Ski Team photo on the slopes

Here is a shot from where I took all the individual photos. I had quite a few parents and coaches wanting their own shot taken with their kids. Too bad we didn't have a lot of snow at the top. We need a storm to come in and dump some fresh powder.

I think you did a great job. A good balance between ambient and flash. What mountain are you at?

Thanks! That was Snow Summit at the top next to the View Haus lodge.

Nice job Matty, how did the groups work out?

Thanks. They worked out OK. I rented 2 750's from Calumet. When I got home to do a little test, one of the strobes was damaged (not by me) and unusable so it kind of limited what I wanted to do with the group shots.

The race team is a rowdy bunch and I wanted to try something a little less structured. Being that I only had 1 strobe, lighting them the way I wanted, didn't quite happen. Oh well. They are still far better than past shoots.

One thing that worked out well was the "All Mountain Team". They are not hard core racers, just all around skiers. Their shot was taken where the individuals were taken. By far my favorite team shot of the day.

Matty, that's actually not as bad of a location as I was visualizing when you first posted. Exposure is great, and even with the single strobe, the lighting is good. As far as the group pose, I can only imagine how difficult it was, but I'd be more than happy to offer some C&C if interested.

It turned out better that I thought it would for the team photo. Staging them was a real chore. All they wanted to do was slide down the hill you see on their butts. One of them hit my strobe and I was lucky to catch it. I would like to hear more of your thoughts if you want. Thanks.

I'm sure when you look at the finished image, most of what I say is already apparent to you, but here are my thoughts. Perspective plays a major role when doing a group this large, with a big distance between the closest individual and the farthest individual. The closer someone is to the camera, the larger they appear, the farther they are, the smaller they appear. I would have put all of the smaller skiers in the very front, and worked my way to the very back with the largest/tallest. You could have also added some room by having the entire back row stand, as well as a row to camera left. As it is, you have a number of faces blocked by people in front of them. I would also have everyone remove their helmets and goggles, you can't see their faces that well, and the helmets take up more room, blocking people behind them. You also have a number of heads stacked behind the head in front, always look to place heads in the gaps between the 2 people in front of them. I can see by the look on most of their faces that they were probably a pretty rowdy group, and it's a lot easier to critique a photo after the fact. I shoot hundreds of groups a year, and I am still amazed when I'm processing my images at some of the things I missed when I was shooting.

Thanks Randy. During that shoot, I thought about almost all of your pointers. It was crazy for sure. They were so done with the day in general it was nearly impossible to get organized. Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.