Strobing Indoor Sports
Anyone that has tried to shoot sports at indoor venues knows how hard it is to make good images. The lighting is normally very limited. To overcome the lack of light, photographers use camera bodies with high ISO capabilities and fast lenses. An alternative would be to use a flash. The problem with on-camera flash is that images look very flat and 2 dimensional.
This week I decided to strobe some wrestling and basketball. In the old days, we set up 4 studio strobes at indoor venues. The set-up was a bit time consuming. Jordan and I were short on time so we used two lights (Nikon SB800). Set-up was very quick and we were able to use an ISO of 800 rather than 3200.
Here are 2 example images.
More Skyview Sports Portraits
This post contains more sports portraits (or sportraits as many now call them) from a shoot mentioned in this previous post. While so many think that this is a new style of lighting and several photographers are willing to claim it as their discovery, I was actually using this three point lighting back in the mid ’80s. Who invented it? I don’t know but my inspiration came from the illustrations in the comic books that I read as a kid.
Jordan and Ryan – Then and Now
Jordan and Ryan have grown up with my camera pointed at them. I guess it’s only fitting that they eventually became photo assistants. And now at ages 18 and almost 20 they are excellent photo assistants. It wasn’t our plan to have them work in the family business but they wanted to work. It was more for the sake of earning spending money than it was to learn the business but looking back at the way things turned out, I’m glad they made the decision they did. I get to spend time with my sons, sometimes on easy gigs and sometimes solving complex lighting problems. The thing that I am most proud of is that regardless of whether they are working in freezing cold or moving 400lbs of equipment on location, they always work to my ever demanding high standards. To say they are an asset is an understatement.
In the first photo below, taken with a Polaroid back on a 4×5 view camera, the boys had just secretly “decorated” a light stand with close to 150 stickers they had accumulated from shopping trips to Albertsons. Despite the many cleanings that light stand has undergone, it still sticks when we try to open or close it. The second photo is much more recent!
Nicole – Fitness Model/Figure Competitor
In the world of women’s bodybuilding there are several different flavors. There are bodybuilders who work hard to add lots of size and bulk and sculpt their bodies to perfection. There are fitness competitors who compete in incredible acrobatic dance routines. And there are figure competitors who sculpt their bodies with weight training but don’t attempt to bulk up like bodybuilders do.
I had the awesome opportunity to photograph Nicole. Nicole is both a fitness model and a figure competitor. She told me that she is new to figure competitions and would like to get her pro card.
The kinds of images that you are likely to see Nicole in would be running ads or posing as a boxer, etc. We decided to shoot something a little different.
Skyview Profiles (01)
This football season we were fortunate to be able to work with a dozen Skyview High School athletes creating profile portraits (sportraits) for my Storm website. We worked over a two day period shooting at Kiggins Bowl, Skyview’s home stadium. Jordan, my photo assistant (and son), really got a workout as we took 400 lbs of studio equipment on location and had to move it all over the stadium. Congratulations to the Skyview football team for making it all the way to the WIAA 4A Semi-Finals!
Below is the first set of portraits. I’ll present more in a future post.
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My Personal Project – Skyview Sports
Every photographer needs a personal project and I am no different. During the first ten years of my photographic career more than 50% of my assignments were sports action coverage. My clients included daily newspapers on both coasts, national sports magazines, major universities, and the governing bodies of many pro and amateur leagues. I moved on to other types of assignments and my days of sports action seemed well behind me… Then, in 2007, my wife suggested that I shoot some of the games of my son’s high school football team. Skyview High School sports became my personal project. It’s refreshing to be able to shoot without any commercial expectations attached and to give a little bit back to our local community. Below are a few images I’ve shot over the years. If you would like to see more, check out www.storm.davescottphoto.com.
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