind of texture as your surface and it can create a really artistic touch to your photo.

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Photoshop Tips (Vol. 2)

June 4, 2010 By Anne 1 Comment

You’re going to have to forgive this post in advance. I didn’t really sleep last night, but a deadline is a deadline.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but my son is not a good sleeper. The first four months of his life, he was only able to sleep if he was ON me. I spent every night of those first four months “sleeping” while sitting up on a cheap couch with my son laying across my chest.

Last night, he woke up a little before 1:00 am and didn’t really fall back asleep until 5:00, which is when I get up for work. I got to work on-time, but spent most of the day feeling a little bit like this.

I’m really, really, really tired.

Today, as I attempt to make sense in this drugless stupor, in seemed appropriate that we use this addition of Photoshop Friday to feature (creative vs. functional) filters! Hey, why is the bookshelf laughing at me?! After all, some of those filters are downright trippy.

Let’s get starajjjjjjjjjgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Sorry about that, I must have fallen asleep on my keyboard. How rude of me!

OK, let’s try this again, let’s get started. We all know that in Photoshop, we can put our heads on Jessica Beal’s body, but believe it or not, there are other things we can do too. In regular photography, you can use a filter over your lens to create a different effect on your images. You can make your pictures greener or softer – Photoshop filters work the same way except in Photoshop, you can really crank up the fun factor.

Your filters can be found under the filter menu in Photoshop. I’m only going to focus on a few of them to give you an idea of the cool things you can do with this feature. Go ahead and open up the Filter Menu and let your funky chicken dance! Most filters have a preview window so that you can see how your image will look as you move the various sliders.

Here is my non-filtered image:

This first filter is called Fresco and it imitates the fresco painting style from the days of yore.

This next is called colored pencil

Enter the trippy factor! This next is called spherize and it’s included in a filter section called distort.

This next distortion filter is Shear.

This next filter is called cutout and it’s one of my favorites. You can alter the number of color levels that you want to apply to your image and then the filter converts the existing colors and shades into the levels. I’ve used this filter to create mix-cd (remember those kids!) covers.

Applying these filters can make your standard photos more visually interesting. As my son grows up, I can definatley see myself using one of these filters to create an image that I’ll have printed on a birthday cake, or even uploading to cafe press to create some neat customized clothing.

Using these filters won’t necessarily improve your photographic technique, but they will give you an opportunity to use your artistic flair and turn your images into creative masterpieces. You are only limited by your imagination!

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Rebel Without a Clue (Volume 1)

June 3, 2010 By admin 2 Comments

We are not equipment snobs here at LLS, nor are we married to one brand. However, we will mostly discuss Canon because that is what we’ve got in our bag. You can shoot with anything, however unless you are hanging out with Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins, please check your .30-06 (“thirty-ought-six”) at the door! Come on what kind of site do you think this is? FOCUS! No pun intended… ahhh who am I kidding, of course it was intended!

Whether you are sportin’ a point and shoot, entry level DSLR, pro level DSLR, or even an IPhone you can capture great moments every day using any of them. As a matter of fact, we have some great prints from our Iphone cameras, that’s right I said IPHONES! IPhones take pictures too, quite conveniently actually and the quality ain’t too shabby either. (Spoiler alert: Watch for future Weekend Warrior posts as we are out and about with our IPhones).

So back to the topic at hand, (pun intended) Canon Rebel that is…. With the decreasing costs of getting better equipment, most of us have gone out and purchased a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera). The Rebel, otherwise known as a “pro-sumer” camera, can be categorized as one step above a point and shoot, yet not quite a “pro” like the 50D or 7D, or BIG dog like a 5D Mark II (insert drool here).

So, this week’s post is all about this button and all the little letters and pictures on it (photo courtesy of http://steves-digicams.com) :

There is an easy way to break this down, and is actually listed this way in the manual for the camera (One of the best tips I received when I was learning is read the manual cover to cover, I promise it’s full of tons of great information, keep it in your bag for referencing at all times!).

Canon refers to the above in two zones: 1) the creative zone (everything north of the green square: A-DEP down through P), and 2) the basic zone (the 7 small icons south of and including the green square). The creative zone is the place where you have either complete control, or as close to complete control as possible over the way your camera is taking pictures. It’s truly ideal, but a can be a very overwhelming area to shoot from but oohhhh so fun. Ok, I’m getting ahead of myself… stay with me!

The basic zone, is a group of pre-determined settings designed for optimal exposure in specific circumstances, taking into consideration your subject(s), distance to your subject, available light, and/or overall goal/end result you seek. (For example, freezing your son’s wild t-ball swing versus capturing your children naturally posed, clean as can be, all smiling and sitting ever so still on your front porch for a family photo) It’s ok to dream, right? This zone takes a lot of the thinking out of the equation but still allows you to optimize camera settings for a desired outcome. Hopefully this makes sense!

We will spend some time in the future getting to know each of these on a more intimate level, the purpose today is to get a basic understanding of what each one means, ideally in laymen’s terms…. photographically speaking.

Some definitions:
Aperture: a small opening in the lens that changes the diameter of the opening to control how much light reaches the sensor as the photo is taken. Controlled by setting fstops.

Shutter Speed: the amount of time the shutter stays open, the longer it is open, the greater the amount of light allowed into the camera.

The Creative Zone:
A-DEP: Automatic Depth of Field. Camera selects both shutter speed and aperture with the goal of having everything in the viewfinder in focus. (Instead of your subject being in focus with a blurred background for example).

M: Manual mode, you must set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO to get the right exposure.

Av – Aperture Priority – You choose the aperture, and the camera chooses a shutter speed to get a proper exposure

Tv – Shutter priority – You choose the shutter speed, and the camera chooses an aperture to get a proper exposure

P – Program – automatic mode, but unlocks some of the creative functions. Camera selects shutter speed and aperture.

The Basic Zone:
Head image –best to use when taking a portrait, the setting assists in blurring the background and softens the subject’s hair.

Mountain – this is landscape mode, useful for wide scenery shots, where you want to have everything in focus that is in the picture, whether close up or far away. (Instead of a blurred background like with a portrait)

Flower/tulip – close up mode, for shooting items close up, such as flowers or simple objects. Have you ever seen those pictures of a bee so close up you can see its wings in great detail? It’s called macro photography, typically most effective with a macro lens. In any case, this preset option optimizes times you want to be up close and personal with your subject.

Person in motion – for shooting action shots, like sporting events when you want to freeze the action.

Person with star – nighttime shooting mode, tripod and wide angle lens strongly recommended to avoid the image being blurry or missing some of the detail that a great night shot can highlight.

Final choice – block with line and arrow going through it. This is how you are able to take an image and know with confidence that the flash will not fire. I am generally a flash avoider, but you have to be careful. Flash is needed in many cases to properly capture the moment. An example of a time you may want to turn the flash off would be shooting those lovely little seahorses through the aquarium glass. Seahorses hate bright lights anyway, so it’s a win-win! (I only speak the truth you must believe everything I write oh I am sorry was that out loud?)

Watch for future volumes when we dive a bit deeper. If you have any immediate questions, please feel free to leave a comment, or email us Julie at livelaughshoot(dot)com or Anne at livelaughshoot (dot) com.

Filed Under: Rebel Without A Clue Tagged With: , ,

Photoshop Tips (Vol.1)

May 28, 2010 By admin 1 Comment

Are you afraid of Photoshop? You are not alone.
Photoshop’s incredible depth and scope is matched only by its ability to intimidate.
Seriously, if Photoshop was a pair of shoes, it would look like this:

Ok, hold my hand, let’s put on the shoes together.

Welcome to Photoshop Friday! Each week, we’ll feature one teenie-tiny piece of the Photoshop jungle and make it easier to understand. As we’ve mentioned before, we are not pro-photographers and we are definitely not pro-Photoshop-ers. These aren’t full blown tutorials or elaborate instruction videos – Photoshop Fridays will just feature little tips we’ve picked up along the way to improve our photos.

The first piece we want to tackle is saturation. Saturation enhancement techniques will make your photos look more vivid.

Open a photo in photoshop. I’m going to go with this image because my son looks strangely pale. Honestly, looking at this picture, you’d think he was one of the Cullens! (Team Edward!)

Now, there are number of controls that can effect saturation, my favorite is the quick and easy Hue/Saturation slider in the Image > Adjustments menu. When you select that option from the drop down menu and this is what you’ll see:

Go ahead and slide the saturation dial – you’ll see the image change before your eyes. My personal limit is +10 on the Saturation. Go above that and you’re venturing into Pee-Wee’s playhouse territory. Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure Cowboy Curtis and Captain Carl are cool guys, but I don’t want them messing with my pictures.

I digress…

Hit the OK button when you’ve reached a balance that you like, save the image and you’re good to go!

Here’s the final product. Again, this step doesn’t create a drastic change, but it’s a really nice, quick, enhancement to the color balance of your image.

See folks! That wasn’t so bad – we’re ready for the runway!

Tune in next week for another edition of Photoshop Friday!

Filed Under: Photoshop Tips Tagged With: ,
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