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Old 21-07-2011, 07:06 AM
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hotspur (Chris)
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Football team photograph-need some pointers

Hello.

The local football team has asked me to do a few help out jobs over the last year-they cottoned on to the fact one of my hobbies is photography,and asked if it was possible to do a 'team shot' of them on Saturday-I told them I'd be happy to have a go-but not to expect the same results as the Bronco's full time photographer.

I have a 10-22 mm lens and a 17-55 IS lens and two bodies,so I could try with these?I have a huge gold/silver difusser thingy-and I mean huge-I could sail a boat with it! also a EX 430 flash with bracket thing I can get it of body and a little 'lumiquest' soft box thing, So any advice on how I could use the above to get some sort of reasonable shot would be good.

The main thing-which way to face the team in relation to the sun?? No good have the facing the sun-squinting and very uncomfortable looking into sun-Do I have their backs to sun,and have assistant hold gold reflector so bounces light into their faces and use the flash?-what settings would be best? Thanks for any pointers-cheers C

Last edited by hotspur; 24-07-2011 at 07:25 AM. Reason: detail
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Old 22-07-2011, 05:38 PM
Poita (Peter)
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Backs to the sun, assistant down low to one side to angle the reflection to get rid of shadows under the eyes. Try using the flash as a fill-in flash as well to get rid of unwanted shadows and balance out the background. Look at some existing team photos and pay attention to the lighting and camera position/height. Use the lens at 35mm or up to 55mm to remove distortion as much as possible. Make sure there is plenty of space around the team, and crop later. Ensure background is free of distracting clutter. Shoot as wide aperture as you can. Take lots of shots until you are happy.
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Old 22-07-2011, 07:35 PM
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zardos123 (Brad)
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also try taking a small ladder and take a couple on the ground, and a couple from 2 meters up the ladder can look great, also take three shots every time you tell them you are taking one ie that way you are less likely to get blinkers or face pulling if kids are involved
regards brad
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Old 23-07-2011, 06:28 AM
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hotspur (Chris)
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Thanks Brad and Poita-some good pints there-I have a little ladder so will take that,This team is basically and adult team.

So the 17-55 IS lens I have is more the one to use? I am wondering if the 10-22 was used and the sun is behind them -I might get some lens flare.I'll take the two cameras and have a lens on each.I will only have a smallish time frame to get a image.
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Old 23-07-2011, 02:14 PM
Poita (Peter)
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The 10-22 will be useless, far too wide angle and distortion filled. Use the other lens at 55, ie stand way back and zoom in as far as it will go to get a nice, flat distortion free image. Use the tripod and keep taking shots one after the other, use a tripod and you can photoshop out any blinks. Make sure the camera is level. Other than that shoot s variety of shots from down low, up high, from the side etc. But make sure you get some shots from waist height, dead in front with the faces exposed correctly.
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Old 23-07-2011, 05:47 PM
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hotspur (Chris)
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re football

Yeah-thanks Peter.Certainly some useful advice I will keep in mind.

Well-I went to the venue before the footballers got there and scoped out the back ground.As you cam image taking photos of footballers is like taking photos of cattle-all over the place! I only had four minutes to do a few images.

That huge gold reflector thing works good,plus the flash as filler light really worked well.This image at AV 6.3,iso 200 speed 250 and 21 mm,I did a bit of curves in PP and a slight crop.I would have like to try a few more AV,I did get a few at 7.1.

I was happy with how the gear I had worked,and getting the lighting reasonable-as for the placement and stance of players-given the time frame-that was basically something I just had to make do with.

The team can see this and might want to give some thought on how we can present better next time.

(This low res image is a little 'washed out' as I had to reduce quite a bit to upload,the full res has more colour in it)
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Old 23-07-2011, 06:15 PM
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supernova1965 (Warren)
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I think you have done a great job the only problem I can see isn't your fault The guy in front is holding on to the family jewels
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Old 23-07-2011, 07:11 PM
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re football

Thanks Warren,yes-I was pleased with my part of the deal.Unfortunately the fellow in the front really ruined the shot-most of the others new this,and well that's their issue-I feel the team will see I did a passable job with lighting and so on,they may want a re-take,-(But I will be asking for some fuel).

Thanks Peter for your advice.One thing I thought was hard was me looking into sun to try and see what was the go,although if a bit less rushed might have been a bit better.
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Old 23-07-2011, 09:40 PM
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Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)
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Can't improve on the technical advice, but perhaps starting a thread that appears as "Doing a football team..." might give the wrong impression!
Reminds me of a girl I knew in High School.
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Old 23-07-2011, 10:06 PM
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Octane (Humayun)
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Peter,

You said what I wanted to say but was too polite to mention, lol. Particularly when part of the thread subject title gets truncated and appended with ellipses. lol!

Only thing I can say is that it's unfortunate that the football team are the ones to dictate when you can take your photographs -- you are shooting in some pretty nasty lighting conditions -- and not having the time to properly line up and pose the team. Having said that, I think you've done an amicable job.

Perhaps clone out the front of the car on the right-hand side?

H
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Old 23-07-2011, 11:14 PM
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Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)
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Actually, I might have gone for an oblique (to avoid squinting) sun-in-the-face option and stopped down.
Hard to say.

Haitch:
I Know.
But you were clearly raised by decent people who respected politesse and good behaviour.
I was raised in a swamp by timber-wolves and only stopped fighting other dinner guests for the last piece of Chateaubriand in 1997.
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Old 24-07-2011, 05:56 AM
adman (Adam)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Waxing_Gibbous View Post
Can't improve on the technical advice, but perhaps starting a thread that appears as "Doing a football team..." might give the wrong impression!
Reminds me of a girl I knew in High School.
On the bright side, it might create a spike in traffic to the website from those looking for images of, shall we say, a different genre. It might generate a few more dollars in the Google Adsense account for Mike....
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Old 24-07-2011, 07:24 AM
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re football team

Never thought the title of the thread would cause an issue-strange how some minds work,I'll get into the advanced edit and change it.

Thanks for feed back and advice,I'll have to do a re take at some stage,so I'll be putting your thoughts into action,and have more time.I was happy with the overall execution.I used AV 6.3 on this image,I'd like to look at using a narrower AV next time to get a tad sharper focus.

Certainly a different type of photography,always interesting to learn different photography,or try to learn.

I did bump into a chap a football using a Canon 500 L and 1 D and on his hip he had a 5d2 with 150-500 sigma,there was another chap with a 40D and 100-400L-when the 40D kit was along side the 500L/1D it was like comparing the size of a cessena next to a B747! what an amazing piece of kit-I got to use it briefly-first time I'd seen a 500L in the field.So that was about my high light of Blackbutt football.I was amazed at how tuff the full pro gear must be-the guy kept putting it on the grass!when I got to use it.it had bit of dry grass on the inside of the hood!=fancy putting a 500 L on the grass! My kit has never sat on grass.

Last edited by hotspur; 24-07-2011 at 07:33 AM. Reason: detail
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