Youth Volleyball Portraits

Memories by Melinda

I was asked to shoot a couple of youth volleyball teams recently. I was a bit worried about the lighting but I think I did okay. I used one off camera and should have used two...my bad. The green team was much easier to shoot than the red team.

C&C always greatly appreciated.

1. The assistant coach. This is the crop that his mom chose.


2.


3. I saw the judge's stand off to the side and had a vision. Unfortunately, I lost poor little Walker on top in this one (in more ways than one). I can't believe I didn't throw a second stand in my car. :dunno This is the pre-cropped for a print version.

crazy7photography

Lights lights lights. You need to have at least two lights. and not just the off the camera light. if you do use some sort of diffuser as a umbrella with your flash it would diffuse the blown out look on the subject. I know gym lighting is the worst and hard to control. but by adding your own light you can have complete control over it.

jmphotocraft

You can pull it off with only one strobe, if you use an umbrella. I did these basketball portraits like that. They're not perfect but I'm pleased with them:



Notice how soft the front row's shadows are compared to how sharp yours are. For the individual, I'd move them far away from any background to eliminate shadows and reflections. The flash reflecting off that net tape is distracting. Also your flash level looks too hot. I had good luck with FEC -1/3, and again with an ubrella:

ivar

In general I think you did good I think the lighting isn't bad, but could use some improvement. Especially on the group shot; it's very uneven and there are some distracting shadows. Practice practice practice. Gyms are horrible, it's just the way it is.

I'm not too crazy about the stand in the middle of the group shot. It's a bit too distracting I think. Did you try a horizontal/landscape oriented group shot also? i think that's probably easier to do in this case. You could use a bench, or some cases/boxes of some sort to get some height-difference without them being in the shot.

You did great with the expressions; Especially on groups shots it's hard to get them all

Memories by Melinda

crazy7photography wrote:

Lights lights lights. You need to have at least two lights. and not just the off the camera light. if you do use some sort of diffuser as a umbrella with your flash it would diffuse the blown out look on the subject. I know gym lighting is the worst and hard to control. but by adding your own light you can have complete control over it.

Thanks for your response. I did start out with an umbrella (red team). I can't even remember why I removed it ...oh yeah, I'm an idiot. Seriously, I should have brought more light. Guess I wasn't thinking that night.

Memories by Melinda

jmphotocraft wrote:

You can pull it off with only one strobe, if you use an umbrella. I did these basketball portraits like that. They're not perfect but I'm pleased with them.
Notice how soft the front row's shadows are compared to how sharp yours are. For the individual, I'd move them far away from any background to eliminate shadows and reflections. The flash reflecting off that net tape is distracting. Also your flash level looks too hot. I had good luck with FEC -1/3, and again with an ubrella.

Thank you so much for your input. I learn best when things are not just pointed out to me. I want to be given advice on a better way to accomplish better photos. I did realize that the net was going to be distracting. Unfortunately, I was limited in space. The gym had to accomadate several practices that night and I had a lot of stuff behind me. I was hoping that they wouldn't want the net in the photo at all. Oh well, live and learn...I do a lot of that. My bad on the flash. Once I removed the umbrella I didn't do a proper reset.

Memories by Melinda

ivar wrote:

In general I think you did good I think the lighting isn't bad, but could use some improvement. Especially on the group shot; it's very uneven and there are some distracting shadows. Practice practice practice. Gyms are horrible, it's just the way it is.

I'm not too crazy about the stand in the middle of the group shot. It's a bit too distracting I think. Did you try a horizontal/landscape oriented group shot also? i think that's probably easier to do in this case. You could use a bench, or some cases/boxes of some sort to get some height-difference without them being in the shot.

You did great with the expressions; Especially on groups shots it's hard to get them all

Thank you for letting me know the good and the "bad". I appreciate it. I did take a horizontal of the teams. One team looked better than the other. As for your advice...I am going to practice practice practice. I have access to the gym where we live and they are more than happy to let me use it when no one is practicing. Wish me luck with the wonderful gym lighting.