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Aside from dance, I absolutely love creating sports portraits. I really try to think outside the box on these and just try to get as creative as I can. it takes some commitment from the athletes as I ask them to do things they're not necessarily used to, and we often have to repeat it until we nail it. And we often have to do it at sunrise or sunset, or later or earlier, depending on what we're trying to create.
1. I'm a big fan of Ben Shirk's work, and I have a few of his templates. I like shooting the high school athletes in my studio and compositing them into images sometimes. This is one of them with a pitcher who went on to pitch for Loyola University in Chicago. http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51727815860_f0d24bc871_b.jpg
2. This is one of my senior ambassadors in the studio for a fashion shoot. The girls get these great prom dresses, and Ryan came in a tux. Since he's a basketball player, we gave him a basketball. http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51727811720_7734098b60_b.jpg
4. This doesn't necessarily look like a sports portrait but it is. I'm hired often to create swim action portraits. There was a spot at the end of day where a little ray of light was hitting the swimming pool so I simply focused on this one spot. http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51727170328_e970e4b6b0_b.jpg
11. Julian had a scholarship to play soccer at Michigan State. So we wanted to create a fun image. We had to do this jump leap about a dozen times, landing on a mattress, before it was perfect. http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51727545954_22c8ce8947_b.jpg
15. I was sitting on the east side of Lake Michigan at a beach and just really enjoying watching the sun set over the lake. Growing up in California, I was really missing this look. I suddenly realized I needed to get a shot of my friend there next to me who was a wakeboarder. http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51727122838_3a1a5b25a5_b.jpg
Watch your greenscreen bleed, apparent mostly in (1) and floating person in (2)
Otherwise, these are just about the best sportraits I have seen here on FM
greg
Thanks so much, Greg. I did shoot the first one against greenscreen and I've gotten away from it for exactly the reason you're talking about. That damned bleeding. No. 2 is just shot on my white dance floor/background, no composite. I'd have to look closer at it to see if I brightened the whites too much to make it seem like he's floating. I tend to use back lighting to get rid of any shadows behind my subjects.
keepclicking wrote:
Ron, absolutely stunning set😳. Love the way you PP👍🏻
Thanks! I honestly think of every image I shoot as just being the start of putting something on a blank canvas. Of course, since I do a lot of volume work (even senior portraits are volume work, in essence), that I don't go crazy on pp on all my images, but whenever one grabs me, I go for it! :-)
