Soccer U12 Portraits - Posing Suggestions?

Andy

Hey guys, I'm photographing a team of 15 tomorrow, just individual portraits. I have some ideas, but want to know if you all have any other good ones! :ear

Andy

I'm thinking:

1- sitting on ball facing camera, filling frame
2- standing, ball in crook of arm, straight on to camera, giving me game face look
3- standing, 3/4s angle to camera, ball in one hand, flip ball in air
4- standing, 3/4s angle to camera, foot on ball

All shots will be with shallow dof, green grass behind, very oof.

ian408

Safety shot. 3/4 with ball in crook of arm or squeezing in front of chest. Head-on is so boring. You might get a second if you can get the kid to push the ball over-head and head it or something else equally fun. You could also light the shots for drama with a darker bg.

MileHighAko

Andy wrote: »

I'm thinking:

4- standing, 3/4s angle to camera, foot on ball

Probably my favorite type of shot. Even seen it with the camera sitting quite low - almost ball level shooting up - great shot for girls soccer anyway.

kidzmom

I was thinking of the "header" shots too. Have the kid angled a bit so as to head the ball off to your left or right 45 ish angle. Do this only if you are shooting with a long enough lens, lol or you might be sorry. You can get some great expressions and I'll bet they will be the parents (or kid's) favorite!!! This will be a bit more time/memory card consuming, but I'm sure the most fun. You could save this for the last shot once the others are in the bag. The posed shots, although nice are often a duplicate of the school-looking portrait. Just my 2c (and I played soccer from age 6-20!).

ETA...Just had to share because I'm crazy excited.. I just got my pass tonight and will be shooting a pro soccer game tomorrow evening! I'm not on the field, just a few steps up but HEY, I'm IN!

Have fun with the soccer team!

Andy

Crappy light today, I took shots of all the kids, they are okay but not great. Gonna re-shoot on another Saturday, hopefully with more light.

Absolutely love the 135 f/2L for portrait work.

Oh and I'm going to bring a step-stool next time. I need to elevate by about a foot or two.

ian408

samples :lurk

Andy

ian408 wrote: »

samples :lurk

The light kinda sucked,it was overcast but not really bright. These are at ISO 100 and f/2, f/2.8 with 135 f/2L on a 5D Mark II. But the parents love them because they never get individual portraits of their kids

I'll have plenty more opportunity to shoot 'em again this season.

ian408

The pose doesn't look bad. If you shot them standing, you could shoot from down low too.

I agree the light could be better.

cr8ingwaves

as a Mom I really don't like straight on shots where players are squatting. You can sometimes see into the leg of the shorts...and I really don't like crotch shots of either gender.

Andy

cr8ingwaves wrote: »

as a Mom I really don't like straight on shots where players are squatting. You can sometimes see into the leg of the shorts...and I really don't like crotch shots of either gender.

I don't either that's why I was careful not to have any of that. I did standing poses, too. The feedback from the team is they love 'em all

JC Imagery

We just did a soccer league of 450 on a wet, rainy, sunny, hot, windy, rainy-some-more, poorly draining field this weekend. We did the 3/4 length ball under the crook of the arm, hand on the hip, sideways, head turned, smiling shot. We do this because the full length shot makes the players face really small on wallet sizes. Same with the button. Parents want to see their kid's faces. As far as sitting on the ball - as a player, coaches ripped into us if we did that!

If time were not an issue, I would love to do the pose where the player lays on their stomach on the ground, knees bent up, with the ball balanced on their shoes. Managed to get my then 10 year old to do it after 10 minutes and at least 20 shots.