Football League Photos

Wanting some advice on how to handle a league of 5 football teams. Kids in 2nd to 6th grade. Right now my plan is to do the team picture first then have every kid take a knee and shoot. Thing I am worried about is lighting I will be starting at 7am in October in Kansas. I thought about using studio strobes for fill on the team photo and then a using a 580EX II in a soft box for the individual poses and shoot using a tripod and remote. I know that as the sunrises the light will change. How best should I handle this?

1) Expect not every kid to be on time, you may be forced to start the individual photos first with some teams and do the team picture in the middle or at the end. Just because the coaches/league say to be there early for the team photo does not mean they will, and yes coaches will ask you to wait. Happens ALL the time in the league I shoot and rather have all present so gladly oblige.

2) The sun is going to change so you just have to keep up with it and adjust your settings on the fly, ALWAYS shoot T&I in RAW if at all possible because of this. I used to do JPG but have since switched and honestly smack myself for not going this current route earlier.

3) Expect changes in direction, i.e. backgrounds, depending on how long you plan on going. I did one shoot that started at 9am and the last team went at 3pm - we were facing almost completely opposite directions by the time that last team came up from the first. Luckily had planned for that so the background was clean throughout, hopefully can find an area you can move around a bit.

4) Ditch the tri-pod and remote, you're dealing with an age that differs greatly on size so having it on a tripod means a lot of adjusting. If possible have an assistant that can help with the posing (I offer 3-4 poses usually but having one will be the simplest), you're not going to be shooting at 1/40 f/22 I'd hope so should have plenty of shutter to hand hold.

5) Personally I use studio strobes for both, team and individual, just changing them around depending what we're doing, very easy to go back and forth. If doing so make sure you have something to hold them suckers down, I have a destroyed strobe or two that says even the smallest wind can knock them over pretty quickly. Hell, even one was held down by sandbags and still got picked up by the wind and slammed to the ground. Destroyed one last week with a breeze I didn't even feel but the kid holding it walked away (thanks bud!)

6) Have a little fun with the kids, it's a great age to shoot and always interesting!! Thought I'd hate doing T&I but immediately was one of my favorite things to do each year with the local league after they finally talked me into doing it, only took them four years to do that and wish I started sooner.

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #13013386
1) Expect not every kid to be on time, you may be forced to start the individual photos first with some teams and do the team picture in the middle or at the end. Just because the coaches/league say to be there early for the team photo does not mean they will, and yes coaches will ask you to wait. Happens ALL the time in the league I shoot and rather have all present so gladly oblige.

2) The sun is going to change so you just have to keep up with it and adjust your settings on the fly, ALWAYS shoot T&I in RAW if at all possible because of this. I used to do JPG but have since switched and honestly smack myself for not going this current route earlier.

What is T& I?

3) Expect changes in direction, i.e. backgrounds, depending on how long you plan on going. I did one shoot that started at 9am and the last team went at 3pm - we were facing almost completely opposite directions by the time that last team came up from the first. Luckily had planned for that so the background was clean throughout, hopefully can find an area you can move around a bit.

4) Ditch the tri-pod and remote, you're dealing with an age that differs greatly on size so having it on a tripod means a lot of adjusting. If possible have an assistant that can help with the posing (I offer 3-4 poses usually but having one will be the simplest), you're not going to be shooting at 1/40 f/22 I'd hope so should have plenty of shutter to hand hold.

I plan to meter the light/white balance and adjust as I go. I am going to use a 17-50 on the group shots and 70-200 on individual pose (one pose keeping it simple). So why can't I just use a tripod on both? As long as my depth of field is good they should be sharp.

5) Personally I use studio strobes for both, team and individual, just changing them around depending what we're doing, very easy to go back and forth. If doing so make sure you have something to hold them suckers down, I have a destroyed strobe or two that says even the smallest wind can knock them over pretty quickly. Hell, even one was held down by sandbags and still got picked up by the wind and slammed to the ground. Destroyed one last week with a breeze I didn't even feel but the kid holding it walked away (thanks bud!)

For light placement I was thinking of left/right of camera for group. Does that sound ideal? Then on individual pose using 580 with ettl. That should work right?

6) Have a little fun with the kids, it's a great age to shoot and always interesting!! Thought I'd hate doing T&I but immediately was one of my favorite things to do each year with the local league after they finally talked me into doing it, only took them four years to do that and wish I started sooner.

This is actually my first time doing this I generally shoot portraits and events.

extrememc wrote in post #13015308
This is actually my first time doing this I generally shoot portraits and events.

OK, you made it VERY difficult to realize you replied, try not to put it in the quote.

What is T& I?

This is what you're doing - team and individual photos (T&I Photos)

I plan to meter the light/white balance and adjust as I go. I am going to use a 17-50 on the group shots and 70-200 on individual pose (one pose keeping it simple). So why can't I just use a tripod on both? As long as my depth of field is good they should be sharp.

There's no need for a tripod as you should be able to hand hold, these are little kids that will range all over the place in height so you will have to adjust kid to kid. Doing that with a tripod will take too much time that will just annoy parents/coaches. It has nothing to do with sharpness, it has everything to do with the fact that these are little kids and they're going to be all over the place.

Not sure what you mean by DOF here, narrow? How do you want them to look? I use a 24-105 for it all, don't change lenses between team and individuals. Metering, honestly never do it - ever.

For light placement I was thinking of left/right of camera for group. Does that sound ideal? Then on individual pose using 580 with ettl. That should work right?

Why not use the strobes for the individuals to? It does a lot better job than the 580, though it will work and used it for years I always go back to the strobes for all and just adjust the settings. I use this setup usually...LINK

What is T& I?

Team and Individual pics.

Joemt.

Back again. Does anyone allow the parent of the child pick the pose on the Individuals?