I have a 50/50 chance this will happen Saturday. I have 15-20 minutes with star player on field (not going to name him) in different poses. I will have two assistants. I'm sure it will need to be quick, so my lighting needs to be down and dirty. No time for stands and light boxes/beauty dish... Here is the lighting set up I was thinking of using. Sun as main, a 42x78 white panel reflector as fill and an off camera flash on small stand for catch light(dialed way down). I also have a 32 reflector disc white or gold if need be. The player will be clipped out for in store promotions. I'll have 10-15 minutes to do some test shots before we start. Any lighting ideas to avoid any shadow under cap and not overexposing his white jersey? I'll have my trusty light meter with me as well. Thinking of picking up a batter pack to keep SB 800 recycle time up. Heck I could get dow and dirty an just use all reflectors.
Sun is not an ideal key light for portrait if you want light in the eyes. Better to keep sun behind as rim light and use sky + flash in front as key/fill similar to how you would do a key/fill/hairlight portrait indoors.
Bring a small step ladder and have player look up skyward to get light past the bill of the cap and into eyes. Bring tall 12' light stand to keep flash 45° above raised face.
Micah25 wrote:
Thanks for the great suggestions CG! I'm worried that the rim light will make the retouchers want to kill me.
Why? If you expose it just below clipping on white uniform it will have detail. Then add flash on front under white front of uniform is about 1/3 stop darker ( i.e., a "zone 8" shaded white tone). I do that with sun and one speedlight on bracket without problem.
The towel helps to see when highlights are clipping in camera playback when subject isn't wearing white clothing near the face. Obviously not needed in the shot posted.
