Sunday, March 1, 2009

Greg Bryant Athlete of the Week


OK I'm back in the studio for this portrait session with Greg Bryant, a Lewis-Palmer High School hockey player.
I thought really hard about this and decided to go ahead and do the shoot at The Gazette.  Luckily the studio is filled with tons of props from previous assignments over the years.  I found a piece of plywood painted with black spray paint and propped it against a roll of white paper.

Next I attached a two dark orange gels to a studio light, aimed it at the white background and was able to create the burnt orange color of the schools colors.  The other, needless to say being black.
I then used a second light on a light stand and aimed the light at the back of Greg's head so that the light would slightly rim him and the hockey stick.  I dialed that light down to it's lowest setting.
Finally I positioned a box light to the left aiming it away so that the light wouldn't interfere with the background.
Right about then Greg and his father showed up and we commenced with the photo shoot.  After a few adjustments I found the setting on the Nikon D3 I was looking for.
I really like this image with it's color contrasts and dramatic lighting.  Greg was great and did a nice job of working with me and being himself. 
I played around a bit with the Nikon D3's settings and wound up shooting the photo on the lowest ISO setting at 250th shutter speed and anywhere between f11 and f18.