Filed under: portrait | Tags: Adrenaline Training Center, environmental portrait, MMA, Shannon Ludlow
Recently I had the opportunity to do a photoshoot at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario with the amazing Shannon Ludlow. Prince Justin Atkinson was gracious enough to set this up and also help with lighting and insight during the shoot. Shannon needed a photo for an article being written about her which gave me the chance to shoot in an octagon. I won’t lie, the idea had me salivating!
Not only did this session provide some great pics but also gave me some great lessons on environmental photography. Several factors coincided so that the first time I would actually see the facility would be at the time of the photo shoot. This would prove to be important because a) there was a lot of equipment around that was hard to avoid putting in the frame and b) there was significantly more ambient light from the many windows than I was expecting. In the end the ambient light had little effect on the photos because of the lighting setup I use but it was still a learning experience.
The shots turned out great however, and here are a few:
In almost every shot I used a Canon 5D MkII, 24-70mm 2.8 lens, 1/125th, ISO 320 and f/9. Three Photogenic 1500 heads were used with 2 strip boxes and a standard square softbox.
Thanks again to Justin and especially Shannon!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: basketball, environmental portrait, lighting, photography
I’ve had this idea for a shoot in my head for a few weeks now but I put it off because of the possibility of a school strike, among other things. It’s basically an environmental portrait of a basketball player on court, with some great dynamic lighting from behind and a soft light from above to fill out their body. Today I got to spend some time in the studio attempting to create that lighting scenario.
(Thanks to Jim Kost and Dave Raposo for advice on the type of light and equipment.)
This isn’t exactly right but the light is falling off behind him just as I would like. The light on his legs is exactly what I want at his shoulders… So:
What I’ll need to do in the actual shoot is raise the lights from the back to about waist level, but here you can see the effect. Also, the light from above is too harsh. A softbox from that position would help things a lot, as well as tilting the subject’s head upwards so as not to lose the eyes. So, that’s pretty much it. Imagine a player on a basketball court, posed straight up with a ball under one arm…. That’s what I’m going for and now I have to create it in the school gym. If I can pull this off well enough the school Athletic Department has hinted that they could possibly buy a portrait of every basketball team member.
Steve Wiens Photo 