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I do a lot of male athletes, but I also really enjoy working with serious female athletes. I sometimes have a concept idea in place, but sometimes just figure things out on the fly at the shoot. The lacrosse "action" shot, for example, was all in my head when she came to the studio to get the shot of her. Then I placed her in the lacrosse scene and added the defenders.
Oh these are super Ron!
As a former college and team lacrosse player and youth league coach, it is great to see the women here "in action"!
When I played in college, we still used wooden sticks and "cat gut" webs!
VERY well done!
Dan
Thanks, that's been one of my favorite sports portraits for a long time. We were doing a magazine cover shoot in this session, and when it was over, I asked her if she'd be willing to take off her uniform (shirt) and just let me get a shot of her in her pads. I really didn't know what it was going to look like without the shirt/uniform, but when I saw what she had on, i knew I was going to love this one.
I was a little worried she was going to hit me with her hockey stick when I asked her to take off her shirt, and she was a bit initially hesitant about it, but she ended up loving the shot as well.
Thanks, Dan! Being from the West, I never saw much lacrosse. None. Now that I'm in the Chicago suburbs, I see a lot of it, and it's been fun to photograph!
Ron
Danpbphoto wrote:
Oh these are super Ron!
As a former college and team lacrosse player and youth league coach, it is great to see the women here "in action"!
When I played in college, we still used wooden sticks and "cat gut" webs!
VERY well done!
Dan
Thanks, Allen! Its' definitely a touch hot on her hair hanging down. I wanted that to be the bright spot. I may have gone just a bit too hot there, tho. Thanks!
airfrogusmc wrote:
Ha ha. To my monitor and my eyes the highlights are just a touch hot. Otherwise pretty good. Antway you look at it, great job!!!!
friscoron wrote:
Thanks, Allen! Its' definitely a touch hot on her hair hanging down. I wanted that to be the bright spot. I may have gone just a bit too hot there, tho. Thanks!
I would probably leave the hair where it is but bring her left arm and leg down a bit.
Love the set, but #2 is my fav. The look of concentration, and determination framed by her hair is wonderful. Highlights ain't everything - you got the rest. I am interested how you lit #4 - as that looks challenging.
The first one is not a pose. I just asked her to get in a position like she was going fire a shot. This is one of her faves, so it's all good. No. 2, running is a lonely sport. They put in a lot of time when there's no one there cheering them on. Takes a lot of commitment. Again, client really loved this one, so all good.
As for No. 3, it's a total conceptual piece of artwork, not meant to be a documentary photo at all. And again, client loved it, and that's what is important. And my saying that the client loved these shots doesn't mean at all to take away your dislike of them. Photography is very, very subjective, especially when we get all artsy and esoteric. And that means not everyone will like what the photographer/artist comes up with, sometimes not even the client. And that's all good (except the client not liking it!).
Ron
Sauseschritt wrote:
1. Love the idea and the lighting and the other technicalities, but the pose looks kind of ackward to me. Maybe I just dont know what sport this is ?
2. This is very environmental, and I dont really get the message that this is to convey. Like, we see the stadium, but its empty ?
3. Whatever this is supposed to be, it doesnt work. This clearly is more photoshop than an actual photo.
James Markus wrote:
Love the set, but #2 is my fav. The look of concentration, and determination framed by her hair is wonderful. Highlights ain't everything - you got the rest. I am interested how you lit #4 - as that looks challenging.
Thanks!
I have to really work them to get into their competitive mindset, focused, and when they do, that's what we get.
As for No. 4, the girl from No. 2 is the first one I got this shot with, but I had a stadium to work with, and a sunrise coming up behind the stadium (although that's not the real sky, it was a boring blue sky). In both these shots (you can see the sample of the first girl down below, I had lights directly in front of the runner, and directly behind her. The first time I did this, the stadium shots, I only had speedlights, not all that powerful. Shot at 1/4000 at f/4.0 and ISO 160 at 24mm on a 24-70mm lens.
With the second girl, the one in No. 4, I had Godox 600s, one in front, one in back. Since I didn't have a stadium. I stopped down to knock out as much of the background as possible. I had the lights on at full power, so the look is completely different from the stadium, tho the lighting diagram would look pretty much the same.
Because I wanted to get rid of the background, I shot at 200mm on No. 4. 1/3200, f/2.8, ISO 400. I think it was a cloudy day, which was nice, because it really allowed me to control the lighting and make it as dynamic/edgy as I wanted to.
