Group/Ind Portraits SwimTeam - Advice Welcome

[Gringriff]

Get to try it out Saturday

[ian408]

How'd it go?

[cr8ingwaves]

I would like to hear how it went too.
Especially any lighting set up you used.

I was approached to do team photos for a youth wrestling club but do not have the gear to do them justice and had to decline.

[Gringriff]

Well I tried to get information on how to light up the group. Just couldn't find anything besides multiple flashes, umbrellas, soft boxes etc.. etc... So it was a struggle to figure out how to light up the place.

I considered buying a new 580 EX flash and learning how to use two at once but just did not have the money (or time) for all that. So, I ended up going to Home Depot and buying two 500 watt Halogen work lights they had on sale for $6 each. I took those, a few drop cords, my ladder, and 430 EX II flash.

They really didn't need individuals so I just setup for the group shot and later took some swimming shots (using 70-200mm).

I decided to go with the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. I had the two lights on either side of my ladder (wider than the kids formation) pointing up slightly and across a diving wing of the pool with the kids positioned on the other side.

There was all sorts of stuff they had to move, covers, boxes, time clocks etc... and as you will see there were still some parents left in the background.

Shot the group photo at 1/160, f/4.0, ISO 500. Without the lights ISO would have been much higher. I really wanted to reduce the background with a higher aperture but didn't feel safe going below f/4 for this size group. I think the background could have been better if they had been further from the camera, but I could go across the full width of the main pool. And of course, I wish the parents/bleachers in background had not been there.

I know people will laugh at the results - but hey I had to try something and hopefully I can improve in the future. So #1 is an example of what it looked with the added lights and #2 is the finished group picture.

And yes comments and suggestions for future improvements are welcome.

http://andygriffin.smugmug.com/photos/707232700_woY8P-L.jpg


http://andygriffin.smugmug.com/photos/707254359_E6D6s-L.jpg

[ian408]

Nice work!

[action-pics]

Not bad at all for some non-traditional lighting. I would have asked the parents to move though.

[Gringriff]

Thanks ian408


Not bad at all for some non-traditional lighting. I would have asked the parents to move though.

Action-Pics - Yes I agree I should have asked them to move. They were definitely in a hurry to get started in the pool and I felt like they were inconvenienced having to move so much stuff. But it would have made a better picture. Maybe this will be good evidence to why I need every thing moved next time.

Andy

[Crossbarphoto]

Thanks ian408




Action-Pics - Yes I agree I should have asked them to move. They were definitely in a hurry to get started in the pool and I felt like they were inconvenienced having to move so much stuff. But it would have made a better picture. Maybe this will be good evidence to why I need every thing moved next time.

Andy

A quick selection and a little Gaussian Blur would really help this out by isolating your subjects.

[ian408]

A quick selection and a little Gaussian Blur would really help this out by isolating your subjects.

This is a good idea.

[cr8ingwaves]

love the unconventional lighting. Especially love it because I had joked about doing the same thing.
Might try it here at home in the area I envision a mock studio set up.

[rainbow]

Good work on getting the lighting to work for you.

My thought is that if you had put the coaches behind the last row of swimmers, you could have cropped out the parents/stands on the left. That would have also given you a better "aspect ratio" for an 8 x 10 print, so that you could have "crop-zoomed" in more and all the people would show larger/closer.

[Gringriff]

Good work on getting the lighting to work for you.

My thought is that if you had put the coaches behind the last row of swimmers, you could have cropped out the parents/stands on the left. That would have also given you a better "aspect ratio" for an 8 x 10 print, so that you could have "crop-zoomed" in more and all the people would show larger/closer.


Thanks Rainbow. I agree 100% on the coaches' positions. When I got home and started cropping that was one of my first thoughts.