Overpowering the Sun (long, but with pics) :)

Just thought I'd share a shoot we did last night using.

I was going to do some minor overpowering while shooting photos to composite into a tennis team's poster, kinda like this (for which I used a 430 EX and SB-24):

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I love the pictures, thanks for showing us your setup

I believe that technique is called "obliterating" the sun, not "overpowering"

These dramatic shots look great.

Would i be correct in saying that most of the samples provided here are predominately lit with 2 lights only located on either side of the subject?

Not sure where the 3rd one sits as i can't see an noticeable catch lights in the eyes nor hairlights.

Warrenism - Actually, you're right! The ones I posted were predominantly lit with two. The pairs photos had an AB400 with a 20 degree grid lighting them from camera position, but at very low power. I had some shots that had more output from the camera position, but there was more fill than I wanted. The tight headshots were all lit with two lights.

Good eye!

Warrenism wrote in post #6104178
These dramatic shots look great.

Would i be correct in saying that most of the samples provided here are predominately lit with 2 lights only located on either side of the subject?

Not sure where the 3rd one sits as i can't see an noticeable catch lights in the eyes nor hairlights.

I'm guessing it came into play in that shot with the spot-lit ground...

Now if only i had willing subjects to practice upon, i would love to reproduce something nearly half as good as this as part of the learning process of how to manipulate light. Its something reminisce of the nike ads that you see in the sporting mags.

Another question, (apologies if this is not in line with the forum topic rules), How do you go about getting a black background on the subjects?
I assume its a couple of variables
- smaller aperture / fast SS - kills ambient
- using the black netting on the fences as the background
- de-saturating the background in PS

Is this correct?

bieber wrote in post #6104397
I'm guessing it came into play in that shot with the spot-lit ground...

Wouldn't we see a shadow behind or infront the subject's foot then?
Looking at the front legs, there is quite an apparent cross shadow that appears down the middle of the left.

No - the spot lit ground is entirely from the softboxes flanking the player. The honeycomb grid in the reflector of the light over the camera really directed the light (I didn't post the setup photo that showed the grid). The output of that light was feathered over the subjects' heads and was very low in output.

As for the black background - there is no manipulation after the fact. It was all shutter speed. We shot at ISO 100, f/11, 1/250. If memory serves, the ambient light was about f/4 and 1/60 when we started at 6:30 pm. Somewhere in there. So at f/11, we would have had to shoot at about 1/8 in order to get correct exposure (assuming that my memory is correct on the ambient reading - not always a great assumption! - but it's close).

So at 1/250 and f/11, we were underexposing the ambient light by about five stops (and actually more as the sun got lower). So anything that wasn't lit by the two mains (which were at f/11) dropped to black pretty completely.

The tight head shots in front of the fence were done at about 8:15 pm. I didn't take a reading at that time, but my guess is that ambient would have been f/2, 1/30 or so at ISO 100 (purely a guess).

In the shot below we were dialing in the main lights for a group shot. I checked the EXIF on this one. It was shot at ISO 400, F/8, 1/250, so it was three stops brighter than the general exposures we used (two stops of ISO values and one f-stop). This shot is completely unmanipulated except for conversion from RAW to jpg and saving for the web. You can see how much the camera settings alone (mostly the shutter speed) can kill the ambient. Even at three stops brighter than the exposures we used for the final shots, the ambient light is very dark. I assure you that on the court, it wasn't even close to that dark. In fact, you can see that the park lights in the background haven't even come on yet (and they are on light sensors).

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Warrenism wrote in post #6104413
Its something reminisce of the nike ads that you see in the sporting mags.

And actually, that was one of the inspirations! We used a mix of glycerin and water to simulate sweat. I've used it tons of times, and it never lets me down!

Thanks Vince, your explanations and setup shots have been very insightful! Kudos to you for sharing and divulging some awesome tips to a newbie.

My pleasure! I haven't done this forever, and I probably learn as much by trying to share it (and probably more!) as you do trying to make sense of my drivel.

I just love that we can have a near instantaneous conversation from Australia to Wisconsin, USA.

Have a great day (I believe it's day there). I, on the other hand, am on my way to bed now that it's after 1:00 am.

BTW, I'm a huge basketball fan, and one of my favorite players of all time was Luc Longley from Perth! He went to college in my hometown.

vince396 wrote in post #6104602
BTW, I'm a huge basketball fan, and one of my favorite players of all time was Luc Longley from Perth! He went to college in my hometown.

Haha, that was the heyday of NBA indeed. Forget Jordan / Pippen / Malone... it was all about the sole Aussie export!! Luc Longley.
I don't really follow NBA but from what i hear, Bogut is doing a quite a good job over there.

I should already be in bed.

Bogut is doing quite well. He plays for Milwaukee, which is about 60 miles (100 km - I used to live in Germany - I know my metrics!) from here. But there will never be an Aussie giant like Luc!

Good night!

Thanks for sharing, love the photos and played with a similar light setup at home this evening. It works well! I shot a pretty good 4 light self portrait.