Sports photo suggestion? - DPChallenge Forums

03/26/2012 03:26:08 PM · #1

As some of you know I am the sports photographer for most of the sports at my school. My problem that I face is this... (the people who were with me in the SoBe GTG back in January will know what I mean)...

Recently I have been taking 99% of my photos vertically... This includes my sports photos... When the photos are put onto the schools website they look like they don't fit. But from the reading that I have done about sports photos vertical shots are visually more pleasing than photos taken horizontally. I have seen this to be true with my photos that I have done. Here is my question...

Should I keep shooting vertical and keep getting good shots? Or should I lessen my quality to help the photo seem to fit better on the school's page?

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

03/26/2012 03:29:03 PM · #2

For example on the link below when the website automatically goes to the next article it changes photos to match the article. You will see the action shots are 2-1 vertical to horizontal. The one horizontal one seems to fit better than the ones that are vertical.

Link

Mike

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

03/26/2012 03:46:45 PM · #3

does the site look better if the photos fit better? do you do anything else with these pictures besides show them on the site? would lessening the quality affect some other use of them?

03/26/2012 03:58:01 PM · #4

I guess it looks better with the photos horizontal... The only thing I do other than give them to the person who does the website is share them on my facebook. Other than that there are no prints or anything. I just don't like the way that most of the photos I take if they are not vertical...

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/26/2012 04:29:58 PM · #5

i'm right there with you.

probably 90% of what i shoot is strictly for web usage, especially my sports shooting. i've had to learn to adapt to shooting primarily horizontal. i still make sure i get at least a handful of clean verticals of each individual player, but other than those, it's straight horizontal. i used to give clients a near-even mix, but they kept requesting more and more web-ready imagery that they could drop right onto their sites.

c'est la vie...

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

03/26/2012 04:47:59 PM · #6

Originally posted by Skip:

i'm right there with you.

probably 90% of what i shoot is strictly for web usage, especially my sports shooting. i've had to learn to adapt to shooting primarily horizontal.

Are you cropping or just resizing?

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

03/26/2012 10:15:52 PM · #7

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Skip:
i'm right there with you.

probably 90% of what i shoot is strictly for web usage, especially my sports shooting. i've had to learn to adapt to shooting primarily horizontal.

Are you cropping or just resizing?

i really try to get it right in camera, but i'll crop when necessary. even then, though, i don't change the ratio.

MattO

Nikon D4

03/26/2012 11:40:49 PM · #8

Originally posted by Skip:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Skip:
i'm right there with you.

probably 90% of what i shoot is strictly for web usage, especially my sports shooting. i've had to learn to adapt to shooting primarily horizontal.

Are you cropping or just resizing?

i really try to get it right in camera, but i'll crop when necessary. even then, though, i don't change the ratio.

Skip when I shoot for print(newspaper) I'm asked to give about a 50-50 ratio because the pages are built depending on ad space. The web stuff they use is just cropped(usually horribly so) to fit the space they have. Some sites IMHO are just to lazy to do a proper crop to make it fit and want plug and play. Although those clients money spends the same as those who will do it properly, they can be a PITA and make your work less representative of your actual work, if you know what I mean.

03/27/2012 09:19:55 AM · #9

Originally posted by MattO:

Originally posted by Skip:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Skip:
i'm right there with you.

probably 90% of what i shoot is strictly for web usage, especially my sports shooting. i've had to learn to adapt to shooting primarily horizontal.

Are you cropping or just resizing?

i really try to get it right in camera, but i'll crop when necessary. even then, though, i don't change the ratio.

Skip when I shoot for print(newspaper) I'm asked to give about a 50-50 ratio because the pages are built depending on ad space. The web stuff they use is just cropped(usually horribly so) to fit the space they have. Some sites IMHO are just to lazy to do a proper crop to make it fit and want plug and play. Although those clients money spends the same as those who will do it properly, they can be a PITA and make your work less representative of your actual work, if you know what I mean.

i think i was exaggerating when i said "90%" ;-) aside from newspaper/magazine/commercial work where there are specific directives (like "give us 50-50 vertical/horizontal), my school and event clients pretty much want horizontal, web-ready images. and i've had to learn to just let it go when it comes to what clients do with the images... (that's why it's so important to maintain your own portfolio)

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

03/27/2012 12:53:18 PM · #10

So let me get this straight here... For my own portfolio I need the shots that look good... But for the photos that are going onto the website, I should flip the camera to make sure they are horizontal photos?

They haven't said anything to me yet but I'm sure they will one day if I keep giving them 90% vertical photos... Lol.

MattO

Nikon D4

03/27/2012 01:00:41 PM · #11

Originally posted by mbrutus2009:

They may not, they may just find someone willing to conform to what they want, that is what clients do. :D