KristjanJ
FollowThis photo was lit with 3 speedlites. One was in a parabolic umbrella to the camera left, the second one was a barebulb speedlite directly behind her, a little ...
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This photo was lit with 3 speedlites. One was in a parabolic umbrella to the camera left, the second one was a barebulb speedlite directly behind her, a little bit above her head, the last light was in a 70x70 softbox to the camera right.
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Behind The Lens
Location
When we were planning for this shoot, we didn't want to go through the trouble of getting permits. So in the end we ended up using the stadium of a local school.Time
Since I knew I wanted to use strobes for this picture, to freeze the action, and my camera could only sync up to 1/250th of a second, we decided to start the shoot at around 6PM, expecting it would be dark enough. However, due to the fact that it was summer, it wasn't. So the image came out a tad bit blurry.Lighting
A couple of months ago Pixel Enterprises sent me their Pixel Mago for testing and reviewing. That's when I came up with the idea for this picture. It was lit with 3 speedlites. One was in a parabolic umbrella to the camera left, the second one was a barebulb speedlite directly behind her, a little bit above her head, the last light was in a 70x70 softbox to the camera right. The Mago was in the 101cm Phottix Para-Pro. All of the flashes were around 1/16 power.Equipment
For this shot I used a Sony Alpha A700, Two YN560-IIs, a Pixel Mago, and the Helios 44-2 f/2 58mm (an old russian film lens). And lets not forget my trusty Manfrotto tripod.Inspiration
For a long time I had been looking at this picture of Lauren Collinns from Joel Grimes, and I had wanted to make something like it. Since I had to come up with ideas to shoot for the Pixel Mago review, I decided to finally do it.Editing
Ohh, wow, alot of post-processing was done. We shot this on a stadium with a horribly boring background. Orginally, I wanted to make it exactly like the picture from Joel Grimes. However, I couldn't find a good stadium to photograph for the background, and I wanted to edit the photo soo badly. That's when I decided to add a simple background in Photoshop. This image inspired a whole series of fine art sports portraits.In my camera bag
I usually carry with me my trusty Sony A700. For lenses I have the Helios 44-2 58mm f/2, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro (probably my favorite lens), and a Tamron AF 18-250 mm Di-II. Then I always carry atleast two YN560-IIs with me (no matter what I am shooting), and the Pixel Mago. Sometimes I have a Caler Jinbei MF-100 barebulb speedlite with me aswell. However, it's quite cumbersome to carry around.Feedback
Wow, there is alot I could say about this. I think probably the most important thing would be your strobes, and how you handle them. To get the most out of your speedlites, I'd recommend shooting in the dark, eliminate all of the ambiance, and keep your speedlites at 1/16 power or less, that's the point where they start to freeze action (have a short enough flash duration). Also, for shooting athletes I'd recommend using contrasty light to bring out their features.