Fortunately, my pictures from FC St. Pauli games are printed with regularity in various press publications. For example, last Friday was in the local one BILD, a somewhat older photo by Patrick Funk was published quite widely. That's when I came up with the idea of doing something here that you shouldn't actually do: namely showing the original.
Of course, I didn't upload the entire recording to the editorial server, but only the corresponding action by Mr. Funk. But you can clearly see in the following pictures that even with a 400mm lens it is impossible to capture all situations on a football field in the full format. The playing field is simply too big for that. And it's still a small field - compared to, for example, one Polo field. I know from some inquiries from my blog readers that the average photographer is often only equipped with a maximum of 20cm. Of course I mean the focal length available in the camera bag. The good Mr. Funk would have taken up significantly less space in the picture.
And now I’ll tell you another helpful trick. In my favorite image viewing program PhotoMechanic There is an incredibly great function for adapting images directly when sending them to the editorial offices or agencies.
With these settings I shrink the maximum file size to 1,3MB - most of the time the images are only around 1MB in size. This file size is enough to fill a newspaper page - of course this doesn't work for glossy magazines, but in the sports sector there are very few of them... At the same time, PhotoMechanic ensures that the edge length of the image consists of 3000 pixels. And that regardless of how I choose the neckline. This means that in case of doubt, an image will even be sent enlarged. As in the case of the Patrick Funk photo, because the original image only has a height of 2767 pixels in the crop sent. Even this very blunt method of enlarging photos doesn't really appeal given the low resolution of the daily press.
The only important thing when using this trick is that the image is really sharp. That's why I do an AF fine adjustment on the lenses I use before every game I photograph. And before I send a picture, I check the sharpness of the shot in 100% view. This is super quick in PhotoMechanic by pressing the "z" key. I only send the picture if it is really razor sharp.
You can correct many factors in post-processing of an image - especially if you shoot in RAW. But a blurry image remains a blurry image. That's why the first thing I pay attention to in my photos is the sharpness.
Hello Stefan, so far so good, but how exactly do you do this with the AF fine adjustment? Thanks for looking into your bag of tricks
I make this relatively easy for myself: I know my typical distance and take a photo of a foot at the desired distance while warming up before the game. I can then see the focus area based on the tufts of grass. If it fits, that's good, otherwise it needs to be readjusted.
Pro tip: I make sure that the area in front of the foot is in focus, because I usually photograph a player who is running towards me - so I get a higher rate of sharp images 😉
Thanks for opening your bag of tricks. As always, learned something from you. 🙂
OK, thank you very much, good idea to place the focus with something in front of it... sometimes the simple thing is soooo close :)
Wow, you're going so low with QUALITY!?
I haven't dared to do it yet.
And I haven't used SHÄRFEN and sRGB so far.
Thank you for the insights!
I think the quality slider has no meaning if you specify a maximum file size. But I am not sure.
Oh, I should have tried this before writing.
It is so that the controller “automatically” moves downwards,
when I enter something in LIMIT File Size.
You never stop learning.
Yay, my guess was right. 🙂
The photo mechanic first tries to send the recipient the best possible quality that is possible based on the maximum file size entered. If that doesn't work, it will compress down to the set quality limit. If both don't work anymore, there's a message to Scheffe at the key.
arghs, half lost again: sharpening makes perfect sense, and so does sRGB. Why ? This can go into print and no one needs to worry about it anymore. And most people want sRGB, at least in the 0815 print area. Things look different with high gloss. But Stefan already mentioned that 😉 And high gloss is not up to the minute. If they (at least in my area) want something immediately, then it's usually just for the presentation on the internet anyway... 😉
That's how it is.
It's very cool to get an insight into how you work 🙂 From my point of view, it's the top class, because sports photography would be too hectic for me personally, I'm more of a quiet studio photographer, where things are very quiet 🙂 Great shot though and the sharpness of the original image is also very fine, the 400 is clearly noticeable. For me this is the best and sharpest telephoto in this area!!!
There aren't that many lenses in this area 😉
Are you also working with an 800? I always see this and think that it must be super difficult to focus really quickly with the lens 🙂 I personally took photos with the 400 at concerts and events for many years and it wasn't always easy when the optics got something in focus the pictures are lightning sharp 🙂
Uh – no. I'd be happy to spend the €17k on something else... chocolate, for example... 😉
A lens costs 17.000 euros??? *gulp*
THE object does.
:))
ditto 🙂
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