This was created for the local university wrestling team poster I've been doing since 1995.
200/2L @ f/2. Camera on floor, three 580s in 12x18 LiteDome softboxes on stands. Main light off camera right shooting into faces. Kicker light off camera left, another kicker just behind and to the right of the three background guys. ETTL with RadioPoppers, same power on all three lights.
I'm trying to decide if the BG wrestlings are detracting or not. Either way, I love the lighting on the subjects and for the most part, the PP treatment with my crit being the same for all these types of shots... the hair on the legs becomes gorilla-like.
Looks very cool, but the white collar on the guy in the background (center) is an unfortunate distraction. It's odd that this is less so in the original than the processed version.
I love it. Keep the treatment, but just tone it down a bit on the legs maybe via some type of mask that minimizes the sharpness on the leg hair. Otherwise, love it, background and all.
If you want to make the background not as distracting you could try to select the wrestlers then invert the selection and desaturate the background a bit. That may make the background not quite as distracting.
"Mind sharing your post-processing technique for creating the gritty look. I really like yours, it is not as over-the-top as others I've seen."
1) Run Bleach Bypass filter (Nik Color Efex Pro 3). Low local contrast, high global contrast. Lowered saturation.
2) Drag original layer on top of Bleach Bypass layer, select front wrestlers with Magnetic Lasso. Invert selection (2 pixel feather). Delete. (everything except front wrestlers is deleted.)
3) Run Nik Tonal Contrast filter on front wrestlers layer. Higher midtones, lower highlight and shadow tones. Lower the opacity of layer to blend with Bleach Bypass layer (to taste).
Bleach Bypass does a nice job with OOF areas such as the background wrestlers; Tonal Contrast does not, but it does give a grittier look on in-focus areas such as the front wrestlers. So using both filters where most suitable gives the best of both worlds, IMHO.
