70 basketball portraits in two days
Last month I went to Tucson AZ for the Arizona Cactus Classic. It is a tournament for all the top high school basketball players in the country, we are talking next Lebron and kobe here. My job was to get portraits of all the players.
I was first set up (by the tournament people) in a room with very little to work with. About three feet of shooting space, seriously. So I scouted around the arena and found a loading dock to take all the photos in. It was great because it a had a very gritty feel to it and I could get three differnt looks in a very short amount of time, which was good because I got between 1-5 minutes with each of the players. I was seriously grabbing them as they were walking into the gym to play.
The light set up was pretty simple. I wanted to create a very dramatic light to go with the gritty-ness so I used to back lights (alien bees b800) with no modifiers, just reflectors for rim lights a small soft octa-box in the front for fill and another light hitting the background (on some shots).
I used a nikon D3 for all the shots with a 24-70mm.
Here are some shots from the event.
Remember to click on the photos for larger sizes.
(Wanted to mention these are best viewed in Firefox for some reason. Safari makes them look distorted when clicked on.)
Please feel free to ask questions.
Dustin Snipes is a staff photographer with Los Angeles, Calif. based Icon Sports Media, Inc. His work appears regularly in major national and international publications including ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, Los Angeles Magazine and numerous others. Learn more about his work at www.dustinsnipes.com.
Dustin, you never cease to amaze me. Great photos. Glad to see you’re doing well.
Dustin, absolutely outstanding images! I am definitely going to rip off a few of these
Dustin… these are phenomenal. Not sure if you remember me from the photoplus expo in NYC last year, but I just wanted to say that I’m thoroughly enjoying your work. One question… how did you so beautifully underexpose the big metal door in the background (as in the first two photos) while still using a front fill light? Thanks a ton for sharing these. Beautiful work.
Do you ever use off-camera flashes instead of strobes?
I will soon have to do a football feature for my newspaper, like 20 portraits and a group shot. I have been looking for this kinda gritty feel, but my equipment and assistance is limited.
I do like your improvisation of using the loading dock. it’s always like that on assignments, they give you a dull room to work with; in a building you have never been inside.
Dang dude…you KILLED this shoot. Excellent….EXCELLENT work man!!!
Delane
Thanks everyone!
Hey Dustin,
Been looking at your blog lately nice stuff. I have been doing a lot of portraits also need to shoot the set up like you. Check out my portraits tbsphotography.com : new stuff is gallery 3. Are you doing a lot of post production with the basketball stuff from the camp nice lighting. I am thinking about getting some dyn-lites or white lighntings. The lightnings are less exspensive. you enjoying the bees?
Keep up the shooting,
Thomas Shea
This might be a dumb question, but what was the difference between shots where you blacked out the door or kept it in? It doesn’t look like an actual background light or anything, but I could be wrong. And did you HDR all these portraits with three bracketed shots? Thanks for the info.
Hey Danny, thanks for looking and the comment.
I didnt use HDR. I dont know where or how to begin with that. I shoot them all hand held with a Nikon D3 and a 24-70mm lens.
In some of the shots, it is lit with another strobe. For some I turned it off. I did minor adjustments depending on the time frame I had with each player and what I wanted to get out of it.
I hope that helps, if no, let me know!
Dustin, apart from style, light and post-processing I really appreciate your portraiture, you get out some great amount of personality out of this kids and this consistently over 2 days! Thumbs up!
Markus
Photographer in Bangkok
Thanks Markus! High school guys are great to work with. They don’t have the pressures of that the pros do and they’re surely not as intimidating! HA
Very nice work! Very very nice.
Very good portraits !!
I’ve got a question about the lighting: did you have problems with flare because of the two rim lights?
Best Regards,
Miguel Angel Touset
Miguel-
I did have some problems with the flare with the rim lights, ha, I thought they would be OK since i had them on the top level like that. But of course when I went wide they would flare up.
I later fixed them by adding some flags in front.
Thanks!
You performed it perfectly.
I wonder which light lit the side walls ?
Congrats again
Hi Dustin, found you via the Strobist site (my second home).
Love the series, fantastic shots!
I’m new to photography and its shots like these that really inspire me.
Consider yourself added to my “favourites”.
Cheers,
Leigh
hi Dustin! what kind of technic tou use?
they are incredible realistic and almost 3d shot!
Your shots are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
now that I’ve recovered, are they HDR?
Dustin,
For someone who only understands 20% of Photoshop, can you offer some insight on what you do in post? I understand the lighting helps with the looks, but where does the (great) hard texture come from? Unsharp mask?
Your idea is very inspiring. Taking what could have been 70 mug shots and making each image one the athletes, and you, want to show their family and friends. Great stuff.
Absolutely sensational work, Dustin! I’m truly blown away…
The “look” you got out of the photos, how much of it is the lighting and how much is the PP?
That was a super series. Excellent.
Hey Dustin,
Amazing shots! I was curious, I see a strobe in the forground of the set up shots. However it doesn’t look like it was used on the subjects. Did you just have it stopped down or is there something i’m missing? I only see lights on each subject (not including the background light which I see hanging off the railing) but I see 4 lights in the set up shots. What’s going on? Thanks.
-Mike
great shots!
Wow, fantastic shots! Love the second one with the jumping black guy in white! The use of light is amazing!
Amazing portraits.
Thanks for sharing some setup & insight from this shoot. It’s great when the hot shot photographers share with the community.
Coincidentally I’ll be shooting my own local basketball team this week and I hope to incorporate some of your techniques strobist style
These are some really great shots - I shoot a lot of standard (boring) portraits of kids sports. If I could convince the shooter I work with I’d love to cross-light them like this and give the parents something they’d really love.
I can see why you’ve been asked several times if they are HDR. The skin tones are amazing. The highlights are perfect - bravo mate!
Great shots!
How much post-production have you done? Would be great to see some of the shots straight from the camera compared to the final images.
/BonneSwe
Simply WOW, love the effect on those shots and pretty sure those HS boys wanted to have those photos because they look dramatic and so good. I had a few questions and some already asked, like those are not HDR and look so much like it. But, did you use an editing software after in order to create that dramatic look?
it should be interesting to know the relative power of all the strobes used in these pics, very interesting !!!
If not HDR, what post processing gives them this surrealistic look? I’ve seen a lot of post processing like this, but no clues as so how to get it to look like that. Thanks.
How is that gritty look achieved? I know it can’t be all light bringing it about. is photoshop involved afterwards to a degree?
Thank you very much
Richie
Excellent work, the proof that a clever setup is the first step in the process of getting good photos.
Excellent series! I Admire the variety of your shots and the poses - and the great effect of the simple location. It’s very kind to provide all the lighting set-up shots.
So long,
-luke
What DANNY said is true how do you achieve that HDR look with out it, I know the lights are extremely important but the post processing is like 40% or 50% I think…
I think they are tooo photoshopped, the first guy looks like a porcelain doll. On the other hand, you would make Dave Hill proud.
great eye, very well executed. it is a great thing when you can see a finished product in your mind before you shoot it.
best,
Great photo!
As with Danny, I am also curious regarding your post-processing. Obviously your genious lighting is key, but what else occurs afterwards to get that desaturated gritty look? Cheers!
First up those shots are amazing, as the guy said above if anyone could post how to get the HDR like effect on the images that would be great.
Regarding the large images looking strange in Safari, it’s because safari reduces the size of a full size image to fit in your window. Either make your safari window bigger or click on the image (the mouse chows a zoom icon when it’s doing this).
Love it!
I would also like to know a little bit more about your postrproduction process.
Did you use lightroom?
and for the skin softening?
Thanks
Fantastic!!!
I still try to figure out if you made a lot of really good post processing, or if you managed to get the shots nearly done out of the camera like that.
But respect, awesome work!
Post processing details…PLEASE!!!!
Great job, and huge thanks for sharing this!
in one word WOW! what a nice light and atmosphere almost surrealistic. Defenitlely inspiring. Did you do a lot of postproduction?
When you feel like it check out my site and blog: http://www.holandaluz.com and holandaluz.blogspot.com
Cheers
Vincent
Perfect pic, What post processing gives them this 3D look….
Thanks…
Congrats…you Rock
These are all unbelievable images, and examples of how to use light. Thank you for the behind the scenes vip tour. Totally inspiring.
just plain awesome! these kids are gonna have these incredible photos to look back on when they’re old and retired.
Astounding. 70 portraits? Whatever they paid you, it was a bargain.
Astounding. 70 portraits? Whatever they paid you, it was a bargain.
Hey everyone, wow! Thanks for all the compliments and comments! I didnt realize how big an impact the strobist would have on my server, I am trying to fix it right now to allow for more people before it shuts down again.
Again, no HDR
Most if not all of my post processing is done in about 30 seconds. Then the other 10 percent takes another 5 to 10 minutes usually. I dont spend a lot of time on my images because I have massive ADHD and if I did I would go crazy, ha! But seriously, I am thinking about posting a how to or something on it since so many people are interested.
Thanks again for all the support!
Dustin
Amazing work, saw this on Strobist. Keep it up!
Hey Dustin,
Great work!
I was wondering how you feel about your Alien Bees. Do they recycle fast enough for you? Do you get consistently lit shots? Do you see any reason to switch to White Lightnings for your needs?
great job. Really strong pics.
PLEASE TELL… PLEASE! Great work.
that’s some amazing work man. beautiful execution and use of light. i’m glad that you didn’t stay in that tiny room man. this series is a killer and probably will set new standards on sporty kids photography - once they see this, they wont settle for less.
congratulations. very inspiring.
Wow - this really rocks! I hope you find some time to do the How-to on the PP because it is EXCELLENT
Great stuff Dustin. Beautiful light. I bet those kids were really psyched to see their portraits taken so awesomely.
Some great, great work here. Loved how you got the kids’ personalities in the shots. I can’t pick a favorite one…they are all great.
And thanks for showing the lighting set up. I’m a beginner and haven’t a clue where to start.
Came here from Strobist…but going to come back more often!
Mark, New Jersey
Hey, Dustin-
Tried to reach you by phone and email last night as a heads-up — sorry about the traffic avalanche. You are in good company: Last year we (accidentally) overloaded Platon’s site for a few days. Oops.
If you do a post on post-processing, I may link to you again — fair warning.
-DH
Hey, Dustin-
Tried to reach you by phone and email last night as a heads-up — sorry about the traffic avalanche. You are in good company: Last year we (accidentally) overloaded Platon’s site for a few days. Oops.
If you do a post on post-processing, I may link to you again — fair warning.
-DH
Fantastic portraits Dustin, great combination of excellent lighting and inventive poses. You obviously interact with your subjects very well indeed. Like many others I would love to hear your post production techniques, whether they take 2 mins or not - they obviously work! - although I realise this is only a small part of the over all process.
Fantastic portraits Dustin, great combination of excellent lighting and inventive poses. You obviously interact with your subjects very well indeed. Like many others I would love to hear your post production techniques, whether they take 2 mins or not - they obviously work! - although I realise this is only a small part of the over all process.
Shockingly good work, top marks.
Fantastic portraits Dustin, great combination of excellent lighting and inventive poses. You obviously interact with your subjects very well indeed. Like many others I would love to hear your post production techniques, whether they take 2 mins or not - they obviously work! - although I realise this is only a small part of the over all process.
Let me say for probably the 500th time…..awesome work!! You really did well with what you had, and that’s the mark of a photographer with a great eye. If you did choose to write a how to, I’d love to read it. I was curious about how you avoided the red railings in your shots, if you actually shot with your lights in the position that it shows in the set up shots. I was thinking you’d have to push everything back towards the bay doors a bit, but you can’t push your rims back anymore. Maybe you just zoomed in? I love the rim light, and have noticed that it always looks great on dark skin, so you got kinda lucky in that regard.
Great work.
Let me say for probably the 500th time…..awesome work!! You really did well with what you had, and that’s the mark of a photographer with a great eye. If you did choose to write a how to, I’d love to read it. I was curious about how you avoided the red railings in your shots, if you actually shot with your lights in the position that it shows in the set up shots. I was thinking you’d have to push everything back towards the bay doors a bit, but you can’t push your rims back anymore. Maybe you just zoomed in? I love the rim light, and have noticed that it always looks great on dark skin, so you got kinda lucky in that regard.
Great work.
Yeah, inquiring minds want to know what the photoshop angle is.
L
AWESOME! The best I have seen for this type of subject. I LOVE these photographs! I can’t wait to try this technique.
AWESOME! The best I have seen for this type of subject. I LOVE these photographs! I can’t wait to try this technique.
Awesome series. Saw it on Strobist. I’m always happy to learn about great work, even more when it’s from an LA photog.
Ah, the site is working again.
Lighting: cool. Post-pro: cool. What really gets me excited are two other things. One, that you managed to get such evocative pictures under such difficult circumstances. And two, that you managed to pull off the shoot at all, from a logistical standpoint. Those two things are what makes a pro a pro. Any knucklehead can set up a few lights and process files in photoshop (well, maybe not *any* knucklehead, but you get the point). Well done on such a potentially horrendous shoot!
Hey Dustin,
Great job. When you get a chance please check out my site
http://WWW.MARKJREBILAS.COM/BLOG
I’d really like the opinion of a pro such as yourself!
I am admiring your work, caught you on Strobist. I have to say this to you though simply because i do so like your work….. You are severly overwhitening your eyes. Drawing the viewers focus, is one thing…. pushing it past the point of natural is even ok in some cases… however it is so severly overdone it is distracting. I sincerely hope you dont mind my unsolicited opinion. I would not even begin to share my expertise if I deemed your work sub par on any leve…. I feel your work has substance. I would like to see more success for you.
Thank you,
Jason
http://www.JasonJosephStudio.com
In N.Y. 347-404-5291
In L.A. 213-785-7378
Mate ! Stunning Work.
Great stuff dude,
Please check out my site and tell me what you think!
markjrebilas.com/blog/
amazing job with the camera ,and in post . Could you give some tips of how you get that look in post? what program do you use?
Amazing Results With A Simple Setup, cant wait for the how to Post…
Great work! Do you have an RSS feed for your Blog?
Wow
excellent work and it’s amazing how creative you got under such circumstances.
Wow, I love the lighting and creativity of these shots. Its a classic example of making the best of the situation and always making something apparently mundane a creative process. . . kudos. Great job.
Great shots and style in the posing and action of these future players. Looks like the kids had a great deal of fun. Beautiful portraits, thanks for sharing.
Dustin,
really amazing work, I’ve been working on some shots to get that kind of look and feel for paintball, but haven’t been really successful your work is great inspiration. Excellent variety of poses and feels to the portraits. Thanks for sharing the setup.
HP
Hey Dustin,
How did you make that big door behind disappear in some shots? Was the rest of the image lit much stronger and the background didn’t get any light?
Very nice pictures, very nice lights…… thanks for this pleasure
Phil from France
Outstanding 0_0
these photos are very nice! love it so much!
Dustin come on man, post production details or at least a glimpse…
Really intelligent, efficient work. Those shots work so well, and i’m sure the players must be pretty hyped after seeing such great portraits of themselves. Ta for the set-up shots too, always good to get lighting ideas. bravo old boy. oh and nice post prod. too.
Andrew Lewis Campbell …. from little old England
Is the background light coming from the little light mounted on the camer-right railing. If not, what is that mounted there? Or was it the light that would be behind you camera left? And for one last thing, if it is the camera-left light that was behind you in the setup shots, did you move it to the background or just angle it so you got no shadows from the player in the background? Thanks.
Dustin, I just want to say wooow, fantastics shots, and of course, I love your postprocess in PS. I wiil be lloking for your howto.
Regards from Spain
Very cool images. Impressive effects of so simple setup!
Nothing short of tremendous, beautiful, beautiful!!!
I would love to see a post processing how-to, your work is an inspiration!
Well done, specialy because of the timing and conditions you had to work with. I’m amazed by the resolts. It’s my firts time in your blog, and I have to say that you are a master when it comes to lighting!
I have some questions…
How much of post-production you did on this shoots you put here?
Are all the shoots one exposure, or you did one for the background and other to the players?
I appreciate!
Thanks
Hey Sam,
All the shots were done with one exposure. Thanks!
Great shots and excellent lighting. What settings did you use on the strobes?
Hi,
Like everybody else, I´m most impressed by the shots and how you managed to pull off 70 sessions within two days. I´m very interested in the post processing, you say you did it in approx. 30 seconds per photo, impressive. I would love if you could post a short “how to” about the post-pro.
Congratulations to a well completed assignment (I take for granted that the customer was happy) and for sharing your knowledge to the rest of us.
Best regards Martin
Awesome work, great pictures in a very basic setup. The very natural posing of the players and all the energy they have inside (since they are in a tournament) adds up to the images. Excellent job.
awesome job, I tried it at home last night with 4 lights and I am nowhere near what you produced. Can you explain the workflow a bit more
geoff
all that work, one exposure…it’s true, when it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
good stuff here, a handful of the frames present very unique and interesting poses, postures, expressions, given the amt. of room/space you had to work with I commend you and your results
the post-processing has a trademark to it, which is the key, you are what results you present, to simply give away what is successful for oneself would be a crime, IMHO…I don’t see the frames as “overdone or distracting”, I simply see a style that is unique to the shooter, like an artist’s signiture
Beautiful!
I am newer to photography but I am inspired by your shots and those of Chase Jarvis.
I have a question. How do you end up with that end results that looks kinda chromey (if thats a word)… Is it all photoshop tweaking or does the light play a big role in it.
Any tips appreciated. Thanks!
Hey Dustin,
Caught this on the Strobist blog. I love these shots! You have some serious lighting skills and I really admire how you go out of your way to find the right place to shoot. I really enjoy your work and look forward to seeing more of it!
Hi,
Great shots!
As a few others I am surprised as to how you managed on some shots to have a completely black background where the metal door is. I did not read you answer on the subject… The light fall off is simply quite surprising…
thanks!
WOW! lol thats what comes to mind.
I followed the link posted on Strobist.com, and was just amazed by how cool those photos are. They look like their out of a magazine! and it SEEMS the lighting is fairly simple to do! A very inspiring shoot! thank you
Doug
Great work, Dustin.
I know people have already asked you how you achieve this gritty look in your portraits here, are you simply desaturating the backgrounds? Or is it something else/more?
Cheers,
Evan
Fantastic images! I can’t imagine that you shot all these images in such a short amount of time. Goes to show you what a tight shoot should look like. Love the images…
Dave…
Hi Dustin- Saw this on the strobist site. Great shots with a super cool setup. Hopefully you get time to talk more about the PP.
Cheers,
Nikhil
Hi Dustin,
very good pics! What filters are you using to get this glamour look and still keep all the details in your pics? I see this look everyday but no-one tells how to get it. Do you use Portraiture, Lucis and some blending modes together?
Thanks
Josh
I have to say… these are the SICKEST!!! baller photos I have ever, ever, ever seen! I have friends who played ball in HS that would’ve loved photos like these! Keep on bringin’ it!
Justin, I have noticed most of your shots have a sort of ultra real dark menacing ‘gritty’ look to them, please tell me how you achieve this? Is there some software package I can buy, or perhaps a special filter somewhat like a polariser? Maybe you do it in Paint Shop Pro? It makes everyone look marvelous - especially the black boys and the white ones too!
Dustin … are you there Dustin? Hello …. can you hear me? Please tell me ,,,, please, won’t tell … honest
Maybe you spray then with something ? Please:)
Hey Dustin
Youre portraits are AMAZING!
The last photo is divine! Your lighting skills always impress me.
Thank you for sharing!
Great pictures! Really inspiring.
For those wondering how to get the black background with the light fall off before the metal door in the first picture, I’ve got my idea. Simply by looking at where the light comes from, it seems that these shots were only made with the two side strobes pointed sideways towards the wall on the opposite side. These strobes have no diffuser. The strobe mounted in the umbrella is not used, therefore no light is reflected by the back door.
Hi Dustin,
Simple question which i cant find the answer for! What does back light actually do? and why use it? awesome work
Ju
Dustin:
Fantastic shots! Please fill me in on the post processing, it too is out of this world!
Yes, please put up a tutorial of the PP, really cool stuff.
Are you using a PS plugin that you found somewhere? If so where did you find it or what is it called. Just some FYI, there are about 4.5 million people that are still trying to do this. Look up a photogr.. called Dave Hill, I have a feeling you will like his work.
Push some of your stuff off onto the news papers and see if you can get into magazines. You have what it takes to make some killer cash man. Send a letter to the Heff and let him know you want to shoot some of his girls… Good luck man. Shoot me an email if you get a chance.
Joe
Yea, I think everyone would be very interested in a tutorial from start to finish of how that look was done, great job.
Great job.
Thanks to tell us your secret, Dustin
Dustin,
I have to say that your work is truly inspiring to me personally. It really makes me want to take some strobes on location, outside, and play with the lighting. I would be one of the many who would appreciate a tutorial covering some of your techniques.
Overall, I think you are an outstanding photographer, and I only wish for the best in your future, and hope to see more of your work.
Best wishes,
-AC
Dustin,
AWESOME shots! I love the look, the “pop”, the expressions, and mostly the LIGHTING!
Cheers,
Ericson Calderon
great pics and light
did you use a lot of after processing on some of them? Some look really artifical (not much a fan of that, but thats just my taste I guess)
Always on the lookout for some great new uses of flash. And wow, did I find some great stuff here
Thanks for sharing!
Greets from Weddingphotographer Bjorn from fotografieluna.be
can you talk about light exposures on EACH strobe and how you controlled them to get you good looking shots? Also, if you would talk about the D3 settings, tks
Hey Greg, I will keep those things in mind the next time I go shoot.
Thanks for looking!
Outstanding work. I love your lighting technique.
thank you…
Hey there! Great work! Can this lighting effect be duplicated without monolights? In particular, I would really like to be able to use my Canon Speedlite 580 EX II and 430’s (I have 3 of these that I use as wireless slaves) to do something similar.
Thanks for the great info about the setup and congrats again on some amazing work!
Hey Dustin,
You mentioned you may show a little tutorial on your photoshop workflow to obtain these results. I would be incredibly grateful to get a peek at that.
Thank you.
Dustin, sir.
Outstanding job.
Fantastic and utterly amazing.
What would be sweet, would be a little more in depth coverage of your lighting set up.
Thanks!
-David
Absolutely stunning. Look, I could use a few tips here. I would give my left pinky finger to know how you achieve the animated look to your images. I’m new to photoshop but am anxious to learn. I’m looking at opening a studio in a little hick town in eastern Utah. With these kind of results, I would have people lining up to have their images made. Can you enlighten me more on your post production techniques? I shoot a Nikon D300 and love it!
Dude, You made me cry . . . These pics are incredible.
Hey Dustin,
I think I know which plugin you are using to get that look its Topaz Adjust.
Hey Brad, sorry to say I don’t use any plug-in. I only you photoshop CS3, the reason It doesn’t take that long is because I use quick keys to do everything.
Hey Dustin,
can you then finally enlighten us what exatly you do in photoshop cs3 to get this great looking effect? I saw all your great pictures here and read all the posts. If you dont want to tell us then just say no thats my secret and I dont want to talk about it - basta. But then please dont say you will release a tutorial. Im using in example also topaz adjust like Brad said but with the exposure filter from lucis and some layer blending to get a special look on my photos.
thanks
Hugh
Hey Dustin. Talking about the post-processing in your last comment, what are you doing. Would be great if you could tell us!
Great pictures; I’d love to see all 70!
Add me to the list of people who are BEGGING you for the ideas and steps behind your post shooting workflow.
Again, wonderful captures.
JT
HUGH-
Sorry for leading you on. I am just way to busy right now to do a tutorial. Its hard enough to keep my blog updated. I really would like to share it with you but I am thinking it wont be in the near future. Sorry about that.
I will tell you that I use a variation of multiple layers with different blending modes with dodge and burn and selective color. It depends on the image too, There is not one thing I do to everyone that is the same…that is what makes it so hard to make a tutorial. You honestly can come to this “style” with a ton of different ways.
I do not…REPEAT…DO NOT USE Lucas arts or Topaz or what ever, I feel you can use a plugin for certain work because you should individualize each image and tweak the settings.
(obviously there is more to it and I use the basics like levels and color balance)
Thanks for the comments and feedback!
Dustin,
I am impressed with your photos. You really have some inspiring shots posted here. I realize posting a blog and much less a tutorial is an extremely time consuming process, so I want to thank you for taking the time to post as much as you have. If it would not be too much trouble, could you post a before and after post production picture so we can see how much of an impact the post has made to the final shot?
Thanks,
Rustin
Love these pictures.. great work!
Dustin,
These shots are so inspiring. Seeing the set-up shots are awesome, and hearing your post process takes less time than making toast is hilarious, in a good way. I can imagine that your photographs look relatively similar on camera as they do post. Keep up the great work, I’ve got your blog bookmarked!
Jacob
Hey Dustin,
Something for everyone who reads the comments, or inquires about a tutorial. . . They’ll learn more and understand the process of PS better if they really take a look at your photos and ’see’ the various effects. You’ve given enough with saying you use multi layers and blends - with other things. Some of what you do is in Topaz - but like you said, it all depends on the photo. With each one it is different. Depends on skin tone, lights, effect you want, etc.
The hours people will spend on trying to get the same effect with their photos will be much more valuable to them then you doing a tutorial. They will learn more about PS and be able to advance in their own direction with their photos.
There is someone out there with an ‘action’ that does the same - though I can’t remember where I saw it. Then again, it does not work the same with every photo because every situation is different. Topaz seems to be using this ‘action.’
I challenge everyone to try to get this effect on their own. (smile)
Oh, and Dustin - GREAT WORK!
Kristi
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kristi_Corbett/1605960143
Thanks Kristi, I agree fully with you on this one. It would be so hard to do a tutorial because it varies depending on the photo (like you said)
Your pretty spot on.
There isnt a set of things I do for every pic, it all depends on lighting, and skin tones…again like you said
Dustin
What is Topaz?
Dustin.
Great photos as you have heard so many times. I am really interested in the actual lighting in the photos. How do you drop the background to black. Are you simply underexposing it and lighting then just the subject? I assume the gym lights remained on while you shot this. Any tips on this would be great. Great work.
are all of the ab’s ab800 ?
Hi Dustin,
being a basketball player myself and a hobby photographer of course this photoshot is just wowing me!! In all these years of collecting magazines and upper deck cards I haven´t seen such nice photos taken of players!
Thanks for also posting pictures of the lighting setup! But I have the same question like Zach.. which is probably just basics… so excuse me limited knowledge
How do you drop the background to black… what are your settings? I have seen this style also alot in black and white portrait pictures and asked myself the same question.. so pls help!
Thanks in advance for the answer, thanks for the great inspiring pictures and keep up the nice work!
Zach and others,
Not to give away all our secrets, but when you do portraits like these you are usually shooting at ISO 100 or 50 even. If you were to shoot at this ISO with NO strobes firing the scene would be pitch black. The ambient, even with lights on in the gym, is not enough to be seen by the camera at such a low ISO. So, as you can see in his setup shots that door in the background is pretty far back and with the side lights firing they aren’t aimed at the door so no light is hitting the door with enough power to be seen by the camera, thus causing it to go black. The ones with light on the door are more than likely lit with that other ringlight hanging down on the side… Good stuff Dustin, hope to meet you down the road.. if you are ever in Phoenix with Rebilas come to a D-backs game and i’ll show you my digs there…
Jon Willey
jonwilley.com
Jon
Wow, man, these shots blow me away. If I could have been there to work behind you, I would have been a very happy man. You definitely have sports down. The airshots are the greatest and the fallout behind the players is intense, so is the side lighting, which encapsulates the players arms, leaving a nice shadow in the middle. Anytime you want an extra hand I’ll be there for you.
[...] months, people have been asking me about the post-production involved in the photos on my blog post??70 basketball portraits in two days.? I always planned on sharing it with everyone but just haven?t had time to put anything together [...]
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