Last month I finally got around to creating a Pro Smugmug account. I really didn't know what to expect with regard to sales, but I doubted that I'd ever sell the first shot. Just for kicks, I decided to shoot a couple softball games and a couple baseball games. Two days ago, I got an email from a parent asking if I would print some of the shots on the site for her. (I had only handed out a couple business cards, so I didn't even realize that anyone knew about the site.) I told her that she could order prints directly from the site. She emailed me back and told me that she would definitely think about it. I decided to take one of the shots of her kid and desaturate everything around her. I posted the shot, and emailed her about it. Here's the shot... She loved it. Today, I recieved an email from Smugmug informing me that 5 photos have sold. I also had emails from 2 other parents requesting information and ordering directions. With a little luck and a bit of work, the site just might pay for itself. I just hope the prints turn out well. Positive word of mouth goes a long way in small towns.
Mark, First of all great job on the treatment of this image! Congrats on your sales also. I have sold some of my landscape stuff but still limited so far. Dave
Congratulations Mark, we may never get rich selling our sports shots, but it sure is flattering to know that our shots hang on someone's wall or reside on someone's scrapbook.
it's a good shot. Her intensity is very good. I pondered shooting the girl's rowing team here in town with my 200 or 200-400, and seeing how sales would go. Plus I just want to shoot them.
Thanks Dave...I was just goofing around with the shot. I'm working on my PS skills and wanted to try something different. Thanks Frank...the simple fact that someone likes my shots is flattering. That someone likes them enough to actually pay for them is amazing. I've sold CDs, self-made prints, and even rolls of undeveloped film before, but never an internet print. I agree that it's pretty cool to know that years from now, she'll be showing my shots to her grandkids. Doug...apparently I underestimated parents' desire for shots of their kids. These people are definitely excited about the action shots. I put them up about two weeks ago and have already had over 1000 views.
Thanks for the kind words Gale, Gary. As for the desaturation, I have to admit I'm not really a huge fan of the technique. However, the background in the original shot was a bit "busy" so I decided to desaturate it. Here's the original for comparison.
Nice shot. Since you already have the layer mask made, how about trying a significant amount of blur on the background of the all-color version and see if that doesn't give you a bit more subject isolation without resorting to selective color. Actually, one of my best sellers is a selective color shot, but I too don't really like the technique all that much. :smile:
Congrats Mark, you're gonna love the smugmug account. I don't think it will be long till you are in the black. I've had smugmug since last fall. I'm not getting rich but I'm building up some money for the lens account. By the way I love the picture, softball is my favorite thing to shoot.
Great shot, but I like your final desaturated version much better. Congratulations on the sale, the first of many I suspect.
I shot this one in Shutter priority, f/3.5, 1/8000, ISO 1000 I ran it through Noise Ninja, increased the saturation and played around with the hue and contrast a bit to get a better purple color. That's about all I can really tell you. I'm no Photoshop guru - I just play with the adjustments until I find something I like. I didn't make any layer masks. Not quite sure how to do that yet - I'm a Photoshop beginner and still learning. I just used the lasso tool to isolate the areas that I wanted to desaturate. I probably could've used a Wacom tablet - but then again I wouldn't know how to use it either.:biggrin:
