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Digital or Film? In a matter of just a few years, digital has replaced film as the dominant image recording medium. Digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera are the fastest growing segment of the market as the costs of DSLR cameras drop. More people are being lured to the sidelines to shoot sporting events...Unfortunately often lured by marginally deceptive advertising...Ads that show Mom on the sidelines with her Canon XT and "kit" lens with a background shot produced by a working pro. The implication is that anyone can make shots like a pro. The truth is a little different, but by the time the average consumer finds that out, the money has been spent.
Either film or digital can work for you, and each has some considerations.
Some Basics...
 | Don't go cheap on your memory cards. Absolutely, don't buy memory cards on eBay. The Australian eBay site estimates that around 90% of the memory cards offered for sale are counterfeit. There are ways to detect most of the counterfeits, but only after you have purchased the card. Buy from one of the major manufacturers...And buy from a dealer you can talk to if you have problems. |
| Format the card each time you put it into your camera to shoot pictures. (If your camera doesn't offer this option, it probably isn't suitable for sports photography anyway.) If you can, restart the numbering sequence for each shoot. |
| Figure out an image management scheme. Never edit the same file that you downloaded from the camera or card. Set up a system that allows you to preserve the original file, and that allows you a way to keep track of your workflow. I use a branching series of folders: |
Name_of_Shoot
Source (The files straight from the card)
Camera1 (Useful to keep track of camera performance)
Camera2
Working (A direct copy of the source file. This is where the editing takes place.)
Camera1
Camera2
Selected (These are the finished images.)
CD
Prints
Web
| Consider a file naming system. I use a sequence like this: rip-060710-x-123.jpg |
"rip" is shorthand for the
team or event.
"060710" is the date, in
year/month/day numerical format...In this case July 10, 2006.
"x" indicates the camera body.
"123" is the sequence number
assigned by the particular camera body.
Remember that the camera body will give the file a name something like "DSC_0024.JPG". That's not particularly informative. By using a batch renaming routine (which can be a standalone program like "Faena") you can keep three or four digits of the camera's sequence, but add informative text in front.
| Editing programs are worth what you pay for them. I recommend PhotoShop Elements as an entry level editor. You can find programs for free, but PhotoShop has the most widely used processes and user interface. It also allows you to step up to the full version of the program without relearning. | ||||||||||
| Consider how you want to protect your files. Unlike film, digital offers you no physical artifact of your shooting. And to be frank, the more you shoot, and the more megapixels your camera has, the less likely it is for you keep to a good backup routine. One way to reduce the impact of a computer hard drive failure is to install one or more two-drive RAID arrays in (or external to) your computer. By setting up for "RAID 1" your computer writes simultaneously to two hard drives at once. If one drive crashes, your data should be safe on the other. With 400GB SATA drives selling for about $200 each this may be a good strategy for your home computer anyway. Some motherboards allow you to configure a pair of SATA drives as either a RAID 0 (striped read/write -- where files are split between two disks for faster access) or RAID 1 (mirrored read/write -- for redundancy). Beyond this, you should still consider backing up your work on DVD (a CD holds fewer files than many common in-camera memory cards). | ||||||||||
| Even though your DSLR has a lot of options, consider the
following settings as practical starting points...
Once you set up the camera, shoot with the lens wide open, or stopped down no more than one f-stop. Adjust the ISO to get the highest possible shutter speed. |
Output. First of all, what is your final product? Snapshots? Photos for a web page or photo sharing site? Enlargements?
It is both time consuming and expensive to make even one set of 4x6 prints from a game on your ink jet printer at home. Additionally, the "life" of a photo from your home printer may be very short. I've had prints in the office (under fluorescent lights) fade badly in a year. Actual results depend on the ink and paper combination -- I can get widely varying life expectancy from my Epson 1280 printer depending upon which paper I use -- all using the same ink. Also, the fine print in some manufacturers' longevity claims refers to prints under glass. For longest life, consider a dye sublimation printer such as offered by Olympus, Sony, Hi-Touch (HiTi).
To show to team members I put a set of game prints in one or more inexpensive albums. At the next game the players and friends can pas the little albums around and they stay in order, protected, and together.)
It may be a lot easier to burn your selected photos onto a CD and take them to your local minilab. Most camera and drug stores now have digital minilabs. Prints from these machines are more durable, they won't smudge or run, and they will last much longer. While they may be more expensive per print, remember that you don't have to get the whole "roll" printed, and you aren't paying for a roll of film to be developed. If you have the time, don't use images directly from the camera. Crop the prints and make some adjustments for color and exposure. This will make much more interesting prints.
Remember that, as with anything photographic, the equipment in only part of the equation. Operator skill and attention to detail makes the biggest difference. Before I settled on my current lab I stopped getting prints from film at one store that ran a digital minilab. The operators just couldn't figure out how do deal with the grass and range of exposure in my soccer photos.
If you plan on posting to the web, use the "Save for Web" feature if it is offered by your photo editing software.
Selecting Film: I'm going to assume you plan on shooting color print film. There are a number of companies out there manufacturing film, and many retailers have their own house brand (generic). If you are a discriminating photographer, you'll have a brand and emulsion that works best for you -- perhaps different films for different shooting situations. To make matters easier, start with either Kodak (yellow) or Fuji (green)...but stick with the brand for several shooting sessions. The next decision to make is the film speed, or ISO number (it used to be ASA, and your camera's meter may be marked for "ASA"). One long standing rule of thumb is the "Sunny 16" rule, which says that on a sunny day, you'll get a decent exposure of the average subject using f/16 and the shutter speed closest to the film speed. The table following shows combinations using three different film speeds.
| "Sunny 16" Combinations | |||
| ISO 200 | ISO 400 | ISO 800 | |
| 1/8000 | f/2.8 | f/4 | f/5.6 |
| 1/4000 | f/4 | f/5.6 | f/8 |
| 1/2000 | f/5.6 | f/8 | f/11 |
| 1/1000 | f/8 | f/11 | f/16 |
| 1/500 | f/11 | f/16 | f/22 |
| 1/250 | f/16 | f/22 | f/32 |
| 1/125 | f/22 | f/32 | f/45 |
You want to shoot with as fast a shutter speed as possible, and with as large an aperture as you feel comfortable with (to narrow the depth of field and blur out that background). If the shutter on your camera goes only to 1/2000 of a second, you may find ISO 800 film to be too fast for sunny fields. My Nikon F100s went to 1/8000, and so I had a wider choice of films. And remember that the table above is for full sunlight. On a cloudy day, when the sun is low, or when your players are in shadow you'll need faster film. You may need to bring two different emulsions to your game. (I shoot a lot of Fuji 800 Press. I like the speed, and I can get 20 rolls for $62, delivered, from B&H.)
Developing & Printing: This is the great variable. I don't take my film to the drugstore minilab, to the grocery, or to the discount warehouse store. Sometimes you'll get great results, and other times you'll be appalled. There are four major places where you can foul up color print photography: (1) During shooting, (2) developing the film, (3) printing the photos, and (4) processing the prints. As you can see, three of those four are the responsibility of your lab. (And if mistakes happen during steps #1 or #2, you can't go back.) Use the same lab for a couple of shoots, and if you're not happy -- and they can't "fix" the prints -- try somewhere else.
Being a regular customer helps. One Saturday afternoon I was dropping off film after a late game. I asked the lab man if I could have them Sunday afternoon. He said he wouldn't be able to get them done that Saturday, and since he was off Sunday, would I mind picking them up on Monday? He said he knew the way I liked my prints and that he'd rather do them himself. (Of course I picked them up on Monday.)
(Updated April, 2007)
