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.
173 Comments
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Come on now, quit beating around the bush, let us see at least a rw image before post production and the after. it will take no time at all to select a raw image and convert to jpeg and post it here.
or you can ignore this…..again and keep it all your secret.. it’s okay really just tell us all to bug off and we will stop bugging you.
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Whoa… these shots are awesome! Nice work scouting out the new location. Never take what you are given, that is the key!
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Hey dude…….go into detail about your post processing…..step -by-step!
K
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you the man!
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The post processing is up on Scott Kelby’s (photoshop master) blog right now.
I did a guest blog post for Scott Kelby and its on his blog here.
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2009/archives/3129
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These portraits are awesome. The lighting is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
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Great guest blog on Scott Kelby’s site today! Thanks for the detailed step-by step! Found your terrific site as result and have added it to my list of daily reads!
Here are a few of my similarly-intentioned efforts:
http://www.pbase.com/haverstick/image/107689669
http://www.pbase.com/haverstick/image/108013913
http://www.pbase.com/haverstick/image/102093494
http://www.pbase.com/haverstick/image/98813630
My process is similar to the one you described…3-light setup (using SB-800s, though). With the exception of the dodge and burn, I use similar post processingbut starting off in Lightroom 2 with adjustments to exposure, fill light, blacks, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. (Others such as Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski have blogged about this process elsewhere).
I love the “gritty, edgy” look…
I’ll be visiting your site more often it seems!
Best,
Jon
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Man, these are saweeet!!
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that’s awesome ! !!
In fact I was so curious about how those portrait were shot before , this offers hints !
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Dustin, You just keep amazing !
You are a great inspiration, thanks for your tutorialistic blog.
In the photos, whitch lenses do you use ?
Best,
Ingemar
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great tutorial, specially for a begginer like me.. got a lot out of this.. thank you
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These are great pictures. I enjoyed them enough to comment which I hardly ever to on a site that I just happened to stumble upon….
Thanks,
Eric
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Hey there,
Great work, it’s amazing what you’ve done in a loading dock.
Just a quick question, how do you like the alienbees?
Thanks,
Mike
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Just wanted to let you know I saw one of your pictures on ESPN website.
http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/recruiting/basketball/mens/index
Keep up the good work.
Fred
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Just wanted to let you know that I saw your pictures used on ESPN website. Keep up the good work.
http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/recruiting/basketball/mens/index
Fred
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Excellent pics, but I am concerned about all those extension cords lying around waiting for a teenage boy to trip over.
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Dustin Impressive portraits. Now all you have to do is top yourself!
Ellis
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How did you get the background to be blacked out?
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AMAZING!! great tutorial and fantastic portraits.
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Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
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I am totally loving this. I would have chosen that pulldown door in a heartbeat as my background. Great stuff!!!!
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