Hockey Sportrait

Crossbarphoto

First pass at this. C&C welcome.

Looking for a hardcore, grunge type look.

ian408

I dig the look of this shot. Maybe a bit of a WB fix--dunno. The one thing I'd change is to get rid of the Zam. I think it detracts from the players. If you're using it to hide something, then maybe a nice fast lens from farther away?

I do think the grunge works.

Crossbarphoto

Thanks Ian. It was a shot that we had literally 2 minutes to setup and shoot before another team had to take the ice. I needed to block out a bunch of 'junk' on the back wall so we moved the Zamboni in. I was jammed into a nasty environment with terrible lighting and no clean backgrounds. Zamboni was introduced to clean up the background and the grunge look was used to mask really poor light and environment.

ian408

I like the layer idea from FM. That could help a lot.

I was thinking that rink looked familiar but I know it's not. The one I thought of is long gone. It was a pit in a shopping center. Small rink. Crappy ice toward the end. Ref'ed a few games on that surface. Played a few too--ah, the memories

Crossbarphoto

ian408 wrote:

I like the layer idea from FM. That could help a lot.

I'll work on that tomorrow a.m.!

TNTATC

If you want some real answers put this one in the "Refinery" Not really feeling the toughness. Just feels like there is a fire and the pics all smoked out. The thrid guy from the right looks like he's bout to smile. The ZB does distract your eye from the players and the vignetting doesnt look correct. I think this pic has potential to be decent but I would really throw it to the wolves in the Refinery if you want to pic up some great pointers.

rockcanyonphotos

Crossbarphoto wrote:

First pass at this. C&C welcome.

Looking for a hardcore, grunge type look.

Working with what you have, I would recommend you try a PS action called "Draganizer" there are several available on the various PS download sites. I have used it on numerous occasions when doing sports posters to add an "edginess" to the photo.

tjk60

when you have a really bad background in hockey you can try to get higher for the portraits and use the ice as the background. Bring a ladder next time if possible.

This one shot looks to be a little to dark, but could be pushed in post if need be. My take (using your small web version

Crossbarphoto

tjk60 wrote:

when you have a really bad background in hockey you can try to get higher for the portraits and use the ice as the background. Bring a ladder next time if possible.

This one shot looks to be a little to dark, but could be pushed in post if need be. My take (using your small web version

Thanks for all the input guys. Here is the image that went to the printers and was ordered on Metallic paper. The image printed WAAY better than I had imagined. Personally I didn't care for the image too much on screen, but the customer's loved it.




[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I was sitting at hockey practice working on another project when another parent came along in a panic yelling 'it is due TOMORROW!' So I fell for the trap and said "what is"? She explained that the yearbook needed a shot of the 4 boys from the same highschool and she knew I was a photographer. She asked if I had my camera with me. I didn't have my regular gear with me, but I had my 40D in the center console. She says good, you'll have about 2 minutes to get the shot of the boys and you'll need to send it to the yearbook before you go to bed tonight.

You can imagine my surprise. So yes...literally and figuratively I had 2 minutes to cook up this shot. The area behind the glass is riddled with ladders and other maintenance type pieces, how in the world am I going to hide that?? Hmmm...how about the Zamboni? I thought we can park the Zamboni between the boys and the mechanical systems to at least get something to block the ugliness. Now let's get the Zamboni to park on the far side of the logo at center ice so I can shoot low making the boys appear big and warrior like...nope...Zam driver parks the Zamboni at center ice, on the dot, and takes off! Okay...well, work with what you have...work with what you have. I set down and fire off two shots, look at the levels and go to pose the boys when the Zamboni driver walks back up and says "okay, time is up". What?!! I haven't even had time to pose these boys. I grab one more quick shot and am ushered off the ice.

What separates a Pro from a snapshotter is all in the setup. If I can get the shot 'setup' that I want, I can deliver great results. A pro can see or setup a shot quickly. Having had time to setup I would have accounted for all of the negatives aspects of this shot and could have dealt with them.

Since I didn't have any chance to setup or prepare, I am left scrambling in post to salvage this image. I am not embarassed to post my worst. I have plenty of shots I am proud of and deliver day in and day out to my clients. This is just one of those moments that catches you off of your game.

I was understandably less than pleased for one being put in this position and two for not being able to deliver the results that I take pride in. Knowing all of that, here is the current situation. This is my attempt at lemonade...after getting lemons. For better or for worse. I would love the chance to go back and set this shot up the way I want and to reshoot it, but it would only be for my own edification at this point. All that being said, the parents of the other three boys absolutely LOVE the shot and have ordered 16x20 prints of it!! I didn't get one for myself, for all the reasons you can understand. Strange that the photographer and the photographic community don't care for it, but the customer LOVEs it. Go figure, huh![/FONT]