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Gymnasium Portrait/still shots


brian_mcneill2

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<p>Hello Everyone,<br>

Brand new to the site as far as asking questions. I have used the site for research many times in the past and has been very helpful. Here is my situation and equipment:<br>

Canon T6s<br>

50mm f/1.8<br>

70-200mm f/2.8<br>

17-55mm f/2.8 <br>

420EX Flash<br>

I am looking to take still shots of my sons Basketball team in front of a green or gray screen and place them in front of different backgrounds. I have no issues with doing so when it is outside but in the gym I have a tough time. Is there a good light and umbrella set up good for gym shots? I only want to purchase one if possible. Kind of on a budget of 300 or less. My other question is what lens out of the three of mine would be best to use? I apologize if this is in the wrong area. I choose it because I am taking portrait shots but not just head shots. Any help would greatly be appreciated.<br>

Regards,<br>

Cameraguybri</p>

 

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<p>For the basics on how to use a flash off camera with an umbrella without spending a lot of money, go to <a href="http://www.strobist.com">www.strobist.com</a> and read the Lighting 101 section. You can get a lightstand and umbrella for around $100. You can connect it with a long sync cord for about $20. You can also buy radio triggers but that starts to drive up the cost for good ones.<br /><br />If you're going to do group shots, I would use the 17-55. For headshots, I would use the 70-200, probably at 70. 50-55 is a little too short for head shots for my tastes even on crop sensor camera, although some people like that focal length for that.<br /><br />Shooting with an off camera flash in an umbrella is easy. But using a green screen gets very complicated very fast. To start, you need separate lights to evenly illuminate the green backdrop, usuallly one on each side point just at the backdrop. That means two more flashes and two more stands and would probably bust your $300 budget.<br /><br />Why green screen? if it's a basketball team I would just shoot them in the actual gym.</p>
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<blockquote>

<p>I am looking to take <strong>still shots </strong>of my sons <strong>Basketball team</strong> in front of a <strong>green or gray screen</strong> and place them in front of <strong>different backgrounds</strong> . . . <strong>in the gym</strong> . . . Is there a <strong>good light and umbrella set up</strong> good for gym shots? I only want to <strong>purchase one if possible</strong>. Kind of on a <strong>budget of 300</strong> or less. . . <strong>what lens</strong> out of the three of mine would be best to use? . . . I am taking <strong>portrait shots but not just head shots</strong>.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You need to give more detail regarding what is meant by “<strong>portrait shots but not just head shots” </strong>but I’ll assume that will include: Full Length Shots of Groups and Individuals and other Groups and Individual Shots.<br>

<br>

For Head Shots, Bust Shots; Half Shots; and Three-quarter Shots of an Individual using Green Screen I’d typically use two lights for the Subject and the “On Subject” exposure around ⅓~1⅓ Stops more than the Background exposure; typically 1 Stop more. This allows for a modest Key : Fill Lighting Ratio to provide some modelling. I don’t encourage that you become ambitious with hair; rim; or kicker lighting if you haven’t done this before. I don’t often get ambitious either when using Green Screens , I like to keep it simple using two Subject lights with a modest Lighting Ratio for a little bit of modelling. The Background should be evenly illuminated. Subjects are situated about 8~15ft from the background to reduce the effect of any bounced light. The Subject’s lights will have some spill to the background and for this reason, if possible, I like to have the Subject(s) farther rather than nearer the background, that makes it easier in post production.</p>

<p>The situation gets a little more complicated when you move to Full Length Shots for two reasons: firstly, you may find with lower powered lights (you mention a budget of “300”) it will be difficult to maintain and adequate EVEN exposure from top to toe of the Subject; and secondly concerning the feet and shoes - the green can reflect in some shoes or bounce light onto them, often this can be alleviated by using a white floor, but that might prove difficult for B’Ball players. </p>

<p>Moving to Group Portraiture the (lighting) complexity mainly involves maintaining an evenness of lighting for the group (becoming more difficult if the group is more than one row) whilst having some modelling on each Subject without creating harsh shadows from one Subject onto their partner or the Subject behind them – these considerations combined with keeping the Green Screen evenly illuminated and the complexities further introduced as the Group Shot becomes Wider (i.e. “<em>Group Shot becomes Wider</em>” means moving from a an Half Shot of a Group, to a Three-Quarter Shot of a Group to a Full Length Shot of a Group).<br>

<br>

<em>“Kind of on a <strong>budget of 300</strong> or less” </em>is rather meaningless without a monetary unit, but I will assume US$, and if it is US$, then I think that you’ll be pushing it up hill with a pointy stick to manage buying the necessary lighting IF you want to do Group Shots with a Green Screen, easily.</p>

<p>US$300 will probably get you two lights powerful enough and two umbrellas to shot individual Subjects out to about three-quarter shots. You probably will need to use Manual Flash (i.e. <em>not</em> E-TTL).</p>

<p>If you do not have a Flash Meter then I think it will be a bit of Trial and Error and in this case a test SHOOT (i.e. <em>not</em> tests shots on the day but a test SHOOT beforehand) would be a good idea. If you can shoot tethered, to a reasonable screen, would be good idea so you can review the test shots very quickly. Even if you do have a Flash Meter and you are not experienced (which it seems you are not), then shooting tethered AND doing a test shoot would be a good idea.</p>

<p>My first thought was to suggest buying (or borrowing) another Speedlite, maybe a third party one, and using it in concert with the Speedlite that you have, each with an Umbrella – that should be effective for Portraiture of Individual Subjects and from that point you could progress to experiment with smaller groups initially. </p>

<p>Setting up lighting equipment may be a disruption to the Gymnasium and in some situations you might be liable for damages to property and/or injury to persons. </p>

<p>WW</p>

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  • 2 months later...

<p><em>"still shots of my sons Basketball team"</em><br>

<em>"budget of 300 or less"</em></p>

<p>Shoot at night with "work lights" from a home store (Home Depot, Lowes.) I would place 2 (or 3 depending on size of group) lights behind camera, above subjects eye level, spaced apart enough to achieve even lighting. Done.</p>

<p>If you're feeling ambitious, add 2 more lights above and behind the group (use ladder to attach to wall or ?) as a hair light and to wash the background.</p>

<p>I would use the 50mm lens.</p>

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<p>A consideration when using continuous lighting for Portraiture is the Shutter Speed will be the constituent determining the arresting (or not) of any Subject Motion Blur, whereas when using Flash the very short time span of the Flash's pulse (mostly always) does that job.</p>

<p>Two considerations when using hard Portraiture Lighting (such as "work lights") in conjunction with Chroma-key Screen (aka "Green Screen") is firstly addressing any hard shadow cast on the Chroma-key screen and secondly addressing any uneven lighting on the Chroma-key Screen as a result of using only Key-Light and Fill-light on the Subject. These same lighting for Chroma-Key Screens considerations apply to the use of Flash, as already mentioned, but are re-iterated to emphasise that this issue does not go away simply by the use of continuous lighting, especially hard continuous lighting: but noted the OP hasn't answered why a Chroma-key screen s necessary, anyway.</p>

<p>WW<br>

</p>

 

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<p>The T6s as with all modern cameras of note are low light capable, hence shooting at a high ISO and high shutter speed is a pretty regular practice these days. The need to evenly light a greenscreen for stills is far less crucial than for motion picture work. As long as you can see some color even in a shadow, you can select it in post.</p>
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<p>Welcome to Photo.net, Christopher.</p>

<p>For clarity of meaning: the comments were neither a criticism of the suggestion to use continuous lighting per se, nor a comment on how common or not that use might be: the comment was to ensure that the OP understood that the choice of continuous lighting would trigger an additional consideration apropos Shutter Speed, as it relates to Subject Motion Blur.</p>

<p>It is my excperince that some, especially those new to this type of work, do not make that consideration and are subsequently dissatisfoed with their results.</p>

<p>WW </p>

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