Need some advice shooting a Finish Line...

M38A1

I know this is a late request, yet I was just asked if I'd volunteer to shoot a local charity Kids Triathlon for Colin's Hope tomorrow morning. Colin's Hope is a non-profit focused on education and various programs to prevent childhood drowning. I shot it last year and totally winged it. This year, if I get stuck on the Finish Line again I'd like to know what I can do differently to give them a better product.

Last year was overcast in the morning which gave way to intermittent sunshine, and what sunshine I had, I tried to put it to my back to illuminate the kids. Which brings me to the next problem - framing. These kids are LITTLE and get swallowed up in the Finish Line with the organizations banner.

I shot my D700 and used an SB900 initially with the cloudy shots and I "think" I just let TTL do the work. I really don't remember. Then as the sun came out I moved a bit for better background content. I started out just grabbing the kids and part of the Finish Line as the kids were soooo small. Then I shot some portrait orientation and settled on landscape.

I have the D700 with a battery grip, a 24-70 f/2.8 or my 70-200 f/2.8 I can use. Also have a 50/1.4 along with a little stool and a monopod, some SB700's/stands/umbrellas if needed. Battery life would be a concern too?

So..... what would your recommendations be to try and do better this year? What kind of lighting solutions would you suggest for what might be a cloudy day or bright sunshine? What kind of framing content/orientation would be best? .jpg or RAW to work with? (I'd like to get it right in the camera to reduce post) There are 353 kids entered this year.

Here's the gallery of everything if you really want to see the details:
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/31741263_wRFDtt#!i=2752291800&k=mfrtJH5

These shots are done at no charge to the organization, and uploaded to a SM gallery where the parents can download them at no charge. So I joke I have a money back guarantee, but I'd really like to give the parents/kids/organization something of value.

Here is a good representative sample of the various things I tried last year:

#1 - This is where I started with a flash, portrait orientation and background. See how little these kids are?



#2 - Little kids still, flash, landscape and moved in with a different background (clock)



#3 - Bigger kids, landscape, ambient light cloudy



#4a - Landscape, ambient cloudy


#4b - Landscape, when the sun pokes out. This is where I shot the majority of shots for the rest of the event and it alternated between cloud and sun from shot to shot


ANY help would MOST certainly be appreciated!

.

M38A1

Well, I again 'winged' it. The event started with heavy overcast and remained that way through the last finisher and a few more hours.

Same basic Finish Line setup as last year by the event organizers - a huge red structure that was really wide and a different banner which was much larger this time.

I started out with an SB900 behind a white shoot thru umbrella about 20' to the side and 7' up camera right. This was typical of what I was able to shoot:


At some point the SB900 died or got hot. Took a shot or two chimping to see that happen.

With the SB900/Umbrella inop, I dropped back to an SB700 on top of the body and finished the event with this kind of shot:


So, any sports shooters care to comment on what I can do next year? Or is this about it with what they give me to work with?

Thanks.

.

M38A1

So pondering on this a bit before the deadline to turn images in, a friend floated the idea of cropping them portrait style. To I did and took maybe 90 min to create a collection in LR from the landscape files that had been run thru post. Then take the first image and apply a portrait crop to it and sync that across all the files. Then one by one simply click the crop button and frame it better. Once that was done I created a watermark for the bottom of each shot that said Colin's Hope Kids Triathlon, and exported as a .jpg. When that was done, I uploaded them to SM and burned a disc for the organizer. 325 kids was workable. Now, 1000 athletes would be a different matter.

Here's what the Portrait crop set looked like with the watermark "event" inserted at export. I'm kind of liking how the transformation has occurred from last year to this point. THANKS DUKE for the help!



Thoughts?

wmstumme

Interesting issue. I've never shot finish line stuff before--so I don't have any real world expereince to offer. However, looking at these I can see they are challenging. Since it appears the event has part, I think your solution in the last post is about the best.

If you do it again next year, here are a couple of thoughts....

The backdrop really isn't so captivating, and the finish line banner/archway is so big and the kids so small, it's tough to get everything you might want into a good shot. The large DOF doesn't really make the runner jump out from the scene either.

I'm not sure I'd be worrying about all the flash set up and all; even on a cloudy day, you should have enough light to capture what you need. Battery life should be okay for about 1,000 shots (guessing a burst of about 3 per runner?). With a grip containing 2 batteries, I think you'ld be fine.

I think I would just concentrate on framing just the runner, with the camera in portrait orientation, making sure I captured the foot going over the finish line. I'd also shoot this really wide open to get a shallow DOF, with he runner in focus (especially the face) and really blur out the background. I've got to think you'ld get some pretty interesting & varied facial expressions at that moment. I'd also probably get as low as you can tolerate and shoot slightly upward.

Perhaps you could include the charity's/event's logo as part of a watermark... Since you've done this a couple times, maybe you have the pull to get them to put another copy of the ad/poster down at the street level right behind where the runner will go past.

Just some thoughts...

M38A1

Thank you Will, as those are great ideas/observations....

I was shooting from a seated position on a little stool with the camera on a mono-pod. Maybe lens hgt of 40"? I can see how lower might give a different presentation For sure, the DOF I'll remember next time. That's a GREAT idea. And that banner, I'm going to suggest they get one that is a landscape format which doesn't hang below the red, and maybe has FINISH on it. Possibly the actual event name and a velcro swappable year area.

The flash really did bring out the contrast/colors. Without it on a few test shots it was just flat and dull. So if it's cloudy again, the flash will be out. I've volunteered for this event three years now in a row and each year the weather has been cloudy/overcast or raining.

Thanks!

jmphotocraft

I think you could go a few different ways with this. I like 4a and 4b, and the ones you posted from this year. I think they're the best compositions for telling the full story of what was going on. You've got the finish line structure, the clock, the crowd lining the street, it's great. I think including all these elements is more important than just getting a tight shot of a kid running with an obscure background that could have been taken anytime. Parents have plenty of portraits of their kids, this should be a picture of their kid finishing a triathlon. If you could have gotten the uprights of the finish structure to be vertical, that would have been better. I agree with the shallower DOF comment. A blurred background is one of the most obvious things that will set your shots apart from parents' cell phone shots. Unfortunately I think the banner in this year's event is kind of a morbid thing to have in a photo, so maybe a tighter "sportrait" like Will recommends might have been a better call. In either case, you've got to have commemorative text or a logo on the pics like you did in your last post. However that text is only half-baked. Play around with stroke and drop-shadow and emboss to give the text some pizazz.

M38A1

Thanks Jack. I sent off some recommendations to the Race Director he hopefully will consider for next years event.

Totally agree on your observations. Again - thx!