Sports photography captures the excitement and emotions of athletic competition. It’s a special type of photography that uses skill, timing, and creativity to capture moments that happen too fast for us to see on our own.
Because there are so many different types of sports events that happen throughout the year, you have many opportunities to diversify your services and generate income as a sports photographer. Here are some examples:
- School and amateur sports events, like football or basketball matches
- Events that are open for public participation, like marathons and obstacle races
- Professional sports
While capturing the action is the main job of a sports photographer, getting those photos out to the world as quickly as possible is just as important, if not more so. Hence, it’s crucial to have the right sports photography workflow in place.
First, let’s look at the challenges:
- You’re working with a high volume of photos, from thousands to tens of thousands in a single day.
- You need to deliver the photos quickly, because there’s only a short window of interest. People are the most interested in the photos during the event, and that interest falls off quickly within a couple of days.
- There are many attendees, from the participants to the audience, and you need to find an efficient way to distribute the photos to them. In addition, privacy is becoming increasingly important, and simply sharing all of the photos in a public gallery is often not an option.
In essence, you want to share the right photos with the right people, as quickly as possible. And you want to do that for hundreds or thousands of people.
This is basically an impossible task, unless you have the right sports photography software. That software should automate the workflow for you, so that you can focus on taking photos.
As high volume photographers, we built Honcho to handle scenarios like these. With Honcho, you can:
- Upload photos from camera to cloud, as you shoot.
- Share the right photos with the right people automatically, with AI-powered face recognition.
- Distribute your photos widely while protecting everyone’s privacy, at the same time.
In this article, we show you how to use Honcho as the perfect software for sports photography. You can also create a free account and start right away.
In addition, you can join our affiliate program and earn up to USD$88.50 for every new customer that you refer to us. That’s a generous commission!
Upload Photos Instantly, From Camera to Cloud
Honcho lets you upload photos in real time as you shoot, instantly creating an online gallery that’s shareable and accessible from any device through a browser.
This works by connecting your camera to your smartphone with the Honcho app, which automatically detects the camera. As you take photos, they’re transferred to the app and uploaded to the cloud.
Honcho uses a wired tether for fast and reliable performance, compatible with any standard data cable. High-resolution photos are typically transferred and uploaded in about five seconds.
You can also choose the upload resolution, from full-quality images to compressed versions at 640px on the long side. Smaller files, like the 640px versions, upload almost instantly.
What sets Honcho apart is that it requires no extra hardware. Unlike other tethering solutions, like CamRanger, which often need additional equipment for extended range, Honcho only requires your camera and phone, giving you virtually unlimited range to move freely around a venue without losing connection.
With Honcho, you can share selected photos with a QR code, or allow attendees to find their own photos in the online gallery with face recognition.
QR Code
In the Honcho app, select the photos you want to share and tap on the Share icon.
Attendees can scan the QR code to view and download only the selected photos.
Face Recognition
Share the link to the online gallery with the attendees, where they can view all of the photos from the event. If privacy is a concern and you don’t want the attendees to view all of the photos, we provide a solution in the next section.
Attendees can tap on the Find Me button and upload a selfie. Honcho automatically finds just the person’s photos and creates a personalized gallery, by matching the photos to the selfie with face recognition.
This is especially convenient if you do not want to generate different QR codes for each person. Just direct everyone to the online gallery, and they can easily find their own photos within seconds.
As described earlier, you can share your photos using face recognition by distributing the online gallery link to everyone. Attendees can open the gallery and find their own photos by simply uploading a selfie.
However, this means attendees will also be able to see everyone else’s photos, which can raise privacy concerns.
Honcho offers a straightforward and innovative solution: blurring all photos in the gallery. Only the images identified through facial recognition are unblurred, so each attendee can view only their own photos.
This approach allows you to share the complete gallery while protecting privacy, ensuring that each attendee can access only the photos they appear in.
Play Live Slideshows to Generate Interest
A live slideshow can generate awareness, to inform attendees that your photos are available for viewing and downloading. If you’re selling prints (which we’ll talk about in the next section), it can help you increase sales. It’s an amazing way to attract a crowd to your station, because you’re showcasing your work in real-time—people naturally want to buy beautifully taken photos of themselves or their loved ones.
It also adds to the overall experience of the event. Displaying photos on a large screen engages people, sparks conversations, and enhances the event’s atmosphere.
Honcho makes setting up a live slideshow easy. Just open the online gallery, click “More,” and choose “Slideshow”—no additional software required.
Print Wirelessly
Selling prints can help you generate extra income without much extra work. Prints are especially popular for school sports events and public events (like marathons). We have users who can generate an additional $1,000 per day, and that adds up to become a significant revenue stream.
Honcho makes it easy to manage on-site printing, and it can be done wirelessly.
Let’s start by getting your printer set up.
First, download and install the CloudPrint app on your laptop—it’s available for free for all Honcho users.
Then, connect your printer to your laptop. In CloudPrint, you can choose your printer and paper size.
Finally, give a name to your printer so that you can easily find it in Honcho.
Click on Connect. Your printer is now online and ready to print wirelessly.
In the Honcho mobile app or website, select the photo to print. Then, tap on the Print icon.
Select the name of your printer and tap on Print. And that’s it, you have successfully printed with Honcho.
Since it works wirelessly, you can print on any device. For example, you can open up Honcho on your phone, and send the prints wirelessly to your printer—which is connected to your laptop.
This gives you flexibility in your sports photography workflow. For example, you can have an assistant to manage the printing—accessing Honcho from the same laptop that the printer is connected to. Or you can print the photos yourself from the mobile app.
Conclusion
Sports photography can be a fantastic addition to your photography services and a way to boost your income. To get started, it’s essential to use software that helps you efficiently manage and distribute the large volume of photos involved.
Using sports photography software can save you hours per event, allowing you to focus more on capturing the action and delivering a great experience—which can help grow your business. Honcho is an ideal choice for this, as it lets you upload photos in real time and share them instantly using face recognition.
Sign up for a free Honcho account today and discover how it can transform your sports photography workflow.
In addition, you can join our affiliate program and earn up to USD$88.50 for every new customer that you refer to us. That’s a generous commission!
