Group Photo on a Basketball Court

I have been asked to take a group photo on a basketball court this week. There will be plenty of light but I am worried about the angle, all downlight, causing shadows. I have 2 strobes and umbrellas I can bring.

Is it worth it or should I simply shoot in RAW and lighten any shadow areas that way? We will only have 10 minutes max to get the picture and I want to get it right but don't want to overcomplicate without cause.

Thank you for your help.

Heya,

I would definitely go with the strobes. Granted, what power are they?

Depending on how you place the team, you should be able to cover all of them very well with two strobes.

I'd use the largest modifiers you have (60" maybe?). Drop ambient a touch, bring up the team with the strobes.

Even with "plenty of light" I bet that court is dark to a camera. Think of this, it's pretty typical to shoot 1/800s or 1/1000s, F2.8, ISo 12,800 in a basketball court to get close to correct exposure (obviously some are brighter or darker than others, but lets just call this common). Going down to 1/200s, F2.8 and ISO 3200 gives you the same exposure, but at flash sync speed on most cameras. Notice you still need ISO 3200? That's how dark the courts are. Even with bright lights. So maybe in a much better lit court, it might be only ISO 1600, but think about it, that's still dark. So if you shoot at 1/200s, F4 (depth of field to get all the faces) or even more narrow (F5.6, F8), and ISO 100, literally NO ambient light will hardly come through, so your strobes will be doing all the work--meaning, no shadows to worry about other than those you make from placement of team members if you stack, so pay attention to that. So if you shoot 1/200s, F8, ISO 400, you should have plenty of depth of field and sharpness (assuming a wider angle lens of course, not 200mm, more like 35mm~50mm~70mm if you have a ton of room), that's still -6 stops of light from 1/200s, F2.8, ISO 3200. -6 stops from proper exposure, is very dark, near blackness except for the brightest points. So, again, your strobes will do all the muscle work, even at moderate ISO. This is good though, it lets you get a dramatic look. If you want to blend, shoot at 1/200s, F8, ISO 800~1600, and have ambient 1~2 stops lower than the your strobe exposure. You could also drop shutter speed instead of raising ISO, if you want more ambient, but I tend to go with synch speed for that (think how many eyes that are blinking, you need to get it with ALL of them not blinking, so count it out and make sure they follow your commands to not blink and smile or whatever you want them to do!). You get the idea...

Very best,

I'd leave the umbrellas at home and use bare bulb. Not only can brollies turn into sails in the breeze, but they'll soak up lots of light.

We'd be able to provide better suggestions if we knew what strobes are these of yours and what kind of look you're going for.

Alveric wrote in post #17918400
brollies turn into sails in the breeze, but they'll soak up lots of light.

Breeze in an indoor court with downward facing lights?

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #17918413
Breeze in an indoor court with downward facing lights?

Very best,

This time of year Canadians play basketball outside on frozen lakes.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17918428
This time of year Canadians play basketball outside on frozen lakes.

Connecticut is in Canada!??!

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #17918444
Connecticut is in Canada!??!

Very best,

Talking about alveric. He must be confused.

Flash for sure. Umbrella or not, either way works. I usually use umbrellas inside. What I usually do is have one flash on my camera and then two on either side of me, up fairly high so the shadows go down. I like the background to be just a touch dark which makes the people really pop. I do that outside too. Be sure you have them far enough back to get even light on the entire group, and watch the edges in your test shots. I tend to under light them sometimes.

I want f5.6 at a minimum and I'd rather have f8 and my shutter speed needs to be 1/125 to 1/200 so that means your iso is going to be 1600 to 2500 to get the background a bit darker than normal. Most of my courts are 1/800, f2.8, ISO 4000 or so for action. Your flashes will end up at 1/2 or 1/4 power or so.

Here's an outdoor team photo I did Saturday with three flashes (no umbrellas). ISO was not a problem outside.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17918449
Talking about alveric. He must be confused.

I think I am: haven't had a martini yet. C'mon guys, cut me some slack.

Thank you all for the help. I went with the Umbrellas 2 Yongnuo 560iv @ 1/2 power, F8, 1/200, ISO 1800. I got the group sharp and the background faded. I did have the lights a little low and flat so it blew out the front row a little but overall I was very happy with the results.

More important I learned a lot and my client was happy with the photo.

Thank you all again.