As a reasonably experienced amateur here: Depending on the sport or even just how the teams position on the field, I walk away with 600-2500 images from a sports game, usually the lower end unless it’s particularly action packed. I end up keeping around 10 to 20%, and during processing usually cull that down a bit more. The first time covering a team I tend to overshoot, and might put up a shot of every player just so they have a photo of them, later games I’ll get more picky. This wasn’t a conscious thing, just something that I noticed I do.
I never understood “story” until I tried to put a book together. Even just putting one together in a publishing program as a PDF that you’ll probably never print… is a good exercise in noting the types of shots you’re missing; wide establishing shots of the turf/field, crowds, team celebrations, etc. You’ll think you have heaps of images, but for telling a story you won’t, at least if you shoot like I did.
Practice is the big one also.
And only share your best work. I throw away anything blurry even if it’s the ideal shot from a burst… people only have an opinion of the images you show them, so just show your best stuff. There’s the odd shot that can be artistically blurry though… you’ll work it out ;)
As a reasonably experienced amateur here: Depending on the sport or even just how the teams position on the field, I walk away with 600-2500 images from a sports game, usually the lower end unless it’s particularly action packed. I end up keeping around 10 to 20%, and during processing usually cull that down a bit more. The first time covering a team I tend to overshoot, and might put up a shot of every player just so they have a photo of them, later games I’ll get more picky. This wasn’t a conscious thing, just something that I noticed I do.
I never understood “story” until I tried to put a book together. Even just putting one together in a publishing program as a PDF that you’ll probably never print… is a good exercise in noting the types of shots you’re missing; wide establishing shots of the turf/field, crowds, team celebrations, etc. You’ll think you have heaps of images, but for telling a story you won’t, at least if you shoot like I did.
Practice is the big one also.
And only share your best work. I throw away anything blurry even if it’s the ideal shot from a burst… people only have an opinion of the images you show them, so just show your best stuff. There’s the odd shot that can be artistically blurry though… you’ll work it out ;)