suggestions for athletic shoot on 9/17

Elaine

Hey people shooters,

By request, I'm taking one specific shot this Saturday at my CrossFit studio that I could use some help figuring out. There will be 6 ladies hanging in pull-up position from a bar and I'll be shooting their backsides...as they won't be wearing any tops.

Here's what I know: they want black and white; they'll be wearing black yoga pants; those with long hair will have it pulled up; a couple of them have back tattoos; we'll try a few arrangements to see what looks best as far as lining them up by height, etc...

The location: the bar is about 3-4 feet in front of a large window that has vertical blinds (which will obviously be pulled closed), so those will be in the background. I think their bodies will mostly cover up the blinds, but if you have any ideas about fixing a better background, please share. I'm planning to use the longest lens the venue will allow me to use, getting all six ladies lined up in a row. I'm hoping I can use my 85mm at least, but even that may not be possible. I may need to use the 17-55. I was thinking I could shoot around f/4 but wanted to make sure I didn't need to stop down more in order to get sharpness ranging all the way across the photo. Thoughts?

Here are my other thoughts/questions: I want to accentuate back muscles, which I think is best done with some side lighting. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm concerned that one flash from one end will be too bright on the person closest to the flash and not provide any definition for the person farthest away. If I set up a giant white reflector on the other side, won't that just fill in any desired shadowing? Would it work at all to somehow hang my flash in the middle above them? I only own one flash and one umbrella. Is there any way to accomplish this with one flash, or do I need two for this?

I'd really welcome all ideas and suggestions! Please!

Qarik

with one flash and 6 bodies you are going to get major light falloff even with a reflector on the other side..you can try to pull the flash back as far as possible to reduece the fall off but that present schallenges by itself. if you only have one flash the best position might be in the middle either hanging down or straight up...even then..it doens't sound like it would work all that great.

Honestly I don't think a one flash solution is going to work for more then 2 bodies in row.

Elaine

Qarik wrote: »

with one flash and 6 bodies you are going to get major light falloff even with a reflector on the other side..you can try to pull the flash back as far as possible to reduece the fall off but that present schallenges by itself. if you only have one flash the best position might be in the middle either hanging down or straight up...even then..it doens't sound like it would work all that great.

Honestly I don't think a one flash solution is going to work for more then 2 bodies in row.

Kinda what I was thinking. So...if I were able to acquire a 2nd flash, how to best employ them while maintaining some shadow definition?

danieloowens

Does your reflector turn into a diffuser by any chance? If so, what size is it?

Z6I

I'm not sure if this would work but 1) rent or borrow another flash 2) mount them above and slightly behind the athletes. This could accentuate the muscles from a top lighting rather than side lighting.
Just thinking out loud.

Elaine

danieloowens wrote: »

Does your reflector turn into a diffuser by any chance? If so, what size is it?

No, I was thinking I could just set up a large piece (4x8) of white tile board that I have.

Elaine

Z6I wrote: »

I'm not sure if this would work but 1) rent or borrow another flash 2) mount them above and slightly behind the athletes. This could accentuate the muscles from a top lighting rather than side lighting.
Just thinking out loud.

So, a partially backlit situation, but mounted high enough to spill over onto their backs?

Z6I

Elaine wrote: »

So, a partially backlit situation, but mounted high enough to spill over onto their backs?

No, I meant behind them as in lighting their backs. I'm thinking 1-2 feet to their posterior side and at least 5 feet above. The angle MAY light the muscles of the ladies while still giving the shadows you want to show definition. The distance between the flashes will play a roll in all of this as well.
Again, I'm thinking out loud here and not sure what the outcome would be.
I'd be interested to read other ideas too. I like your idea, please show the final outcome here.

codyjbennett

Just to help with the conversation, can you describe the room a bit more? Some of the comments about the flash falloff may be a concern for a small room where you _have_ to have the flash close, but if the room is bigger, you may be able to move the flash back to help reduce the falloff concern.

Additionally, how close together are the subjects going to be hanging? Is it one long pull-up bar, or several? How close together will the grouping of ladies be? (6" between each vs 6' between makes a big difference...)

Is the studio on a ground floor and subsequently you cannot have the blinds open because of the topless component?

Of course, I've got more questions than answers at this point, but I'm very interested to see where this goes!

Good luck!

Elaine

codyjbennett wrote: »

Just to help with the conversation, can you describe the room a bit more? Some of the comments about the flash falloff may be a concern for a small room where you _have_ to have the flash close, but if the room is bigger, you may be able to move the flash back to help reduce the falloff concern.

Additionally, how close together are the subjects going to be hanging? Is it one long pull-up bar, or several? How close together will the grouping of ladies be? (6" between each vs 6' between makes a big difference...)

Is the studio on a ground floor and subsequently you cannot have the blinds open because of the topless component?

Of course, I've got more questions than answers at this point, but I'm very interested to see where this goes!

Good luck!

The bar is one long bar and the ladies will be about as close together as is comfortable and looks OK. Yes, we're on the ground floor which is a real bummer because I won't be able to have any of the three garage doors open to let in great light and the window behind the bar will have to be covered. The room has at least 15' ceilings and is very long when looking perpendicular from the bar (50' or so?), but there is a pull-up station in the middle of the room that may block a totally clear view of the bar from too far back. The room also extends at least 20' feet beyond either end of the bar.

Will pulling the flash way back cause some funky shadow projections onto the background?

codyjbennett

Flash...

Elaine wrote: »

Will pulling the flash way back cause some funky shadow projections onto the background?

The value of pulling the flash farther back from your subject is that the falloff will allow for a greater distance between stops of light.

This might be hard to read through, but I'll try to give the basic idea:

Imagine a flash at full power. In this case, we'll say that the available light at 1' away is f22. Moving away, the light falls off, but the distance between each stop gets wider... See my made-up list below for a general idea:

1'-2' (1' between f-stops) f22 to f16
2'-4' (2' between f-stops) f16 to f11
4'-8' (4' between f-stops) f11 to f8
8'-16' (8' between f-stops) f8 to f5.6
16'-32' (16' between f-stops) f5.6 to f4

So, let's say your six athletes are spread over ~10' on the bar. If your flash from the example above is close, there might be several stops of light between the front and back person... if the flash is farther away (pretend it's ~24' away), it means that from lady 1 to lady 6, you'll only have a variation of ~1 stop of light.

Does that make sense? Obviously not all scenarios will allow your flash to be exactly where you want it, which is why having bounce or additional flashes to help fill those other areas which might be getting darker...

Elaine

Well...that was fun, despite my shortage of light!

I had thought there would be 6 women for this shoot, but when I got there, there were 9, which didn't work for the length of the bar. Hmmm...what to do. We ended up shooting two shots: one with 5 and one with 4 and I have just spent hours putting those two shots together. (So, please don't rip apart my photo splicing skills too hard...I'm tired enough I just might cry!) Edit: Honestly, if you see anything glaring that should be fixed, please let me know!

BTW...the bar really is bright pink! They want a black and white shot, and I'll probably do a version where the bar stays pink, because...well...who has a bright pink pull-up bar?? The black pants are fairly well plugged in a lot of places, but they wore long black pants to keep the lower half kinda quiet anyway. I do wish I'd played a bit with the height of the flash, but...live and learn. I'm embracing the shadows!

Tinstafl

Seeing this a strip light on the floor in front of them could have blown out the shadows abd the blinds. Might have needed two of them to do it right or hang a long black background and let the shadows fall on that but the pants seperation would be an issue. Still a great idea and concept.