As a professional portrait photographer my subjects are almost always still. But after making a portrait of pro boxer Dewayne Beamon (6-0) some time ago I wante...
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As a professional portrait photographer my subjects are almost always still. But after making a portrait of pro boxer Dewayne Beamon (6-0) some time ago I wanted to capture him in his element of maximum performance, intensity and action. The shot was captured with a Hasselblad H5D-50c with a f4-120mm lens and three Profoto strobes.
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Chatter Award
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Top Shot Award 21
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in My Best Shot Photo Contest Vol 3
People's Choice in Powerful Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Powerful Photo Contest
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Runner Up in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 11
Contest Finalist in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 11
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Outstanding Creativity
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bobbybryant
September 04, 2016
Excellent capture! I also take photos at boxing events (namely amateur boxing) in the Southern part (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and maybe Florida) and try to capture the determination.
pippin50
March 24, 2017
Great action shot - perfect timing. Facial expressions really add to the eoverall feeling of whats happening here. Brill.
ronaldwebb
February 11, 2018
This is awesome...I hope you consider submitting this image to the "Thrill of Victory - The Agony of Defeat" photo challenge
ronaldwebb
April 02, 2018
Thank you so much for submitting this fabulous image into the "Thrill of Victory - Agony of Defeat" photo challenge. It was one of my top 3 favorites in the challenge. Your technical skill, composition, timing, and use of lighting truly shines in this portrait...Bravo!!
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took the photo in the gym where pro boxer Dewayne Beamon (6 -0, 3 knockouts) trains, which is located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The shot was captured entirely in-camera - no compositing of the various pieces in the photo, including the flying mouth guard.Time
We shot this just before noon on a Saturday, as a pre-scheduled time. I had spent the morning mixing "movie blood" to make the knockout very striking (pun intended), based on a chocolate-based recipe I had found online.Lighting
I wanted this photo, which I consider a portrait although it very much looks like an action shot, to have a lighting pattern that was very realistic from a boxing match perspective. I used three Profoto strobes with three different modifiers - one key light from camera right (using an octabox modifier), one rim light from camera left (using a beauty dish with a grid) and one hard fill light over my left shoulder (a simple zoom can, so basically a directed bare bulb). They were fired with a Profoto Air TTL remote trigger.Equipment
I used a Hasselblad H5D-50c camera with an f4/120mm lens, hand-held. It was tight quarters in the boxing ring so I had to hang hard back against the ropes to get the framing the way I wanted it.Inspiration
I had made more traditional, "static" portraits of Dewayne before and had this vision that I wanted to create a portrait of him at his ultimate point of performance - throwing the perfect knockout punch. I had pre-visualized this shot for a couple of weeks and I was very happy that the final result was very close to what I had envisioned.Editing
I use Lightroom for raw conversion and the majority of the editing, then Nik Collection's Viveza 2 to work a bit on the structure and finally Silver Efex Pro 2 for the black-and-white conversion. I like the black-and-white version because I think it gives the shot a more timeless look.In my camera bag
I typically pack a Hasselblad H5D-50c (50 mp) medium-format digital camera with f4/120mm and f3.5/50mm lenses. I also often bring a Nikon D810 with an assortment of lenses (with my favorite being the 85mm f/1.4G portrait lens) for backup (or for lower light/higher speed capture) and a Nikon D4 for some behind-the-scenes shot, fired using a timer and mounted on a tripod. I love shooting film and sometimes pack my Hasselblad 503CW film camera with a couple of lenses, shooting either T-MAX or Tri-X b/w and Portra 160 for color.Feedback
I think pictures like these, if they are prepared and arranged, start with a vision. What story are you trying to tell. In my case it was about making a very unusual, action portrait by taking my relationship and the trust I had built with my subject, in this case Dewayne, to a new level, going beyond the traditional portrait into something I think very impactful and with in this case lighting that looks like a real fight.