Cheerleading Competition

[northpointphoto]

Shot the county cheerleading competition today. First time shooting cheerleading and it was definitely a new experience.

I used two Nikon SB-26 speed lights set at 85mm, 1/2 power, set on 9' light stands, bounced into the back wall.

C&C Appreciated

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[northpointphoto]

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More Here (http://flickr.com/photos/northpointphoto/sets/72157613203142238/)

[Big K]

Great job on the lighting. These are excellent.

[Pete's Prints]

x2 on the lighting, very nicely done. Especially like the 1st and 3rd images. Good job!

[waynedsargent]

very good job!

[northpointphoto]

Thanks for the comments.

It was pretty good lighting coverage but not nearly what I wanted. For the regional meet in two weeks Im going to break out the D-Lite's and use them instead. I had to shoot at 800 ISO which is more than I normally get in gyms because I had to bounce instead of direct flash.

[Mike R]

Nice job but the skin color in the first and last shot seems a little off. Did you get any "fliers"? I also shoot Cheer competitions and I'm curious, How many teams were there and how may shots did you take? I hope you marketed properly and get the shots on line to earn some cash.

[Mike R]

Thanks for the comments.

It was pretty good lighting coverage but not nearly what I wanted. For the regional meet in two weeks Im going to break out the D-Lite's and use them instead. I had to shoot at 800 ISO which is more than I normally get in gyms because I had to bounce instead of direct flash.

You're lucky they allowed any flash at all. In my area it's strictly a No Flash policy

[snyderman]

colors are vibrant and well-balanced. Blacks on the girls' uniforms appear perfectly black on my screen. Great job.

dave

[Big K]

Thanks for the comments.

It was pretty good lighting coverage but not nearly what I wanted. For the regional meet in two weeks Im going to break out the D-Lite's and use them instead. I had to shoot at 800 ISO which is more than I normally get in gyms because I had to bounce instead of direct flash.

Do you plan to shoot the D-Lites the same as this setup?

For bounced speedlights at subjects 40+ feet away I am still pretty impressed.

[northpointphoto]

Nice job but the skin color in the first and last shot seems a little off. Did you get any "fliers"? I also shoot Cheer competitions and I'm curious, How many teams were there and how may shots did you take? I hope you marketed properly and get the shots on line to earn some cash.

I didnt get any good shots of flyers. All the ones I got were feet or back. There were 10 teams there and I only took about 150 shots. I was there for the paper so Im getting paid either way. Don't really care about selling shots to parents too much hassle

You're lucky they allowed any flash at all. In my area it's strictly a No Flash policy

Im really the only one in my area that uses flashes so I dont really think they know what to do about it yet.

Do you plan to shoot the D-Lites the same as this setup?

For bounced speedlights at subjects 40+ feet away I am still pretty impressed.

I plan to use the same set up (or one very similar) for regionals. It depends on where and how they set it up

[dawiyo]

Nice Shots

[tonybear007]

Well done. Congrats!

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[northpointphoto]

Well done. Congrats!

Thank you

[carpenter]

nice job. After shooting Cheer at the Mall of America a couple weekends ago with the 85 1.8 I know how tough it is. (I couldn't use flash though.)

[MDJAK]

great shots.
If you don't mind, explain the first shot to me. Is that just a picture of the two flashes going off so we can see them? If so, thank you as I am very interested in this setup.

As to the second diagram, it appears as if you are standing with your back to the flashes. Are you using Pocket Wizards? SU-800?

I just shot wrestling in a high school gym with an SB900 and 800 attached to the wall for the first time. I triggered them with the SU800. I was very unhappy with the results. When the flashes fired, results were very good. More often than not, they did not go off.

Thanks,
mark

[northpointphoto]

great shots.
If you don't mind, explain the first shot to me. Is that just a picture of the two flashes going off so we can see them? If so, thank you as I am very interested in this setup.

As to the second diagram, it appears as if you are standing with your back to the flashes. Are you using Pocket Wizards? SU-800?

I just shot wrestling in a high school gym with an SB900 and 800 attached to the wall for the first time. I triggered them with the SU800. I was very unhappy with the results. When the flashes fired, results were very good. More often than not, they did not go off.

Thanks,
mark

Yes, the first shot is just a picture of the flashes going off so everyone can see the setup, coverage, distance, etc.

As for the second photo, yes, I was standing with my back towards the flashes. I use Elinchrom Skyport remotes to fire the strobes.

You can check out my setups here.... http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=635625

[JRB]

Great work, pictures look right on. Thanks for sharing your technique, I would never have thought you would have gotten that much light bouncing it that far.

[northpointphoto]

Great work, pictures look right on. Thanks for sharing your technique, I would never have thought you would have gotten that much light bouncing it that far.

I didn't think that I could get the light to bounce that far either. That was even at 1/2 power. Either way the studio strobes are coming out for the regional competition in two weeks.

[Sibil]

Sorry if I missed the info. How far away are the flashes from the wall, and are they at any angle (like 45), or at 90 degrees?

Thanks

BTW, very impressive shots.

[Zivnuska]

Lighting/schmiting; you captured the enthusiasm of the event. That is what made me want to be there to see it. Preserving that enthusiasm would make me purchase those pics if I knew the participants. Lots of great "eyes"

The shallow dof really made the images 'pop.'

BTW, the lighting was very good as everyone acknowledges, but your eye for capture was great. Well done!

[northpointphoto]

Sorry if I missed the info. How far away are the flashes from the wall, and are they at any angle (like 45), or at 90 degrees?

Thanks

BTW, very impressive shots.

The flashes were about 15 feet away from the back wall on 9 foot light stands. As far as the angle to the wall they were fired directly at the wall. The flashes were set to 85mm, 1/2 power

Lighting/schmiting; you captured the enthusiasm of the event. That is what made me want to be there to see it. Preserving that enthusiasm would make me purchase those pics if I knew the participants. Lots of great "eyes"

The shallow dof really made the images 'pop.'

BTW, the lighting was very good as everyone acknowledges, but your eye for capture was great. Well done!

Thank you very much. Im shooting the regional competition tomorrow night so I hope it turns out as well as it did 2 weeks ago. Im making some changes to the lights (im using my Elinchrom D-lite 4's instead of the speed lights) so hopefully I get better lighting coverage.

[Peter Camyre]

Great capture of emotion, oh to be young again. Great photos.

[northpointphoto]

Great capture of emotion, oh to be young again. Great photos.

Thank you

[Gym Star Photos]

The flashes were about 15 feet away from the back wall on 9 foot light stands. As far as the angle to the wall they were fired directly at the wall. The flashes were set to 85mm, 1/2 power



Thank you very much. Im shooting the regional competition tomorrow night so I hope it turns out as well as it did 2 weeks ago. Im making some changes to the lights (im using my Elinchrom D-lite 4's instead of the speed lights) so hopefully I get better lighting coverage.

How did the regional competition turn out? Any lighting updates? I have been around competitive cheer and gymnastics for the past 7 yrs and just started to photograph it seriously. I have shot all my shots without flashes (local rules) but noticed one photographer using flashes and the hosting organization was ok with it. Now I am looking into lighting that I can use to improve my shots as well, and so far you have some great info (and shots) here. With my lack of lighting, I rely on PS heavily to help out. Sometimes I get lucky and the lighting is at least OK and can get some good shots without heavy PP.