Customer Reviews

How to Shoot and Sell Sports Photography

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I work for a small community newspaper and have recently started to shoot sports. I was hoping for an in-depth information focusing specifically on sports, rather than general photography. In general, I was disappointed. Although the book was published in 2000, it felt like the information in it was years behind the times.

There were some elementary errors in it. For example a lens at F2.8 lets in twice as much light as a lens at F 4, rather than four times as the book states. The coverage of sports other than football, baseball and basketball was extremely superficial - just a paragraph or two. Also many photos were unsharp and just not that good. I can look at the Washington Post's sports section any day and see better photos. There was hardly any discussion of using the capabilities of modern professional cameras, which was something I was very interested in. This book may be useful for high school students thinking about going into photography, but does not have much for someone who is familiar with general photography.

Why can't I rate this book with 0 stars? Every time I look at this book, I can't help thinking, "Did I really pay 25 dollars for this?"

It appears that Mr. Arndt put together a small collection of 1970's photos on a whim and jotted a couple lines of useless information to accompany them. One example is his suggestion to wear non-slip shoes when taking photographs at swim meets. No suggestion on technique or composition, just the shoe advice. The only sports covered in any detail at all were baseball and football, with just a few helpful tips for the most inexperienced photographers.

The only section of this book which I found to be vaguely informative was the chapter on the legalities of selling pictures. Too bad there was not enough information on picture taking to allow one to reach the selling stage.

One redeeming quality would have been the few full-page color photos included, however these were all either out of focus or just poorly printed. Please do yourself a favor and spend the 25 bucks on a few rolls of film.

How to shoot and sell sports photography is not what the title suggest. The subject is shooting Collage sports, not how to get in to the games and who to sell to? The author must be an established sports photographer for a news service or newspaper and as the sell part of the book fall way short....

Overall an OK book, an easy read, lots of helpful information but much of the material is somewhat out of date and relates a lot to film, even going so far to say on page 32 that someday "film based cameras may be as obsolete as manual typewriters"...was hoping for more actual technique discussion, but nonetheless a nice addition to my photography library.

I don't think this book quite lives up to its billing. It would better have been called how to shoot college football and soccer. The informational sections and pictures on these sports are good. Cycling coverage is not bad. Baseball info is OK but the shots appear to have been made at poorly attended high-school games. The author is not bad on cycling; superficial to poor on tips for shooting things mildly offbeat, like water sports, golf, tennis, horse sports and wrestling. Judging by the hairstyles, many of the illustrations were made 20 years ago. Business and selling information is OK. Tech info is heavy on pictures of Canon long lenses. The formulas for pushing b&w film to very high speeds were useful.

The book gives detailed explanations of how to shoot various sports photos, even what type of lens to use. It emphasizes capturing the emotions, which I wish more sports photographers would do, maybe I would enjoy the sports sections of the newspapers more. Mr. Arndt displays many creative and timely photographs in his book. Many of the tips can be used in any action type photography, not just sports.

I enjoyed the author's use of photos, I just wish I'd had a copy of this book when I was younger. Some photos were older, but the principles behind the photography and techniques don't change. I like the tips on the little things, such as non-slip shoes on wet surfaces, and where not to take photos, such as two contrasty areas, brightly sunlit and sharply shadowed. I've already shown it to a couple of up-and-coming high-school athletic photographers I know.

The most helpful part of this book for me was advice on where to stand to get the best angle on the action and what lens to use for which situation. Although I know a lot about many sports, I am sometimes assigned to phtoograph a sport that I'm not used to watching, and this was very helpful.

The big drawback was that it doesn't really have enough information on the digital age photographers are now working in.

I found this book to be very helpful to someone thinking of a career in Photography.

It covers many different aspects of the subject, and gives the reader many different options to consider within the field.

I now know that I must try to narrow down my choice a bit more!

Thanks for the great advise.

I really think alot of work has gone into this book...anyone reading it could follow the directions and begin taking good pictures, however, you won't get the type of pictures in this book without the proper equipment...It will take some investment of time and money on your part.