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09/08/2014 02:52:48 PM · #1 |
I wrote the athletics dept. at the University I work for if I could shoot some sports to put in my portfolio. I sent them some of my stuff and they said come on over and we'll talk. Basically what they said was, SURE, as long as you do a bit of variety, especially between men's and women's sports, then go for it! I let them know what fits my schedule and I'm in. I can't sell any of them, but that's pretty much the norm, right?
He also said that he was told today that they needed some photos of two of their players doing dunks. One of them won some national dunking competition. It sounds like their looking for flashy, studio type of photos. I've got their full attention for 20 minutes on Friday night. This is what I need help with. I'm comfortable doing live stuff like sports, birds, and music. But this is going to be 20 minutes of me being in charge of lighting, so I need several different lighting scenarios, so I can feel more comfortable. Any ideas? I have one working sb600 speedlight and an alien bee abr 800 ring flash with soft box (too much?) He says he will assist in turning lights on/off in the stadium as directed. I'm feeling a little out of my league, but they don't have a budget, so I'm not feeling too much pressure.
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09/08/2014 05:08:42 PM · #2 |
From my experience shooting indoor high school basketball (games - I've never done setup photos or dunk displays)
You're gonna want the Alien Bee at full or half power (no softbox - if you have a regular reflector, use it - if not, try to get one in time or fashion something, bare bulb will severely limit the actual light output) bounced off the ceiling. If you can mount it in the rafters, lower the power. The strobe duration and recharge time will get faster the lower the power, but don't go too low. If you do mount it up high, make sure you have it mounted securely and either heavy duty zip ties or ideally a chain for a saftey support. You don't want a player getting crushed by a falling piece of equipment.
If the ceiling is a non-neutral color, plan on shooting RAW or using a custom white balance. Bring a gray card if you have one, or eyeball it. I'm assuming you have a way of syncing both flashes, so you might want the speedlight for a rim light across from where you're standing.
Depending on the ambient light or lack thereof, you might be anywhere from f/4 to f/11 in order not to capture ambient light and get ghosting. Remember when you are shooting with strobes the strobe duration freezes the action and not the shutter speed, so go with the max sync speed.
If you can get access to the rafters to shoot, that will make for some very cool tight-cropped dunk photos, but if not just get close with a wide lens.
It's been a while since I've done any sports shooting, but if you have any more questions let me know. I could probably dig up some examples if you want.
SportsShooter.com is a very good resource too. |
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09/09/2014 08:48:57 PM · #3 |
I don't get why you would want to bounce off the ceiling or put the flash in the rafters for staged dunk shots. I get it for game shots, but you have the ability to put them on the floor and use appropriate modifiers for staged shots.
I would think having lighting high off the floor on stands to light the subject from both sides as they are dunking, and taking shots from both low down to exaggerate the height and from a step ladder to shoot from straight across would make for good shots. I would think shooting from perpendicular to the backboard (or near it) would make for good shots in the limited time you have. Given more time, it would be great to experiment from different angles, including @MadMan2k's suggestion of shooting from the rafters.
You can play with your shutter speed to get or omit some of the background.
Maybe someone with better studio lighting experience can give you some tips on a lighting setup. One thing to watch out for here would be the basketball knocking over your lights. |
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09/10/2014 09:25:26 AM · #4 |
You might PM  MattO. I know he shoots a lot of sports, including basketball. |
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