1 Year to get to agency standard!

redmonkee

redmonkee

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Name
PHILIP
Edit My Images
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Now I know this is a bit ambitious but I'd love to get to a standard where I can shoot for an Agency and get paid doing it.

Now for those of you who don't know me, i'm just a keen amateur who over the last few months has upgraded my kit bag considerably which has enabled me to get shots up to the standard currently in my website. http://www.philcarverphotography.com/portfolio98494.html

Now I'd like to know general ways in which I can improve and things I should look out for this season. At the moment I am still shooting Raw so obviously this needs to be addressed.

If I do start shooting JPEG what do i need to do for white balance etc and are there any tips for jpeg settings on the 1D mark III to get good punchy colours out of the camera.

Any other tips or suggestions greatly appreciated :thumbs:
 
Assume you need to switch to JPG for sending files direct from the event with little or no editing ?

Not a pro or agency registered, but id suggest learning and relearning correct exposure first time in camera, in differing lighting conditions. Learn the controls of the camera completely, and how to change them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Sort out white balances with exposure cards (or something similar) before and during shooting if the conditions change.

If you will be using long lenses, on tripods or monopods, REALLY learn how to use them properly to get good sharp images direct from camera.

All i can think of, off the top of my head, im sure people that do this for a living will come along and provide more detailed things to do, and more importantly not to do shortly :)
 
Its possible Phil

Of course it depends on what you mean by Agency quality? that can be ambiguous at times. Personally i think your well on the way to reaching the "right" standard :)
 
just looked through your galleries and you seem to be doing ok, what you need to be looking at is how much editing you are doing on shots now, and try to get it so the camera does all that for you :) check out the picture styles settings to get increased sharpness and colour etc !
 
Rovers_Andy said:
Its possible Phil

Of course it depends on what you mean by Agency quality? that can be ambiguous at times. Personally i think your well on the way to reaching the "right" standard :)
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Cheers guys :thumbs:

I think I definitely need to practice getting quality JPEGS straight out the camera. I think when the football season starts i'll try shooting Jpeg only, that way it'll force me to get it right first time as opposed to rescuing a file in the raw conversion.

Something I have never done is a custom white balance. I have a lastolite collapsable grey card, with white on the reverse. Just never got round to using it, probably because i'm not too sure how :shrug:
 
IanC_UK said:
just looked through your galleries and you seem to be doing ok, what you need to be looking at is how much editing you are doing on shots now, and try to get it so the camera does all that for you :) check out the picture styles settings to get increased sharpness and colour etc !
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Cheers Ian. I do agree I'm spending far too much time editing. Think i'll have a play with the saturation and sharpening parameters on the 1D3. Anyone care to share their current settings?
 
redmonkee said:
Cheers guys :thumbs:

I think I definitely need to practice getting quality JPEGS straight out the camera. I think when the football season starts i'll try shooting Jpeg only, that way it'll force me to get it right first time as opposed to rescuing a file in the raw conversion.

Something I have never done is a custom white balance. I have a lastolite collapsable grey card, with white on the reverse. Just never got round to using it, probably because i'm not too sure how :shrug:
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Shoot in RAW+Jpeg. Safety net.
 
You don't have to shoot JPEG for agency work, you just need to submit the images as JPEGs...

Keep shooting RAW...
 
Arkady said:
You don't have to shoot JPEG for agency work, you just need to submit the images as JPEGs...

Keep shooting RAW...
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Hi Rob

my thinking was that if I start to shoot JPEG it will speed up my workflow during editing. Also I was under the impression that the pros upload files as they are shooting and no doubt use JPEG for this.
 
redmonkee said:
Hi Rob

my thinking was that if I start to shoot JPEG it will speed up my workflow during editing. Also I was under the impression that the pros upload files as they are shooting and no doubt use JPEG for this.
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Not always and most don't unless they're at an event that supports this facility, such as a sports match or similar.
Most will shoot RAW+JPEG for editorial.
For hard news then JPEG is fine as is general sports.
For anything else I'd shoot RAW.
If you do any corrections to your images, such as levels, a bit of sharpening, a bit of doging and burning here and there plus adding file info, there's no speed advantage to shooting RAW over JPEG as the workflow is essentially the same. Anyone who says different is doing it wrong.
If you never do any P&P to your images, then it makes no difference, but you're obviously not maximising the potential of your images.

Imagine this: you shoot in JPEG and six months down the line a client approaches the agency and asks for your image but requires it as a 60MB TIFF (for whatever purpose).
It's a hell of a lot easier to interpolate-up from an 18Mb RAW file than a 6-10Mb JPEG.

Start out with the best quality image you can as you can never predict what the future use of that image will be.

The only reason to shoot JPEG exclusively is restriction on storage - and memory's so cheap these days, even that is a bogus argument.
 
As others have said it depends on what type of agency your shooting for.

Part of this will depend on how quickly you need to get your pictures submitted, and what sort of images you will be taking.

I would guess that you will have time load into something like lightroom, select which images to submit, crop and any minor corrections. and output jpg and upload.
 
Arkady said:
For your work I'd tend to agree - but for general PR and editorial then RAW all the way...
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I agree with you too Rob, Jpeg i shoot purely for sports (though i know a few sports togs who always shoot RAW) anything else i shoot RAW
 
I'm jpeg for sports too as the minute or two saved on import & rendering could make the difference between getting a pic in the paper or not.

I usually leave the camera on auto white balance unless I'm indoors when I'll register an image of something white and use that (but remember to set it back again afterwards!!).

Lightroom allows a massive amount of latitude with jpegs so for the vast majority of common adjustments you'd be hard pushed to know if you were working on a raw or a jpeg as long as the original wasn't too screwed.
 
Jpg all the way, but my stuff is for printed newspapers and their demands aren't exactly full gloss :D

However, coming back to the original question... how do you get what the OP wants? Its got very little to do with anything photography wise and everything to do with finding the right people to talk to to get your foot in the door. Its the business networking that will bring you success, not your photography skills.
 
desantnik said:
Jpg all the way, but my stuff is for printed newspapers and their demands aren't exactly full gloss :D

However, coming back to the original question... how do you get what the OP wants? Its got very little to do with anything photography wise and everything to do with finding the right people to talk to to get your foot in the door. Its the business networking that will bring you success, not your photography skills.
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:agree: on both counts...
 
KIPAX said:
:agree: on both counts...
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Yup it's all about networking for that vital first step of getting taken on by an agency.

One agency i got started because two other guys personally recommended me

the other i got in with them by talking to the guy who runs the agency at a match
 
I think as we've all said now, its not so much the photography for you phil. When do you edit your shots? At the game or at home?

Every game I'm at, whether it's just a practice or a cup final...I'm uploading live. That's going to be the biggest difference to you. You need to get used to shooting images, ingesting the cards while the game progresses, doing any quick PP and sending them out. You can't even wait till half time anymore! This weekend just gone, I started my uploads at 30mins into the game, so I had the first batch done and uploaded by half time. Then I can sort out the stock stuff at halftime and get into position for the second half (including moving the remotes if necessary). Same deal with the second half, upload throughout the second half so that you're done with the peak action shots by the final whistle. Then back to the press room and upload stock, GVs and other fluff. Everything should be uploaded by 30mins post match.

That is a big step if you're used to doing it later that evening at home. Start doing that every game (whether you need to or not) and then you'll be 10x better prepared.
 
jamesb84 said:
I think as we've all said now, its not so much the photography for you phil. When do you edit your shots? At the game or at home?

Every game I'm at, whether it's just a practice or a cup final...I'm uploading live. That's going to be the biggest difference to you. You need to get used to shooting images, ingesting the cards while the game progresses, doing any quick PP and sending them out. You can't even wait till half time anymore! This weekend just gone, I started my uploads at 30mins into the game, so I had the first batch done and uploaded by half time. Then I can sort out the stock stuff at halftime and get into position for the second half (including moving the remotes if necessary). Same deal with the second half, upload throughout the second half so that you're done with the peak action shots by the final whistle. Then back to the press room and upload stock, GVs and other fluff. Everything should be uploaded by 30mins post match.

That is a big step if you're used to doing it later that evening at home. Start doing that every game (whether you need to or not) and then you'll be 10x better prepared.
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Hi James. That's something I can't practice at the moment though as I don't have a laptop. Surely for local paper stuff, the images don't have to be uploaded quite so quickly?
 
redmonkee said:
Hi James. That's something I can't practice at the moment though as I don't have a laptop. Surely for local paper stuff, the images don't have to be uploaded quite so quickly?
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Hmmm, I don't know...if you're in competition with other guys, then speed is definitely of the essence. I upload "live" as a matter of routine...it keeps me on my toes.

You need a laptop then!
 
jamesb84 said:
Hmmm, I don't know...if you're in competition with other guys, then speed is definitely of the essence. I upload "live" as a matter of routine...it keeps me on my toes.

You need a laptop then!
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What Laptop do you use? and do you have a protective cover for rainy conditions etc. Also when you say you upload live to keep you on your toes do you just mean uploading to lightroom etc or to an FTP?
 
redmonkee said:
Hi James. That's something I can't practice at the moment though as I don't have a laptop. Surely for local paper stuff, the images don't have to be uploaded quite so quickly?
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its rare to have a local paper out on a sunday so your right.. you do ahve some time... they dont want them from the game unless its a night match and they publish next morning.. but they want them ASAP so they can set the page out.. overnight sat is plenty of time for locals..
 
I'm going to be a little controversial here, but I use Jpeg AND auto-iso at the football!
I set my aperture and the camera doesn't let the shutter speed (centre weighted eval) drop below 1/400th. (usually much higher). That way I can concentrate on the composition and the action rather than worrying about the exposure. Most people buy super-expensive cameras with loads of high-tech settings and then don't touch them, stick them on manual and adjust the 3 main settings. I let the camera do the work for me!

On jpeg - I shoot jpeg for a couple of reasons:

1. Size of the files
2. Time taken to download off the card
3. I've spent ages getting some nice in-camera settings so that I don't have to bother post-processing much.
4. I've had a heavily cropped (down to about 6MP) jpeg (quality 6-7) blown up to cover the front of the sports page in the Times and it looked great.

Just my take on things.
At the end of the day it does not matter how you get the shot, it's the end product that matters.

Bob
 
redmonkee said:
What Laptop do you use? and do you have a protective cover for rainy conditions etc. Also when you say you upload live to keep you on your toes do you just mean uploading to lightroom etc or to an FTP?
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I have a rapidly ageing Macbook which has served me exceedingly well up to now. I don't have a cover but it is in fact on the buying list.

I mean upload to FTP or Photoshelter or wherever...even my American Football matches are doing during the game (much to the amazement of the fans on the touchline who have facebook updates when I publish a gallery).
 
JPEGS :clap:
Ive just started sending sports stuff through an agency, one thing ive found is SPEED is vital.Took me months to get to grips with wiring images at the right points in a game, without missing stuff.
Since then ive pretty much swore by... if you get a shot, get it sent asap. Or someone else will. No use waiting till an hour after the game fine tuning photos, it will be too late, unless youve got something no-one else has

Its all about practice, and after 6 months or so..im still stuggling!!
Good Luck!
 
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