Attention Amateur Photographers: It's Not About the Camera

I was photographing my local high school hockey team last night and there was a father of a player on the opposing team alongside me.  As photographers secretly always do, we were both sneaking peeks at the other's choice of camera and lenses.  He had a high-end Canon camera and lens, both of which are often seen in the hands of professionals.  He held the camera dearly, shooting and immediately checking the results on the camera's LCD screen, and seemed genuinely interested in why I was just standing there calmly watching the teams warm up, my camera snuggled in my bag.  Surely I couldn't know what I was doing.

During the player introductions, I pulled the camera out, took one test shot, and stood at attention during the national anthem, while he was still shooting and frowning at the results.  Once the game was about to begin, we exchanged pleasantries, and that's when the chat-fest began.  He was having trouble getting good color rendition, exposure, and asked me what I was doing.  I explained that I had previously set a custom white balance for the ice rink so that my colors were perfect, and I know the light levels in the rink, so that my exposures were always consistent.



He went on to explain that he had upgrade to this high-end Canon camera, then was upset at Canon because the lens he had been using didn't work on the camera, and he had to invest in a new professional lens.  I asked him why he felt he had to upgrade the camera in the first place.  He mumbled something about needing better photos.  I wasn't really listening because I was actually photographing the game, while he was talking about photographing the game.  I then listened to him explain...in vivid detail...about his camera purchases over the last couple of years, and was really upset that his photos were not getting any better.  He asked me what camera I was shooting, and how come I only took one shot before starting to photograph the game.

After I told him what camera I had, and how I knew exactly what I needed to do to get good photos, he drifted off, intently studying the LCD on the back of the camera to figure out what he was doing.  I'm not sure, but I really don't remember even hearing his shutter clicking at all while I was standing next to him.

As I walked away, all I could do was think about the interaction and how it has become so commonplace among amateur photographers with deep wallets.  I should have suggested that he save half of the $10,000 he spent to feed his hobby and get some lessons and go to some seminars to learn how to be a better photographer.

I have never had a camera tell me what direction the light was coming from.
I have never had a camera tell me how the light was striking my subject.
I have never had a camera tell me how to frame my subject in the viewfinder.
I have never had a camera tell me when to press the shutter to capture the best moment.

The smartest cameras on the planet will try to automatically focus on something in the viewfinder.
The smartest cameras on the planet will give you a good exposure for a neutral grey.
That's all.
The rest is up to you.

Sports Team Portraits a Different Way

Field hockey team that was composited from 26 individual photos of the individual athletes

Luke Photography has been working with the booster clubs at the local high school do create unique and interesting team and individual portraits of the high school athletes. Sports are really a big part of Fairport High School's environment, and they really were interested in something different than the tried-and-true standard athletic photos that most teams get.

Lighting set up: Overhead beauty dish, two gridded soft boxes left and right behind the subject, and an umbrella on the background

After arranging for use of the school's cafeteria, I set up my mobile studio using a four light setup and grey paper background.  The main light on the subject is an overhead strobe in a 24 inch beauty dish, which gives off a soft but edgy light that I love for athletic portraits. There are two strobes placed diagonally behind the subject that are outfitted with medium-sized gridded soft boxes. These lights provide nice separation light behind the subject, and are usually placed to match the digital that I plan on putting behind the subjects. Finally, there is a strobe that is bounced out of an umbrella that lights up the background.

The Fairport Modified girls' softball team ready for their Hollywood close-up.

Raw image

The raw image out of the camera looks like this. A quick pass of retouching is usually done on the face, if there are any blemishes or shadows that can easily be taken care of.

Background stripped out

I usually Topaz Remask, a Photoshop plug-in, to strip out the subject from the background.  Each player can be done in 8-10 seconds.

New background image inserted behind subject

A new digital background is placed behind the subject. I create many of my own urban backgrounds (e.g parking garages, industrial buildings, etc.), but these stadium backgrounds were purchased from StreetscapeBackgrounds.

Raw image

To create the composited team  portrait, I photograph each player facing directly towards the camera, then at a 45-degree angle to the right, then to the left. Using Adobe Lightroom to filter through the images, I pick the best image of each player, trying to get equal numbers of "lefts" and "rights", and several facing directly at the camera.

Background stripped out

Using Topaz Remask, the subject is stripped out of the background.

Using Adobe Photoshop, each player is placed into the image, row-by-row to create a pleasing arrangement.  There are multiple blank layers that are added above and below each player's layer on which I brush in shadows, which would occur naturally if the team was actually photographed all together. These shadows make all the difference in the image, and although time consuming, turns this from a run-of-the-mill fake image into one where most of the parents can't believe the athletes were not all photographed together. 

When complete, there are often 45-50 layers in the Photoshop file: one for each player, at least one shadow layer per player, and several other shadow layers where their feet are touching the ground. In the photo above, several players were wearing flip flops or were in stocking feet, so the team name banner covers up the bare feet of the front row players that could not be hidden in the back row.

Everyone is still smiling when they're done.

The JV hockey team shown below was one of the first teams that I created this way.  The individual player's photos again were close ups of their faces in front of a really nice rink background.  When the hockey parents show the team photos around, I soon had baseball, field hockey, softball, football, boy's lacrosse and girl's volleyball teams on board.  

Many people ask me why I photograph team portraits this way, because it is much more a time investment than just lining a team up and photographing them all together.  First and foremost, it allows me to get great, consistent light on each and every player's face.  This is not always easy to do in a large group.  The accent lights that appear on each player's face helps define it and delineate it from the players behind them.  There is no way this accent light would get onto the player's faces at the center of the group if they were all photographed together simultaneously.  The second reason is that it looks different. Being different gets you noticed.  Executing this different vision on a consistent basis keeps you moving forward, onward and upward.

One of the first team composites that I created. Once other teams caught wind of this , they were lining up to take part