These are poster pics for an upcoming Muay Thai fight I am shooting in Nov. We tried a different setup than usual with this one. We wanted multiple angles for the poster. So I had to light both sides evenly to be able to crank through shots with each fighter. I wish I had another BD or strip light from above and behind as a hair light. I need another stand to make that happen. I swear lights are worse than camera gear. Totally addictive. It made me want 2 more Einsteins. Once you go to the dark side with strobes it is hard to go back to speed lights.

Einstein with 22" beauty dish on right and left. 24" umbrella with SB700 almost straight on/ slightly left and high. To add a tiny bit of fill. It ended up being pretty weak. I incorporated my on camera SB900 to help balance it a bit more. I wish I had them stand about 1 more foot from the BG. I got some shadows on the right side. Because of this. Maybe my light on the left was out slightly more causing this. This was shot on location at the kickboxing gym. I used a Vagabond mini to power the 2 Einsteins.

Here are a few favorites.

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i like these! I don't work with this type of lighting but i wish the background spill was a little more consistent. in 2 and 4 the background is lit a little more than the others (4 with a hard shadow behind him) thats about all the nits I have, otherwise nice. i like 3 & 5 the best.

I wish I was cut like that girl. dang

You lighting is not bad at all, it gives the body defenition and that is great. I feel you do need a few more lights. The eyes are lifeless, JoelGrimes uses the side lights then adds a main up front at floor level. A light to create sepretation from the bkg would help. Overall they should be thrilled with them. I might want a slightly higher camera angle.

These are great. I would suggest moving them a little farther from the back ground and shooting a wider aperture. I agree with Hackbone. I think more lights would help. but I would have shot this a little different. I would have moved the lights to slightly behind them on the sides with one up at 45/45. I think the background would look better really black or hit with a AB400 with a gel. Great job though!

Number 3 needs a bit more light on his face, and he really needs to tuck that thumb into his fist! :)

Originally Posted by mercphoto Number 3 needs a bit more light on his face, and he really needs to tuck that thumb into his fist! :)

That's no fist. That's "thumbs up: I like this photographer".

Thanks guys! Yes more lights for sure! Especially for this type of setup where I need to capture more than 1 type of pose. My usual set up for fighter portraits is a 60" Umbrella almost directly left. Boom with tiny softbox overhead and behind on the right. And a smaller umbrella or reflector to the right and slightly forward to fill a little. This works great. As soon as people start to move and face the other way this setup really doesn't work. This double sidelight setup works well for this. And might be even better with Parabolic reflectors instead of beauty dishes. The dish is awesome, but it is such a narrow window. If they move forward or backward 1ft they are out of the sweet spot of the light. A big silver parabolic will be a much bigger light and should still be pretty harsh.

Hackbone I love the idea of the light from the bottom front. I think I need to try that next time for sure. Especially for waist up shots.
I need to practice more with balancing the power of the strobes and speedlights. The problem is the speedlights are no match for them. Even at 1:1. I just need to get my Aperture open a little more and the strobe power down a bit. Or, I just need more strobes!

you know what? I think these woudl look super good with a high contrast gritty BW conversion

I think there is all kinds of potential in your images, for further or other post work!
Really good images Zerodog..

Originally Posted by Qarik you know what? I think these woudl look super good with a high contrast gritty BW conversion

Absolutely!

I think these are terrific! Sure, some of the comments made could improve them for another go-round, but I don't think there's anything you should be ashamed of in these Zero - great work, and I bet they love them!