Better Sports Pictures of Your Kids - DIY

The photography by the person who takes the soccer pictures for our league is truly awful.  I really mean it.  I have all sorts of respect for photographers of children out there.  It is not an easy job.  The photographers who have taken my kids hockey and lacrosse pictures have done a fantastic job!  But this soccer photographer?  It's like he knows he has the contract and he really doesn't care.  He doesn't know how to work with the light he has.  He over processes everything.  His pictures are all pixel-ly and the result is just weird looking kids.   Last year, I thought it was just an anomaly.  So I gave him another chance.  This year's pictures were just as bad.  What a waste of money!
Well, no more!  I took my own pictures (with my iPhone no less) and edited them with my Smilebox app to make them look like sports cards.  I printed them off at Costco for 14 cents a picture and the result is wonderful.  As long as that photographer is on the job, I will be taking my own pictures.  It's simply not worth it otherwise!

The picture taken by the professional photographer - note how darkly outlined my son is and the weird light.  My son just doesn't look like this in real life.

My photo of my son.  I took this with my iPhone and edited with Smilebox. 

The professional photo of my daughter.  Again, the weird light doesn't make her look like her.  The soccer ball prop is flat.

My photo of my daughter, taken with my iPhone and edited with Smilebox.  The soccer ball is normal.

The professional photographer charged me $15 each package for a team photo with a 3x5 plus 2 4x6 pictures.  Getting any sports cards would have been an extra $10 each.  I spent $30 for crap pictures.
Doing it myself cost me $1.40 for 10 4x6 edited pictures at Costco.  Smilebox is a free app for your iPhone.  I added their names to the pictures on the ones I ordered. 
To get this look, I clicked:
1. Designs
2. Life
3. Sports
4. MVP assortment
5. Camera Roll to choose the picture I wanted
6. Chose the frame I wanted
7. Chose the sticker I wanted and re-sized it in place
8. Brightened the picture
9. Chose Pop for the coloring
10. Chose All Caps for the lettering, typed in the text I wanted, re-sized it in place and saved it to the roll.
I then uploaded them to my computer and uploaded again to Costco photo.  The pictures are ready a day later.  I can choose as many as I want and the size I want.

Smilebox on your computer http://www.smilebox.com/
Smilebox at the app store