Basketball Portraits : Team Shots

So where did we leave off ?
Right, 22:07PM, portraits done, time for some team shots.

The A-Team finished their friendly match (I never did check if they won or lost, shame on me) and some of the guys from the B-Team needed to go home because they had exams the next day. So again , not much time to play around.

Again I had carte-blanche and didn’t want to go for any ‘classic’ shots. I figured out the kind of group shot I wanted before arriving, something that would fit the portraits.

The setup:

team setup shot team setup shot

2 bare, zoomed speedlights on stands behind the players. 2 flashes through translucent umbrellas at 45° to camera left & right. For the B team I used some pink foam diffusion material, I told them it was red.

22:21PM | The shots





Black & White conversion (my fav’s but less commercial?)





22:47PM | I could use a beer now.


Conclusion:

As happy as I am with the player portraits, on the team pictures I dropped the ball a couple of times.

On one of the setup shots you can see that I forgot to reset the zoom on one of the speedlights. The umbrella doesn’t get filled evenly … (less light on the left side)

I still need to work on my group directing skills. Facial expressions, eye direction, … Tips are welcome.

I need to do this thing on a tripod. Frame the shot, look at it, reframe if necessary. Doing this away from the tripod gave me greater maneuverability but no two shots were the same, and if I have one blinker I can reuse part of a previous shot and correct that in post. I’d also have more time directing the group.

But you know what they say, you learn from your mistakes.
And I probably shouldn’t be to hard on my self, I can just blame my interim assistant. (just kidding Nico)

So all there is left for me to do is thank the Bolas basketball team for a good learning experience and a very friendly cooperation. I hope I’ve lived up to the expectations. (if any) Another big thanks to coach Sven and to Nico for the beers afterward 😉

8 thoughts on “Basketball Portraits : Team Shots

  1. Thomas says:

    I don’t think you really need to worry too much about the results. They’re very good. There might have been a few things that you would have loved to do differently, but the end result is pretty damn spiffy. ‘Dramatic’ best describes it I think.

  2. gekiekt says:

    Ik vind die laatste ook de mooiste. Heel leuk met die schaduwen. Ondanks het feit dat ik van vignetten hou, zou het hier misschien mooi geweest zijn de schaduwen van de spelers helemaal tot onderaan te zien doorlopen. Ik weet natuurlijk niet hoe het origineel eruit zag.
    In ieder geval knap werk.

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