Need Help With Outdoor Studio Set Up For Individual Sports Photography

[smallfrypics.com]

Can someone please give me some advise on a set-up for out door T&I pictures? I am an action photographer, but have been approached more and more to do T&I. The top dog around here uses a tent set-up with a back drop. If I remember correctly they are using 1 flash? Can anyone give me ideas on a set-up


Thanks

[MJS]

The tent is to create shade and cut down on the direct sunlight. You can always just set up under a shady tree. A single strobe on a stand helps provide just enough fill light to help bring out the color in the kids. I don't usually see any type of modifier on the strobe except maybe a sto-fen type diffuser. You should pick an F-shop that will give you sufficient depth of field to get the subject and lose the background. Have the strobe off the camera and above the sight line to keep red-eye out of the shot. I usually use aperture priority and matrix or the equivalent metering to get the right amount of fill flash. It seems to work well on my N90S. My only suggestion wouild be to try it out at home and experiment with the meter types to see what works best for your shoot. Do this in advance so that you aren't guessing on the day of the shoot. Re-shoots with little kids and parents involved can be a real pain.

[smallfrypics.com]

The tent is to create shade and cut down on the direct sunlight. You can always just set up under a shady tree. A single strobe on a stand helps provide just enough fill light to help bring out the color in the kids. I don't usually see any type of modifier on the strobe except maybe a sto-fen type diffuser. You should pick an F-shop that will give you sufficient depth of field to get the subject and lose the background. Have the strobe off the camera and above the sight line to keep red-eye out of the shot. I usually use aperture priority and matrix or the equivalent metering to get the right amount of fill flash. It seems to work well on my N90S. My only suggestion wouild be to try it out at home and experiment with the meter types to see what works best for your shoot. Do this in advance so that you aren't guessing on the day of the shoot. Re-shoots with little kids and parents involved can be a real pain.

OK......if I was to do the tent what would the ideal dimensions be? What about color of the tent? Does that matter? Basically I want to set up a portable studio for doing individual sports pictures.

[MJS]

I can't see any color, just 16 shades of gray and black and white. (At least according to a bunch of over payed eye docs). If you have a blue top, it reasons that you'll get a certain degree of blue tint. I'd suggest something on the white or translucent side. Black will work, but will soak up the sunshine and mess with your comfort level. I have a 6 x 4 foot fold out diffusion panel that hooks to a heavy lightstand and boom arm to handle softening up the light when needed. As far as the tent, you can find 10 x 10 pop up tents at K-mart and Target.

Good luck,
MJS