Of all the seasons I worry about, it’s the winter. Its the time when work slows, sometimes to a halt, but not this year. I love working in studio and on location where flash is a must to get the look. The key, is to light situations so well, that people will question if flash was even part of the exposure. The photos shot here were shot in Tillsonburg, ON in a beautiful community arena. My client Chris Holister had sent me sample shots couple days before, and showed me the amazing roof in the arena. There is no limit when it comes to being prepared for a shoot. The more information, the better. I don’t like surprised too much when it comes to shoot day. This shoot would be one of my higher paced shoots, where we had about an hour and a half to make it all work. Regardless, I was up for the challenge and more than happy with the results.
In this shot, the players were light with a stripbank camera right and small octa high up camera left. I dragged the shutter to burn in the background. I did a considerable about of editing to get the look, which included the flares on the lights on the background. I have to admit, your attention to detail really needs to be there to make these effects believable. Most of my time is spend dodging and burning. Gotta love the wide angle lens sometimes, the ability to capture everything is definitely a pro.
The photo above and the following photos are all shot in the locker room. We went for the stages of getting ready for a game. The main lights here was the medium size octabank and strip bank that stayed camera right. The light from the strip bank would give me some seperation from the background and a three diminutional feel. Having just a little back lighting will help when it comes to post processing where I can go for a little more of a gritty feel. In editing, there was much time spent dodging and burning to get the shadow and highlights where I wanted them. For the colors, I trusted VSCO to help give me a suitable split tone.
All photos were shot on the Canon 5D MKIII and Canon 16-35mm f/2.8. I did not bother with using an ND this time where details were a must, I kept my lens stopped down. If interested in purchasing Hockey Jerseys, you can visit The General Jersey Co. at www.generaljersey.com.
