Skip to main content

Edge Light Outdoor Action Image

Lesson 5 from: Digital Sports Photography

Dustin Snipes

Edge Light Outdoor Action Image

Lesson 5 from: Digital Sports Photography

Dustin Snipes

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

5. Edge Light Outdoor Action Image

Lesson Info

Edge Light Outdoor Action Image

We're gonna spread out our scene a little bit more, show the background a lot more, and also have him move. So I switched lenses, I'm now in a 14 to 24. I wanna get a really wide shot. I feel like I want to be part of the the shot. I want the viewer to feel like they're the one guarding our player here. So having him move is gonna be a little bit more difficult to pin-point the light in any directions, so I want something that spreads, but also puts out a lot of light. So we're gonna switch to a hard reflector, it's a P-45 reflector, it's very focused. The 45 refers to the degree of actual the beam that comes out of there. The front light is gonna be a big umbrella. We're not gonna use as such a directional one this time. This one's gonna to spread a little bit more but have sort of a similar effect where the lights getting pushed out and amplified at you. Okay, so what we really want to do again, over exaggerate it a little bit and I'll pull you back. So just don't feel like you're do...

ing too much. Obviously we don't want you carrying and stuff. Like Allen Iverson. So basically, yeah. A lot of it's gonna be... I'll shoot low probably in some of this, and I want you to kinda step into me. I want a lot of coming at me sort of thing. I want the viewer to feel like you're right there. Yeah, like your attacking, or the viewer is the person you're playing against. So that's kinda what we wanna feel like. And again, pretty low, really wide stances with you legs. Again, like you're about to explode out of there. And we wanna feel that in the shot. So we'll go through it a bunch, it'll be easy. (laugh) So I kinda almost want it in the front for this one. A little off to the right but just to the right of me. See, I like those, stuff like that, and we'll find the direction when I get in position which one works the best. I wanna make sure this hits over his shoulder. So get into that drop down, yeah, there you go. So when he comes down, and now try this way really fast. I wanna make sure that we'll get up and over because otherwise we'll get a shadow right here. So a lot of times with with back lighting, people, again, aren't paying attention to shadows and it's really important because it's not a natural light most the time. You either wanna mimic a sun or just make it really like a photo illustration. So, to make it not so drastic, or not so much of a, you just notice it so much, you wanna make sure that it's hitting your face properly and not giving you weird shadows from your shoulder, a collar, or anything else like that. So a lot of times people I see, they'll have the light a lot lower and when he's doing this, he'll drop his shoulder down. Can you do that one more time? Actually, do it the other way, where you were, cause he was like... Wait, hold on, which way was it? Wait, it was this way. So if he was like this, his shoulder would be up high and it would be blocking the light that's hitting here. So in other words, to counteract that, we'll just make this light go up a lot higher than we normally would, so we're not getting those weird shadows on his arms and on his face. So hopefully that'll work, and if not, we'll just tweak it a little bit. We have our front light pretty straight on right now but it's a little bit off to the right. The power is at seven out of 10 on each of these right now. That's gonna put out a lot more light, so it's gonna be harder light on the back. This is still a pretty hard source, but it's a soft-hard source 'cause it's got a little bit of a matte finish to it. He's gonna be coming at me and it's gonna feel a little bit more like he's actually coming at us because of this wide angle. So let's see what we can get from that. I'm gonna come down again. I've already talked to him a little bit about directing sort of at me and sort of exploding towards the camera. So I'm gonna lay back on the ground here. My settings are a little changed, they're at 1/2000 of a second at 3.2 aperture and 50 ISO. Okay, lets see here. So remember, don't be afraid to come too close to me and I want you to actually... Yeah, yeah, there you go. Actually, let's try go to your right side, actually. So same thing, just go to your right, and really step into it. Yeah, there you go. Pull that back just a little bit. Take a half step back, because when you jump in... Where is his sweet spot at? Right here So right about there. So that's where I want you to end at. So I want you to come from your position into it and remember, don't necessarily look a me, look just beyond me, because if I was defending you, what would you be looking like if I had my hand up in your face like this? Would you be staring me down or would you be looking to go off to another direction? First am gonna set you up-- Yeah. --and put you where I want you to go. Then I'm off, looking at the basket. Okay, good, yeah. So do something like that. I wanna see that sort of same game time intensity. So yeah, you can look at me, but then look where you're going, or look where you're passing, or look where you're off to in the next part. Great, yeah that's perfect. A lot of times I like to talk my subject to find out more information. If I'm not a basketball player, if I don't play football, I wanna know from an expert, I wanna know if this is right. I wanna know if this is an authentic move, because it's gonna make the picture better. So him telling me this information is just helping the photo. We're really a team when it comes to this. A lot of people think it's either like, oh, it's the talent or it's the photographer, but really, you're working together to create the same outcome of a great photo. So getting back down, we're gonna do the same thing. You're gonna go to the right. I'm gonna come a little bit this way. Cheat a little bit over to your left first and then, yeah, really explode over this way. Let me see where you're gonna end up. Yeah. And kinda fade a little bit more, hesitate when you come over to this area. Don't come back so quick. I wanna be, yeah. There you go. There you go. Let's go again, good. Really pull it towards me, yeah. Ah man, I wish I could fire faster. Can we feather the light up off the ground a little bit too? I can't be high speed and-- Too fast? Fast. I know, he can't, yeah. So the trade-off for a high-speed sync is that you can't shoot very quickly. You have to shoot... Mostly right now we're shooting at full power, right? We're at full power or are we at eight? Full power, so we're at 10 out of 10. So the recycling time is a lot slower but we're trading that for a darker sky and also we could freeze him a little bit more with the higher shutter speed of a 1/2000 of a second. So the two ways of freezing a person in action is either using the flash duration which will work at a lower power which gives you a higher flash duration or by freezing with a higher shutter speed, which is what we chose to do for this. Okay, so that was exactly right, that last thing you were just doing was perfect. Let me see one more. Start a little more into to your left. And yeah, pause two seconds in between each one so it recycles. That was perfect. Move this light just a little bit more, probably almost where that... Yep, right where that beauty box is. You wanna come see it real fast? Yeah. So right now this is what we have. Ah man, that's nice. So you can even come into me more. I really like your head, where it's directed. It's going opposite where the ball is. [Basketball Player] I can feel it, like I'm attacking. Yeah. So we're basically working on this shot right now. Action shots take a little longer sometimes because again, is all about authentic movement. So it's really to focus him, we have the hoop in the background. We don't really need to have him shooting at the hoop, 'cause you get the idea. It's not a direct representation of it, but the hoop is there, he plays basketball. So right now that's all we're doing. We have one edge light, just to kind of separate him, and then we have one light as his main light. So just a two-light setup. Well cool, that's great, yeah, let's try another one. I love the intensity on the face, even more. Again, over sell it, really go for it and really, if you do too much, I'll pull you back. Okay. So really feel like you're in a game-time situation. I know it's hard to seem like that in the middle of up here and nobody's here but, but just think about what you'd be doing in that game. And I felt that in that last shot, but even but even push harder. So I'm gonna get back down to my position. I'm still at the same exact shutter of 1/2000 and 3.2 aperture with a 50 ISO. So one second and yeah, there we go, okay. Get down a little bit more. And go! Kinda push more forward with the ball. Yeah, fade out and don't come back in so quick. Yeah, one more. Check this really fast. Oh, that was out. Cool, lets see that. And let's do one more. Watch that left hand, it's coming close. Try to keep it where... So if you're coming over here, where would that left hand be? Yeah, that's good Right there? Well you don't have to keep it there, but you pulled it close to the ball, really close that last time, so it kind of came over really far to your right. So you want it away, or? I would say away. You don't need to pull it so far out but just away from the middle part, so yeah. Step down to here. Yeah, like that. Okay, and one more. Cool, one more. One second. Gosh, this thing is not firing. Don't go so low this time. Yeah, I like that, bring it up. Yeah, perfect, but scoot a half step over that way because you're making big moves now. So go ahead. One more. Bring it out even more. One more of those. Good, let me see that. Cool.

Ratings and Reviews

awynterphotos
 

Loved all the ideas and why he's positioned his athletes the way he did, and positioned the lighting. I met Dustin a few years ago at and NPAC conference. It's nice to see him doing these teaching videos. His work is very inspiring to me.

a Creativelive Student
 

Less talk and all action.. This is the best no mumbo jumbo talks and straight to practical work..

Alexandra Schaede
 

I really enjoyed the multiple exposure video, the pity is that they are no videos to talk about the post processing of this image.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES