Props

• A Little League baseball
• Monofilament fishing line
• A small finish nail

The Sports Portrait

For this lesson we made arrangements with a local Little League team in our area. They were more than happy to let us join in one of the scheduled practice sessions. All we asked was if we could have the players wear their uniforms for this practice and if we could pull a player away from the practice for a few minutes at a time. Once the word got around everybody wanted in to the act, and several of the mom's showed up as well.

Choosing the Proper Time of Day

One of the keys to making good photos like this is to choose a time of day when the sun in not high in the sky. A lower angle is much better for several reasons. First, lighting from the side is more pleasing, and offers a better look to the subjects. Second, when the sun is high and your subjects are wearing hats you get little or no light on the faces of the subjects. And last, you will find it much easer to use reflectors when the angle of light is coming in at a lower angle.

Choosing the Right Background

Once we arrived to the afternoon practice we made an assessment of the grounds and the field, noting were the sun was and the track it would take during our shoot. We also looked at the field for the backdrop we wanted to see behind our players. This is very important in that we wanted to show the field and give the shots the feeling of being in a "baseball" environment, but keep it simple. A "busy" background will compete with our subject and detract from the final image. So we chose a spot on the infield with centerfield in the background, we could see the score board and just a few of the banners on the outfield fence.

Once we had our spot and set up the camera, we called over our first volunteer to be shot. Without any light modification devices in place we took a meter reading of the available light on the field. The meter read 1/125 @ f8 1/2, we set the camera to the manual setting and then set the exposure we got from the meter to the camera and made an exposure (Figure 1).

In this shot we can see the problems, as we mentioned above. The hat causes shadows on the face and, in the position it's in, covers the player's eyes so we can't see them, and we weren't happy with our crop for this shot (Figure 1).

The exposure we set seems good in the rest of the shot so we repositioned the hat on the player, re-cropped our frame made another exposure at the same settings (Figure 2).

In this result shot, we now have a better look at the eyes of the subject, but we still see very little light on the face, and we still were not happy with the crop of the shot.

Using Reflected Sunlight

The next step is to add some light to the face of our player. To do this we will bounce some of the sun light back into the subject. We set up a Photoflex LitePanel Kit and attached the white silver fabric cover with the white side out. We set this reflector kit to the left side of the subject and adjusted the panel to reflect the sun back into the subject (Figures 3 - 5).

For instructions on how to setup a Photoflex LitePanel Kit, click HERE.

Now that we have our fill light in place we re-framed our subject by backing the camera away and raising it up just a bit. There is no need to adjust the camera setting because we are basing the exposure on the sun not on the fill we have added.

We checked our setting and shot the next exposure (Figure 6).

Now we have what we were looking for. We have light and detail in the face and the eyes and we have the classic baseball pose that you might see on any pro's trading card or ball park program.

With the set-up we wanted now in place, we can shoot the rest of the players in just a few minutes, the following are a few of the shots we got of the team during the practice (Figures 7 - 10).

The Action Shot

Capturing action can be one of the toughest challenges any photographer can face. To take the mystery out of it and yes, to cheat just a little bit, we created a prop to take the guess work out of this challenge. For around 5 bucks we went to the local sporting good store and bought a Little League baseball and some monofilament fishing line. Back at the studio we hammered a small finish nail in to the ball, then tied the fishing line to the nail and our prop was set for the shoot (Figures 11 - 13).

The monofilament fishing line is perfect for suspending objects in a shot. Simply tie the line to the nail and it will be almost impossible to spot in the actual picture.

While the team continued to practice, we moved our set up to a new location. For this shot we wanted to capture a batter taking a swing as the ball crossed the plate. With our "prop" baseball attached to the fishing line, we tied the other end of the line to a Photoflex LiteDisc Holder and LiteStand so we could suspend the ball in just the position we wanted for the swing. Once we had a props set we grabbed a volunteer from the practice field and set him up in the batters box with a bat. Again for the first shot we took a meter reading without any light modification and set the camera to the proper exposure, 1/125 @ f 8 ½ and made a exposure (Figure 14).

This result shot shows a few problems, the background is too busy, we can't see the bat against the fence. This camera angle is not the best either, we can't see the batters face.

For the next shot we moved the camera to a new position and re-set our prop ball to match. The new camera position will give a better view of the player and a much better background. We brought in a LitePanel Kit for our bounced fill light. This reflector will be set in a low position to bounce light into the front of the batter (Figures 15 & 16).

With the all the elements set, we took a meter reading to check our exposure, no changes were needed. Our batter took a mock swing so we could set him into the best position and made an exposure (Figure 17).

Here we see a much better shot, the action of the ball and bat are easy to see with the new background and subject position. The reflected fill from the LitePanel Kit adds the light to the batter that looks very natural.

Now that we have our lighting set we lined up the rest of our players and shot each one in just a few more minutes. The only adjustments we made were to place the ball in the proper position for each batter (Figure 18).

While the light was still good and we still had our players, we asked them what action shot they wanted to try, sliding in to base was the winner of the vote. Because of the position of the light at second base we set up a scene of a "pick off" play with the base runner diving back into second and the ball coming into the second baseman's glove from the catcher.

With the action happening close to the ground, we lowered the camera to get a good angle. Then we set the LitePanel Kit to the left to bounce light into the second baseman and the back of the runner. Once we had the players in position we set the prop ball into the proper spot to simulate the action (Figure 19).

This result shot is close to what we had envisioned, the lighting is good and the position of the runner is what we wanted to see (Figure 20).

To add more drama and action we moved in closer to the subjects by zooming the lens out to fill the frame and we repositioned the second baseman so we could see him better. Once we were happy with these adjustments we made another exposure (Figure 21).

You make the call, safe or out!

In the space of less than two hours we made a bunch of great shots, and had a lot of fun doing it. All the kids had fun as well and are very eager to see the results we made. By doing a little planning the shot came off with out a hitch.

Use Your Photo in a Baseball Card

We went even further with these shots and created baseball cards for the boys to give to family and friends (figure 26).

Make sure to check out the Web Photo School lesson entitled "Creating a Baseball Card using Photoshop Elements" in which we will show you how we made the cards using Photoshop Elements, an affordable photo editing software (currently about $99).