Another Part of HS Sports - The Cheerleaders

Since it is the time of year in Indiana where we go from fall to winter sports I had a chance to do some portrait work for one of the local HS cheerleading groups. After seeing the photo I did for the volleyball girls they have been on me to come take their pictures so last night we had a chance to take some shots.

As a photographer it is always much more fun to work with kids who want to have their pictures taken as apposed to the kids who are there because someone made them. This was definitely one of the funner nights of photos I've had in awhile.

5D Mk II with 24-70 f/2.8 and two Elinchrom Ranger lights. Settings were all over the place as you might guess with the constantly changing light.

1

Glad you posted the other side of football. My daughter cheered from the time she was five until graduation. You did a great job. I shoot sports so I know it's easy during pre-game if the cheerleader appear to take the attitude, get on with the game. If they present a half time show, it is not a great setting to capture the shots you did, great work. Kevin you Kapture well.

Nice shots good use of flash, but can I ask why you shot the 3rd one in the portrait format and not landscape , leaving so much dead space in the sky but they are very nice well done

Rocketdun wrote in post #8953044
Glad you posted the other side of football. My daughter cheered from the time she was five until graduation. You did a great job. I shoot sports so I know it's easy during pre-game if the cheerleader appear to take the attitude, get on with the game. If they present a half time show, it is not a great setting to capture the shots you did, great work. Kevin you Kapture well.

Thanks.

honestwords wrote in post #8953199
Nice shots good use of flash, but can I ask why you shot the 3rd one in the portrait format and not landscape , leaving so much dead space in the sky but they are very nice well done

I actually shot it both ways. They wanted a shot to use for a publication and wanted some space for text which is why this orientation.

Looks like a fun series and very much love the setting. Fav is #5 for so many reasons including the symmetry, the hands in front of the sun, the moment, etc.

#4: Sorry, but cannot help thinking that the sun is a nuke bomb or UFO rising up over the horizon.

#2: perfect team shot!

IMO: love the colors, but would like a sepia tint added to enhance their pale skin. May I suggest taking this shot in early sept so the kids still have a tans ... maybe I am just thinking New Jersey ... where we're always tan -- 365 days a year! LOL

Holy F stops Kevin. Ansel Adams would be proud! You nailed exposure on these and I am sure the girls were thrilled. I really have nothing to offer for crit here man, nice job. Since I don't have a crit, I will at least call you a hayseed with the corn and all!

Very nice. I'm impressed that in #2 you got the light very close to even over the large distance from left to right. The right side is a little brighter but please explain how you got it so even without one side or the other or the middle being too bright or too dark. Did you spend long aiming lights using a meter?

Super job of using the setting sun/twilight for the backdrop.

You didn't happen to get a shot of your set up did you?

VinnyC01 wrote in post #8953563
Looks like a fun series and very much love the setting. Fav is #5 for so many reasons including the symmetry, the hands in front of the sun, the moment, etc.

#4: Sorry, but cannot help thinking that the sun is a nuke bomb or UFO rising up over the horizon.

#2: perfect team shot!

IMO: love the colors, but would like a sepia tint added to enhance their pale skin. May I suggest taking this shot in early sept so the kids still have a tans ... maybe I am just thinking New Jersey ... where we're always tan -- 365 days a year! LOL

Thanks Vinny. I laughed at your comment about #4. Hadn't really looked at it like that but it does have a nuclear test site look to it.

Yeah, the ladies were all complaining about their ghostly white skin not to mention it was only about 50 degrees outside. I will give the sepia tone a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

namasste wrote in post #8953587
Holy F stops Kevin. Ansel Adams would be proud! You nailed exposure on these and I am sure the girls were thrilled. I really have nothing to offer for crit here man, nice job. Since I don't have a crit, I will at least call you a hayseed with the corn and all!

Hahahahaha!! Yeah us cornfield kids aint got no other options for them there backgrounds.

The kids had a ball. Like I mentioned earlier it was at best 50 degrees and they ended up wanting to shoot for almost 90 minutes in their skirts and never once complained. It really was a lot of fun.

Thanks for the nice comments.

Great stuff here. The only C&C I can offer is images 4-6 really shows the dust on the sensor. I always double check that before a portrait shoot as dust can kill an image with the higher f/stops. In your case a bit of a tighter crop and your right as rain.

Zivnuska wrote in post #8953632
Very nice. I'm impressed that in #2 you got the light very close to even over the large distance from left to right. The right side is a little brighter but please explain how you got it so even without one side or the other or the middle being too bright or too dark. Did you spend long aiming lights using a meter?

Super job of using the setting sun/twilight for the backdrop.

You didn't happen to get a shot of your set up did you?

Thanks Phil.

Sorry, no setup shot. I was moving around so much between the corn, the blocking sled and then to the plan grass area I didn't have a chance.

All the shots except #2 I was using umbrellas on the lights. For #2 since it was such a wide shot from some distance I removed the umbrellas and shot with just the ultra-wide reflectors on the lights.

I positioned the lights directly on either side of me directly out from between the first and second blocking pad on each side. Those ultra-wide reflectors throw a really wide spread. I exposed for the background using the camera metering, underexposed about a stop from there then used a light meter to adjust the lights accordingly by quickly walking down the line in front of the girls and testing in several spots. By my meter is was exactly the same side to side but probably had my big body in the way a bit on the right which is what left it slightly brighter. Plus, the girl on the far right was about as light skined as it gets so she looks hot in about every photo of her I took.

I have shot so many of these types of shots recently I was pretty close with my initial settings and after the first meter test made one adjustment to the power settings and started firing. It took about 2 minutes from when we moved from the corn to here to set up and be ready to go.

We had recently done some shots in the gym so already had some good group shots and was rushing a bit to get ready to do more of the individual shots with the quickly setting sun in the background but was really happy with how these turned out.

nicmo wrote in post #8953684
Great stuff here. The only C&C I can offer is images 4-6 really shows the dust on the sensor. I always double check that before a portrait shoot as dust can kill an image with the higher f/stops. In your case a bit of a tighter crop and your right as rain.

Thanks Aaron. Good spot on the dust. It was actually some dust on the lens. I was shooting some farm stuff (Insert hayseed comments here )where they were unloading grain just before this and totally forgot to clean off the dust before this shoot. F/18 - f/22 is unforgiving of my mental lapses.

I shot these a bit loose not knowing what final crops the parents would order, but agree a tighter final crop is in need for several of them.

Thanks Kevin. You should be happy, they're great!

Really nice shots. Great job with the full-squad. That had to be tough to light, but you pretty much nailed with all faces well lit and no stubborn shadows.

Personally, I really like shots 4-6 due to the quickly setting sun which really nailed the focus squarely onthe girls with the BG nearly gone. Really nice work!

dave

EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT!! EXCELLENT!!!

Great series!