Middle School Basketball portrait C&C please

Dreadnote

So I took another crack at posed pics of our middle school athletes, this time our basketball teams, since the parents seem to like those more than the actual game pics. Here are a few I thought I'd get some opinions on as I am still attempting to work the dramatic lighting which apart from its being a bit challenging on its own is further complicated when attempting to get 11-13 year olds to stand still while their friends are heckling them. Anyway, what do you think?

1)


2)


3)


4)


5)


6)



Thanks for the comments.

dave6253

I really like these Dreadnote. I love the lighting. #6 is a standout for me for the atypical pose and expression. Very nice.

I may soon be shooting a group of flag football players in the same age group. I wonder if you would share your lighting setup?

Dreadnote

dave6253 wrote: »

I really like these Dreadnote. I love the lighting. #6 is a standout for me for the atypical pose and expression. Very nice.

I may soon be shooting a group of flag football players in the same age group. I wonder if you would share your lighting setup?

Thanks for the comments.

The lighting was pretty simple, but as ATM I only have two speed lights it kinda has to be.

One SB900 shot through a wescott 43" umbrella camera left, up and over 45 degrees on a 7 foot light stand. The second SB900 camera right up and behind the subject 45 degrees zoomed 105 mm. I had the boys line up their bodies with the button in the middle of the umbrella then look at me. The girls I had line up with the back edge of the umbrella so as to get more light on their faces. It seemed to me the mugger in the alley look worked better with the boys.

I'm thinking the second light should have been further back, but I only had about an hour to shoot the boys varsity, boys JV, girls varsity, and girls JV teams, so I put a piece of tape on the floor and guessed on the light placement. When the team got there I told them to put their foot on the tape and fired off about 3-4 frames per kid and hoped for the best. Given the time constraints, I'm hoping to work this kind of look until I can pull it off correctly.

Oh almost forgot about the rim. After the shoot I popped my camera on a tripod at approx the same shooting height and position as the students were shot from and put a snooted flash zoomed all the way in to 200 mm almost directly under the rim. Added it later in photoshop and sized it to accentuate the height on the players.

Hope that helps.

dave6253

Aha. I'm progressing a little. I had the lights figured out correctly, except I thought you had a 3rd snooted light on the backboard at the same time. I didn't realize it was added later. Thanks for answering my questions. I've just begun experimenting with off-camera flash.

digidrone

I really like your work here!
Well Done!

Dreadnote

digidrone wrote: »

I really like your work here!
Well Done!

Thanks Royce, I appreciate it.

Bryce Wilson

No.s one, two and three are exceptional in my mind.

The lighting drama, poses and processing has taken the mundane poorly lit, posed pictures that I see from most volume school sports photography outfits to a whole new level.

Bravo!

Dreadnote

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

No.s one, two and three are exceptional in my mind.

The lighting drama, poses and processing has taken the mundane poorly lit, posed pictures that I see from most volume school sports photography outfits to a whole new level.

Bravo!

Wow!! I think I'm gonna cry...

Thanks a million for the comments.

Hackbone

Love the Joe Grimes lighing. Great job on these. Congrats.

PS. the lighting was not simple on these!!!

Moving Pictures

Query: let's assume you had a third flash/trigger. D'ya think you could have shot this look in one frame, no post-shot adding of the basket?

I love the look. Like, serious lust. As in, I'm already parking this look in my bag of tricks to use for next year, when I MUST do a story about the defending provincial champions having only lost two non-key players, and return the core of the team as seniors... pick the three key kids, a little "mugger in the alley" crosslit group shot ...

Or, in other words, imitation and outright pillaging is the sincerest form of flattery.

But this shot makes me realize I seriously need to add a third, reliable flash (see also, not a non-adjustable, old-school, low-end Vivitar backup) to my arsenal. I really think this could be shot one-frame, no serious PP.

Dreadnote

Hackbone wrote: »

Love the Joe Grimes lighing. Great job on these. Congrats.

PS. the lighting was not simple on these!!!

Thank you very much! It means a lot to me as you guys really know your stuff whereas I'm still working through most of it.

Dreadnote

Moving Pictures wrote: »

Query: let's assume you had a third flash/trigger. D'ya think you could have shot this look in one frame, no post-shot adding of the basket?

I love the look. Like, serious lust. As in, I'm already parking this look in my bag of tricks to use for next year, when I MUST do a story about the defending provincial champions having only lost two non-key players, and return the core of the team as seniors... pick the three key kids, a little "mugger in the alley" crosslit group shot ...

Or, in other words, imitation and outright pillaging is the sincerest form of flattery.

But this shot makes me realize I seriously need to add a third, reliable flash (see also, not a non-adjustable, old-school, low-end Vivitar backup) to my arsenal. I really think this could be shot one-frame, no serious PP.

Thanks for the compliments!

I'm pretty confident I could do it in camera one shot if I had three lights, but the third light would have to have a bit more punch than the SB900. I was able to get the gym most of the way to black by milking that little light for all it was worth but it wasn't quite enough. Needed to darken down a few spots that reflected light like metal outlet covers and other shiny items in the background in photoshop to get it all black. If I could have shot at f/11 I think it would have done the trick, but f/8 1/250th was all that little light could manage. The other issue would be set up time. I had about 10 minutes from when the dance team finished practice until the BB teams arrived, and precious little time thereafter until the kids had to get to the bus for the ride home. Hopefully the experience I got this time will smooth some of the bumps next time.