Good Light
It seemed like every week of the season was either rainy or overcast. On the last weekend before the Lanier Bowl – finally had that elusive “Golden Hour” game.
Light and Shadow
One of the best tools in a good photographer’s toolbox is the use of light and shadow to help accentuate the subject, or create interest in the viewer.
I love the opportunity to take advantage of the light, or the shadow and create dimension to the photo. The three photos in this post all have their own lighting situation.
With the sun moving from third base, across to first base in the late evening, a left-hand pitcher gets lighting on the face as he opens up to deliver to the plate. With the sun being directional, the outfield and backdrop are in the shadow and much darker than the pitcher, and essentially fade to black.
A Good Night for Baseball
Tuesday proved to be a good evening for Baseball. The weather cooperated (unlike recently for Norcross Soccer) and the light was great as the evening progressed.
I took the opportunity to do two different things with Baseball this time. To really personalize the coverage, I added my 1.4x teleconverter to my 300/2.8 to shoot at 420mm. From down the third base line, this gave me a tight frame at home plate (that proved very useful later). I also spent a couple innings shooting from a platform in left-center field.
Lacrosse Senior Night
Lacrosse Senior Night turned out to be almost a non-event, as the combined girls and boys teams had one senior. However, both teams turned out to be dominant against the visiting Gainesville squads (who have a similar level of experience to GAC’s squads).
Lacrosse quickly became a favorite sport to shoot over the past two seasons. The action is constant, and the sport begs to be shot tight.
Soccer Doubleheader
Spring means Soccer. Luckily, since the change to daylight savings time it also means more light later in the evening on the Soccer pitch.
As always, the evening started with a girls game. The girls get the benefit of at least half of the field in daylight, and a beautiful rim light when shot from the spectator’s side of the field.
Starting out in photography, most everyone fears shooting a backlit situation. It means generally that you have too much light coming into the camera and the faces will be shadowed. However, it is very manageable and has the positive effect of creating a nice rim light that helps separate subject and background.
The header is the king of soccer action shots. So much to it – in many cases bodies crashing into each other at great heights, and great facial expressions on the players.
The Boys’ later start has the effect of less light and needing to push to a higher ISO equivalent. However, you can still get good stop action early in the evening.
Another header from the Boys this time – with the Providence Christian Academy defender trying to crash the party.
Golden Hour Lacrosse
I’ve said it before – golden hour is the greatest hour of light you can find, especially in the spring and fall. Thursday was no different. It really helps with a sport like Boys’ Lacrosse, where the helmets limit the amount of light that falls onto the faces normally.
However, golden hour means fully lit faces.
Lacrosse means action. The Boys game is quite aggressive, with the stick used not only to throw the ball but to attempt to dislodge it from your opponent’s stick.
The game seems to naturally lend itself to shooting tight, horizontal frames. The majority of action takes place above the waist, everything from passing to the previously mentioned stick checking and body checking.
There is good action down low though – so switching to the vertical orientation, or using another body can help.
I’ve said it before – golden hour is the greatest hour of light you can find, especially in the spring and fall. Thursday was no different. It really helps with a sport like Boys’ Lacrosse, where the helmets limit the amount of light that falls onto the faces normally.
However, golden hour means fully lit faces.
Lacrosse means action. The Boys game is quite aggressive, with the stick used not only to throw the ball but to attempt to dislodge it from your opponent’s stick.
The game seems to naturally lend itself to shooting tight, horizontal frames. The majority of action takes place above the waist, everything from passing to the previously mentioned stick checking and body checking.
There is good action down low though – so switching to the vertical orientation, or using another body can help.
Welcome to Spring: Junior High Soccer
A great part of my affiliation with Martin Photography, and by extension, Martin Photography’s affiliation with Greater Atlanta Christian School, is the opportunity to shoot many different sports at several levels. In the fall, this means shooting Varsity Football all the way down to Eighth Grade Football. In the winter, it means Varsity Basketball down through Seventh Grade Basketball.
In the Spring, Soccer is king at Greater Atlanta Christian. The Spartans have a strong history of fielding competitive soccer teams at the Varsity Level, with Coach Jacquet’s Boys Varsity Spartans winning the A/AA State Championship in 2007. Participation in soccer is strong down through the Junior High teams, which were my subject Thursday night.
My goals in shooting soccer is action, and faces all while framing the subjects tightly. A lot of the action involves handling the ball, but there are some variations.
On a throw-in, the potential recipient and her defender help frame the thrower:
As always, I try to take advantage of the natural lighting and the shadows it creates.
The challenge with soccer is the majority of the time you need a full length shot – so when the action moves close you need to be ready with a shorter lens to catch it. My normal combination is the 300/f2.8 on my primary body, and a second body with the 70-200/f2.8 mounted. This lets me catch the closer action in full length.
Using the 300/f2.8 also lets you get some great shots further away – with plenty of separation of the player and his background.
Soccer Teaser
After shooting indoors since January, I had a few minutes to spare before Tuesday’s girls basketball state tournament game at Greater Atlanta Christian and caught the last several minutes of a Junior High Girls Soccer match against Walton Academy. The weather was definitely not spring: windy and temperatures in the low forties. However, it was great to be outdoors under blue skies.
I wasn’t there with enough time to really shoot the game, so I spent some time experimenting with the light. GAC’s pitch is lined on the west with a tall treeline that creates uneven shadows across the field – which I did my best to catch the brightly lit areas against the dark shadows.
The result is a rim-lit subject as she moves from the darkness into the light.
