Lighting martial arts students

kevingeary

I don't want to do boring light for a martial arts shoot coming up. Here's what I was going to experiment with a few days prior to the shoot...but please give me any ideas or if you know it's not going to work well, please say so:

Two strip lights B800s slightly to the side/behind subject.
ABR800 ringlight on camera.

I want good rim lighting to separate subject from background and I want somewhat even lighting on the subject so I'm not throwing lots of shadows around.

I'll have a spare b800 that I can grid to throw on the background or to use as a hairlight.

If you want to suggest a setup...here's what I have available...

3 AB800s
1 ABR800
Large Octabox
Two Strip Boxes
22" Beauty Dish
10-40 Degree Grids

Shooting 80 martial arts students of various heights along with some small group shots against a background (probably white or grey).

Svennie

kevingeary wrote: »

Shooting 80 martial arts students of various heights along with some small group shots against a background (probably white or grey).

Which martial arts? Many have white suits, so a white back ground may not be a good idea.

kevingeary

Svennie wrote: »

Which martial arts? Many have white suits, so a white back ground may not be a good idea.

They have white uniforms, blue uniforms, and red uniforms depending on their rank. It's Taekwondo.

I was thinking about going with light grey or white. If white, not lighting the background and letting it fall to grey. What do you think?

Svennie

kevingeary wrote: »

It's Taekwondo.

kevingeary wrote: »

I was thinking about going with light grey or white. If white, not lighting the background and letting it fall to grey. What do you think?

I would stick with light grey. Although white uniforms are really white in TKD, shadow parts on the uniforms may fall te grey as well.
Blue and red are the colors of TKD in WTF sparring and they go excellent with the white uniform so, if possible, use these as background.
When they wear an other colored uniform, I would pick the white background.

Art Scott

I liked the examples linked to in your other thread.....Is there any way to find a tunnel like that near you to use...actually if could be any narrow hall way and light like what was done in you linked example....but one thing I would do that HE did not and that is tape down the exlectrical cords....he got lucky that is a law suit just waiting to happen...real bad trip hazards......

Good Luck

kevingeary

Svennie wrote: »

I would stick with light grey. Although white uniforms are really white in TKD, shadow parts on the uniforms may fall te grey as well.
Blue and red are the colors of TKD in WTF sparring and they go excellent with the white uniform so, if possible, use these as background.
When they wear an other colored uniform, I would pick the white background.

I only have 5 to 10 minutes with each student, so I can't be changing out backgrounds. I need to stick with a single color.

kevingeary

Art Scott wrote: »

I liked the examples linked to in your other thread.....Is there any way to find a tunnel like that near you to use...actually if could be any narrow hall way and light like what was done in you linked example....but one thing I would do that HE did not and that is tape down the exlectrical cords....he got lucky that is a law suit just waiting to happen...real bad trip hazards......

Good Luck

No tunnels unfortunately. And I don't have a battery pack so I need to be near outlets.

A martial arts studio is fortunately just like a photography studio...it's a huge box with four walls. So we have plenty of space to set up a backdrop, lights, etc.