3 light setup for sports portraits

I'm going to be doing a few portraits for my son's baseball team. (11yo kids). They will be wearing white jerseys and white hats. I'm looking to do a Joel Grimes type setup.

My plan is to use a black backdrop, 2 gridded softboxes as rear kicker lights. The photos will be from the belt up. I plan on using a 43" Westcott Octobox directly in front coming from above. What would the best way to handle the shadow from the baseball cap? Would it be a reflector underneath? I will be trying out prior to the shoot, but any feedback is welcome. Thanks

I would just put the front flash low enough that the main fills under the cap. You can add the reflector but its probably not necessary.

gonzogolf wrote in post #16731315
I would just put the front flash low enough that the main fills under the cap. You can add the reflector but its probably not necessary.

Thanks. Only concern is keeping the light off the black backdrop. I *hope* I have enough room to get the players off the backdrop. I also have a 16" beauty dish which I guess I can try, or fix in post.

Keep the light close to the subject and use the rule of inverse square to your advantage.

Yeah, with a 43" umbrella, you can get it in pretty close and dial the power way down. Might be in the way of the camera though

Seems Joel Grimes has actually done this with baseball and cowboy hats. If I recall correctly, he uses the shadow of the brim to keep most of the face dark and there is a gradual fall off, not a hard shadow. I think it is actually the cross lighting that wraps enough forward to illuminate the face contours, mostly side of cheeks and nose. Watching one of his seminars doing the whole process, the lights are more forward than one might think, true cross lighting rather than rear lights, and of course he gets it just right. Because of the post processing, the face also ends up more like black & white where color is less important than detail. Believe it or not, he's actually color blind. I assume there might be some retouching of the eyes to brighten them, but I can't remember if he did that specifically.

Ok, did a test of this last night. Didn't really have the room in my house to make it work properly, I had to keep the shots too tight, but know I can get it working when I do the team. My framing is off on these, I want to get the front number.

This is the look I want, slightly underexposed face, wrap on the side.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amazza/12919594​085/

I like the angle, not the lighting.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amazza/12919597​855/

This is probably what the team will want.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amazza/12920004​144/

adammazza wrote in post #16733577
Ok, did a test of this last night. Didn't really have the room in my house to make it work properly, I had to keep the shots too tight, but know I can get it working when I do the team. My framing is off on these, I want to get the front number.

This is the look I want, slightly underexposed face, wrap on the side.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amazza/12919594​085/

I like the angle, not the lighting.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amazza/12919597​855/

This is probably what the team will want.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amazza/12920004​144/

You have a lot of unflattering perspective distortion with these? How wide a lens are you using?

gonzogolf wrote in post #16733586
You have a lot of unflattering perspective distortion with these? How wide a lens are you using?

Yes, will need to correct that. This was the 24-105 between 28 and 35.

adammazza wrote in post #16733587
Yes, will need to correct that. This was the 24-105 between 28 and 35.

You probably want to be at least 60 or above if you are doing half body portraits for public consumption. Its okay to go wide if its part of your artistic expression, but parents dont really want to see shots of their kids where the brim of their hat is much wider than their head.

gonzogolf wrote in post #16733592
You probably want to be at least 60 or above if you are doing half body portraits for public consumption. Its okay to go wide if its part of your artistic expression, but parents dont really want to see shots of their kids where the brim of their hat is much wider than their head.

This isn't for print and the standard team portrait look. Was actually going for this look somewhat. It's for the website. If I was doing regular portraits, I'd take out the 85mm. In this case I had the 43" octo about 2' from the subject and had to get right underneath it to get the framing I wanted. I wouldn't use this lighting for a standard kid sports photo either.