This is the continuation from Part 1 of the wrestling team poster project done using a green screen. In part one, I explained how I used a green screen to put together a team picture.

The next stage was to provide some sample background images to be selected for the final poster.  I submitted for review, ten different images, from pastures to buildings, for potential candidates for the final poster. Coach Watson and his staff settled on the stormy clouds version. In addition, he let me know that one of the original wrestlers has transferred to another school and would need to be removed. With the removal of that wrestler, I then rearranged the other guys to balance it out.

Coach Watson wondered if I could add a bolt of lighting to the sky. I played around with Photoshop after Googling for help inspiration and technique from others. I personally like the poster without the lightning, but the coaches loved it, and wanted it included.

The final step was to add the text, and get the final OK.  Once approved, it was time to send the final image to the lab to print the posters.

This was a fun learning experience, and would gladly accept another project that could utilize the green screen.

In fact, I am going to start utilizing this technique for doing T&I (team and individual). No more ugly bleachers or gym stages in the backgrounds. Another benefit is that there is no need for everyone to wait around for the entire team to show up — I’m sure the parents will appreciate that aspect.

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My initial reaction was trying to find a large enough porch for a shot like this, but even more challenging would be to find a time when all these guys would be free at the same time (over the summer), to make the shoot. These are high school boys, many who have summer jobs, are on family vacations, or are more interested in hanging with their girlfriends. I offered up a different idea — shoot each wrestler individually with a green screen, cut them out and create the illusion of a group shot. Using this method, each wrestler would be lit under controlled conditions much easier than trying to setup lights on location. This approach provides a way to now come up with any background image to use for the poster. The other advantage, is weather is a non-factor, so no rainout date would have to be planned.

The last day of class for John Carroll was June 6, so I went to the school that day, setup and shot each wrestler that Coach Watson wanted to be in the poster, before they all spread like wildfire after finishing the school year.

At the top left, is a sample original image of one of the wrestlers shot with the green screen. I use a Photoshop plug-in called Primatte Chromakey for extracting the subject from the background. Once cut out, I processed each image to give it a slight grunge look rather than keeping the image looking like a portrait. The image on the left, shows an example of a processed cutout image.

The two main keys to getting a good cutout image is to light the background as evenly as possible, and to avoid the green light reflected off the background to spill onto your subject. For this shoot, I used two Canon 580EXs shot into 30″ umbrellas to light the background. The umbrellas were set at a 45-degree angle on each side of the background. The light was not as even as I would have liked, but it was close enough. To keep the spill to a minimum, I made sure my background was 1-stop darker than my exposure on my subject. In addition, I moved the subject 8 feet away from the background.  I lit each wrestler with one AB800 with large softbox to camera left and placed a large white reflector just out of frame camera right.

Once I cutout the 17 individual wrestler images, I arranged them to look as though they were all together for the group shot in a casual style. The idea was not to make this look like a high school team photograph. For the time being, I just threw in an image of an afternoon sky I had in my archives. My next step is to go on a search for other locations to shoot for using as the background for the poster.

This ends Part One of this assignment. Stay tuned for Part Two (the background and final product), which I hope to post in a couple weeks.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Today is a day to honor those who have fought and served our country and to grieve those who died while serving.

Memorial Day also signals the unofficial beginning of summer and what do kids want to do in the summer … SWIM! The weather in Bel Air today is fabulous — bright sunshine and 84 degrees.

While the kids were playing, I also was playing with my camera. I thought I try my hand at shooting with my right hand while holding a flash in my left. The downside to bright sunshine is the harsh shadows that accompany it. To bring out some definition in the shadows, a bit of fill flash does wonders.

The photo above — of my daughter Keely, the ham — used my technique of underexposing the camera 2/3 of a stop to cut down on the hot spots, and pop a bit of flash from the shadow side at 1/32 power.

The flash is not for inside use only. It can really come in handy outdoors as well. Give it a try, you may like the results.

Recently I’ve been shooting a lot of headshots, and am finding myself really enjoying this type of photography. Perhaps it has to do with those windows to the soul — the eyes. Getting these tight headshots gives the person viewing the photograph an excellent view into those windows.

I had been using many off-camera strobes for lighting the previous headshots I’ve taken in the past, which generally means I must stop down my lens into the f/8-f/11 range and thus increasing my depth of field. Which is perfectly fine for a portrait or corporate headshot. With this photo session, I decided to try something different , using the giant softbox that Mother Nature provided — gray cloud-filled skies — and a white foamcore board just below the subject to fill in the shadows. This allowed me to use my 135mm lens at f/2, with a sliver of DOF, and really concentrate on getting the eyes tack sharp to draw the viewer immediately to the eyes.

I’m going to use this technique much more in the future.

The headshots were taken on-location so not to interrupt their daily workload.

The setup for these photographs was an Alien Bee 800 with large softbox camera right, with a reflector camera left for fill. I also place a foamcore board on table in front of subjects to help fill in light under the chin. I used a blue paper backdrop with an Alien Bee 400 and 40-degree grid to create the background light.

On Monday, I am shooting corporate headshots for a client, so yesterday I was setting up a new lighting scheme from techniques I learned from the Lighting-Essentials workshop I attended last month.

I was resorting to setting a timer on my camera and then running over to the chair to capture myself in the frame to check my lighting. Luckily, after only a few laps from camera to chair and back, my son came home from work. He is on the grounds crew at Mountain Branch Golf Course in Joppa. Of course he was all sweaty and wanted a shower, but he was more than happy to sit in for a couple test shots.

There is something about this image I really like, and I thought I’d share.

This is taken with a large softbox to camera right and a white foamboard camera left. I had a second light with grid hitting the background from left to right. I normally would have the backlight directly behind the subject, but in this test setup I was limited on the amount of space between the subject and the backdrop.

On Friday night the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opened it’s 2007 season at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. This night also welcomed Maestra Marin Alsop, the first woman to head a major American symphony.

For this night, I was contracted to photograph the “after-party” consisting of candids and some posed shots for the BSO of the cast and BSO donors. To help light the room and subjects, I utilized two off-camera strobes, as well as an on-camera flash for fill light.

There were approximately 300 in attendance, and the mood of the night was extremely up-beat. I’m sure the champange and food helped, but in general I think everyone was extremely pleased with the nights performance.

For those that don’t normally photograph young’uns, I’ve got news for you — it’s not that easy. Well, it’s very simple to take pictures, but where the difficulty lies is in getting good pictures.

Unlike teenagers or adults, these little ones have no idea what photography is all about let alone listening to posing suggestions. You’ve got to let them be themselves and be ready to capture those great moments.

The one thing I set my mind to when going out to photograph little ones is patience. Knowing in advance that you most likely won’t be able to pose the child exactly as you wish and get that spontaneous smile or funny face, allows me to treat the photo shoot like a sporting event — and I LOVE sports!

If you’ve got other tips, I’d be glad to hear them.

Inspired by the images of Brent Williamson I decided to try a bit of crosslighting this afternoon.

With the beautiful warm late afternoon sun to work with shining onto the subject from the right, I setup a 580EX off to the left about 15 feet away at 1/32 power. Triggered using pocket wizards, the direct flash put just enough light into the dark shadow areas for a pleasing photograph. The idea is to use the flash in a very subtle way as to not even look like flash was used.

This is a very simple setup. If you don’t have pocket wizards, an off-camera sync cord will work just as well.

I processed the image using Nicole V’s actions and was extremely pleased with the outcome.