SlapShotPics

We currently offer a variety of different styles to suit all tastes - we're constantly trying out new designs.

You can see our current range of designs in the shop here, but please bear in mind that we are flexible on Montages - if there's something slightly different you want, or you want to have something added ( typical examples are different backgrounds on grunge montages, or national flags or club logos ) then we can normally do this as part of the design. 

If you want something completely different, as a custom design, then please ask and we can come to an arrangement.

As long as you 'own' the images, then yes we can incorporate them into one of our montage designs - get in touch to discuss what you need.

Obviously our designs are our 'intelectual property' and we can't tell or show all that goes into them, but we can give a flavour of what we do on a couple of different ones, and hopefully you'll then appreicate more that our Montages are excellent value for money.

The work starts by copying and processing each individual photo image that you've selected as part of your Montage. The processing involves cropping and correcting the photo angle, 'levelling' the light, correcting any colour issues, removing 'noise' generated by the low light / high speed shooting and finally sharpening the image. Some of this can be automated, but much is done by hand.

The next step depends very much on which Montage you want.

• Montage 1 and 2 involves separating the main image from its background before blending it onto the actual Montage background. There are many techniques for this, all manual, and separation can be quite difficult where the original photo background is 'busy'.  
• Montage 3 involves a more subtle fading and blending of the images, but as important is the placing of the 5 images; positioning and sizing them to complement each other and blend together as a single image. 
• Montage 4 is different again, where the images and sized and positioned to work together, but also various grunge backgrounds are blended together to complement the images, colours and sizes.

By the end of this process the Montage consists of many blended 'layers', each complementing and working with the others to produce the final image. 

The final step is adding the wording, again sizing and positioning is done against the backdrop of the Montage image, and often involves reworking elements of the Montage to make the words blend and complement the overall image.

Each Montage takes a fair amount of time, is unique and we'd like to think they are, in their own way, a small piece of art based on your player.

Prints

Our prints start at £5 for 7x5 images, with 10x8 at £7 and 18x12 at £10. We'd recommend the 10x8 as a good size for individual prints. ( If you do want an image at 18x12 then please check with us as some images won't blow up to that size ).

Montages

While we often supply prints, we specialise in Montages of images as a unique memento of your player. We have a wide range of designs available, all hand made and individually designed for each order. 

Our Montages are priced at £15 for 10x8 and £20 for an 18x12. We'd strongly recommend 18x12 for Montages as the smaller size doesn't really do justice to them.

Well that just depends - sometimes we can do it in a couple of days, sometimes it may take up to two weeks. The Montages in particular arw very time consuming and we do take time to do a good job rather than a fast job, and for that we make no apologies.

If you have a particular reason for a quick turnaround then please let us know and we'll do our best :)

We don't print ourselves, we have any prints or montages printed professionally at a very high quality printers we 've worked with for years - they use the very latest Fuji technology and produse superb results.

This does add a little to the time we take as we'd normally have them printed and sent to us for inspection although in some cases we have them sent direct to you.

Some smaller prints ( 7x5 or 10x8 ) could be printed locally - there are plenty of places around who can do this - but to be honest, they can't come close to our pro printer.

Individual prints and images used in montages are hand corrected before being used.

Shooting hockey can be tough, plenty of very fast moving action, and that means that the photos are often a bit lop sided, or perhaps the player is not central in the image - we believe its better to catch the action and correct it later, so when an image is selected by you, we'll either level and crop to get the best possible picture, or feel free to give us instructions - perhaps you want a certain player in a group of players to be central ? or perhaps you want some part of the original images cropped out ? Just let us know when you order, or ask in advance what we can do with a certain image.

A few hints and tips and things to remember . . .

We shoot loads and loads of photos of games because we want to capture as much action as we can and provide plenty of choice, and because we shoot so many images, the galleries we present for viewing are 'rough processed' and don't represent finished images - the full processing for an image is quite complex ( see 'How do you make a Montage' ).

Also, when shooting 'action' photos there isn't time to align the image in the viewfinder - its better to get the shot than miss it ! - so when we use an image for a print or montage, they are cropped to use only the player of choice, or group of players in an action shot. 

If you have any particular requests about a shot - what part of it to use or which player to center, then just let us know on the order or via email.

So here's a quick example of cropping and processing to show what can be done and help you select the images you want to use.

Here's an original example image with just the light level corrected :-

Cropping to isolate the action and aligning the image correcly gives us :-

Finally processing to remove the 'noise' ( caused by shooting in low light / high speed ) and sharpening the image gives us something like :-

It's not easy to see the real differences on such small images on the website, so here is some detail from the orignal and finished images showing the noisy / soft image of the original and the better image after processing :-

Having said all that, its not easy to capture the 'best shot' - all our images are not 'pin sharp' - shooting hockey is not easy ! But consider this - even images which would not look highest quality as a 'print' can look superb as part of a Montage . . .

Special considerations for Montages

A few things to consider. As mentioned above, images which may not come quite up to scratch as a single print can look superb as part of a Montage, or even the main image depending on the Montage type.

Another point when considering Montages, we shoot at very high resolution, so even small sections of an image can be cropped out and used in a Montage and retain enough quality to look very good !

 In this example, there's a good action shot of player #9 but its a bit hidden away with all the other players around :-

But with some work we can extract it to show the player in action as in this case, the center shot of a Montage :-

There are several ways you can order from us :-

• order through our online shop, where you can pay by paypal
• order by email, pay by paypal
• order by post, pay by cheque
• order in person if you live locally to Ice Sheffield or Simply Skate arena

Proceed as follows ( any problems at any stage ? please give us a shout ) :-

• view the photos and decide which images and prints you want, and make a note of the image number
• go to the online shop and select the product you want to buy
• depending on the product, you'll be prompted to give us extra information that we need ( for example, image numbers, extra prints )
• add the product to your basket
• when you're ready to order, checkout
• finally (!) you'll be directed to paypal where you can pay using your paypal account or securely with a credit card if you don't have a paypal account ( note that all your information and payments go through paypal, we never see any of this )

We provide photo prints ( of course ) at various sizes, but our speciality is Montages - where your selected images are blended together in a variety of different montage styles.

Please note that unlike some other photographers, we don't use 'standard' frames or layouts to produce Montages - each is created uniquely according to the images selected by you - each is an individual piece of art featuring your player.

Montages are offered at 10x8" or 12x18" sizes, but we strongly recommend that you purchase the 12x18" as we don't believe that the smaller size does justice to the images.

Photo prints are offered at 7x5", 10x8" and 12x18" - please note that some single images are not suitable to print at 12x18" - please ask if you're unsure

The images we shoot are (c) SlapShotPics, and we don't normally sell the images, we only sell prints of those images.

However, please talk to us if you have a particular need for an image rather than a print as we may be able to come to some arrangement on a case by case basis.

If you want an image for a publication or a club website, then please talk to us as we're very flexible about making our images available in these cases.

If you'd prefer to order by post then follow the same route as for shop ordering - sort out image numbers and montage / print details - then print out an order form ( download word version or  pdf version here ), fill it in and post to us along with your cheque and we'll sort it.

Yes you can - email us and sort out what you want, then pay by paypal directly through the paypal site.

If you're not happy then believe me, we're not - shooting hockey is not easy, and sometimes the shots we have are not perfect - if you're not happy in any way then we'll work together to try and resolve any issues, rework, reprint, whatever it takes that's within our control. 

Parent satisfaction is our goal - we know you want great memories of your kids . . .