A Rainbow in the Dark
Jul, 2015Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Women In Sports Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Sports In Action Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Chasing The Action Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in 1K Edited Shots Photo Contest
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Ultimate
ericcriswell
July 29, 2015
Thank you Steve! I appreciate your comments and of course your kind words about the behind the lens description. I tried to capture the essence of the story and technique so someone could recreate if they desired.
jrhalphen
July 29, 2015
Eric, this is an amazing shot. Thanks for sharing your information.
Very impressive!
Very impressive!
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-OUTDOOR-PHOTOGRAPHY
November 18, 2015
This is a wonderful photo... i just love everything about it... amazing job
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IAMROSE
April 06, 2017
Nice image. Well composed and planned. However, I ask if this is an "image" or an unaltered photograph? Where might I find your "Behind the Lens" Description? I'm new here and don't know my way around yet...Thanks
jpwaldron
July 22, 2017
Nice image, I'm not one to publicly add unrequested C&C but i feel this time it is warranted with hopes that it helps make the photographer better. So here is some C&C; my only complaint about it is there is no face, and in the world of sports photography, people like to see faces in action portraits. Well done
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my backyard in a typical suburban neighborhood with my oldest daughter who is an elite 2018 college soccer prospect in the Southeastern United States. You should expect to see her on a division 1 or 2 university soccer field in the very near future.Time
I remember this day well because I had the idea late in the evening the day before my wife and I were to leave for Italy and Paris. It was a cold brisk December night about 10 in the evening. I asked my daughter to get her uniform on to go capture a fun image.Lighting
Outside of the elite athlete, the lighting is the most important part of this image. I used two studio flash strobes on stands flanking each side of my daughter. I placed my daughter approximately 10-15 foot in front of the two rear strobes. The rear strobes really help bring this moment to life. The rear flash helps outline my daughter with a strong contrasting line between the infinite darkness and my daughter. A third strobe flash is necessary and was located to camera left approximately 10 to 15 degrees from the camera. The third flash is key and may require some adjustment to make sure that you do not have too much light splashing onto your background or strobe flash stands behind the subject. I used a wireless flash trigger on the camera hot shoe.Equipment
I shot with a Canon 5D Mark III with a Sigma 50 mm f/1.4 len on a Manfrotto tripod with a hand held intervalometer and wireless flasher trigger attached to control the three studio flash strobes on stands.Inspiration
My daughter and I really enjoy hanging out and this was a perfect marriage of our two favorite things of soccer and photography. I love to find time to spend time together with my kids and find ways to connect and work together. My daughter has a dream of playing college soccer at the very highest level and I thought this would be a great memory to capture for her. It would be a great image for her to use on her social media but also a good reminder of all that hard work practicing and working out to reach her dreams. The idea of the image seems very dreamy and reaching to the stars. How often do you see "Rainbows in the Dark?"Editing
Very little post processing was necessary for this image. The biggest thing that was needed was to drop the blacks in the image to define the infinite black background and keep the strobe stands from showing up and distracting from the final image.In my camera bag
Canon 5D Mark III Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L Canon 135 mm f/2.0 L Canon 24-105 mm f/4.0 L Sigma 50 mm f/1.4 Sigma 1.4 TC Sigma 2.0 TC Manfrotto tripod Intervalometer.Feedback
Things you will need: 1.) The hardest part of capturing an image similar to this one is going to be you are going to need a highly skilled athlete that can do a rainbow or another flashy/difficult skill. 2.) Three Studio Strobe Lights and Power and triggers for your lights set to the flash sync speed of your camera. Mine is 1/200th of a second. If you will notice, to get complete freeze motion in soccer typically you would prefer 1/1000th of a second. Anything less you might have minor blurring around the action (i.e. ball, player, etc.) 3.) The MAGIC sauce was ....wait for it....Baby Powder. This is what will generate the smoke portion of the photo. We would place a bit of this on top of the ball prior to her doing the trick. 4.) Lastly, you will need to adjust your strobe strengths to keep the strobe stands from being to lit up during the capture. This will take a little adjustment. Also, you might have to cleverly hide any extension cords etc. Enjoy! I would love to see some pics inspired by our shot! Shoot away!
