One of His Own: Professional Week: Soccer Team Pic's

This was the first time I made an order form with various pre-paid packages. I did lots of research online, getting advice on the easiest way to go about keeping all the paperwork and money straight. The problem can be Joe Bob ordered Package D-but I don't know who Joe Bob is. I gave each parent an envelope to put their money and order form in. On the outside of the envelope I wrote down the frame number from my camera so that I would know whose picture was whose when I uploaded them. Once I got home and chose the best of the 2-3 shots of each child, I renamed that pictures file with the child's name. Granted, this was a very small scale of this type of photography since it was just one team-and a small team at that, but it was a great experience for me.

We were scheduled to take pictures the day before the torrential rain a few weeks ago. Due to time, we were forced reschedule pictures on a Saturday before a game. The problem with that is there were tons of people at the soccer fields playing games and there weren't a lot of options. We had to use the goal that the team was assigned to play their morning game, for the backdrop. I chose the one that was facing the other half of the soccer fields-versus facing the parking lot. I knew that either goal would have people walking around in the background, but this goal would have the people way far away, versus right up close. I was very careful to stop when I saw people walking into the shot. I noticed that there were other people way, far away on the whole other side of the fields, but I didn't think it would really matter since they were so far away. Boy was I wrong! I was so mad when I came home and uploaded the pictures to see bright red shirts and blue trashcans in the far off distance. I knew that there had to be a way to fix it to make it look more professional. A question I get asked often is, "What do you do to the photos in Photoshop?". I thought this might be a great time to show you a little before and after pictures so you can see the difference for yourself.

Here is a before and after shot. Using the Clone and Paint tool in Photoshop, I was able to very carefully and tediously, take out the people in the background. I had to be really careful because I have to zoom up really close to do this, not seeing the whole area. When I would zoom out there were several times I'd see legs, but no body! It doesn't make for a very cheerful picture to see ghost-like people walking around a soccer field! Next I deepened the color to make it pop and little bit more. Lastly I cropped it. Photoshop really can be an amazing tool once you learn how to use it!