I knew the photo would only include seniors, but still that was going to be 25 players. Add players in pads and overall layout width was going to be a challenge, not to mention some possible crazy shadows since I also needed to make use of depth to fit everyone in. Here is a little timeline on my process and how it all came together.
Task 1 - Scene: I needed to figure out what the shot was going to be and then I would figure out how to actually do it. For me, a team poster should somehow relate to the sport. I really don’t get dressing players up like lumberjacks and shooting them in the woods just to fit some silly slogan like “chopping down the competition”. If you can’t get them in a related scene, then how about just on white, but don’t put then in front of old cars. Seriously, why do people do that?
Along with figuring out the scene, scheduling is always tricky as well and is something I have to consider along with the look of the shot. You have to find a time when they aren’t at practice and have enough of a window that you can get the session completed before they have to race back to practice. Something too elaborate would take too much time. I decided their stadium, at night, with the lights on would be perfect.
Task 2 – Yikes – Part 1: How to shoot 25 players and get enough resolution out of my Canon 40D so that you can actually tell who each player is. In the past I have shot the players all at once, but in some situations I was unhappy with the individual player detail. It’s okay if you have less than 20 players and cram them all together, but it wasn’t going to work with 25 padded football players.
Task 2 - Yikes – Part 2: How to light these guys with some moody feel and not have half of them in somebody else’s shadow?
The answer to all of Task 2 was to shoot them in small groups and composite them back together. This was going to create lots of extra work, but I was really ready for something new. Below is how I decided to position the players and what groups I would use. Only 20 players were included in my diagram because I wasn’t positive how many players I would have until we got to the shoot.
Task 3: Testing. I am a pre-shot test nut. I need to know, the best I can, if I can pull off what I am thinking before I get out there for the final session. That is until you have to deal with all of the unaccounted for things that show up during a session regardless of planning. Off to the garage, dragging every piece of equipment I have out there to take test shots. Begging friends and family members to be participants in the test shots is also key to success.
Test shots in hand, it was down to the computer to figure out how to mask, extract and composite. Consultation with other photogs friends, hours of reading and watching other resources, and even an attempted querying of a very famous expert at this style of shooting guided me into Task 4.
Task 4: Software. Lots of research led me to onOne Mask Pro and Topaz Remask. Both have 30-day trails and I thank them both for that very, very much. Using my test shots I spent several nights with each title. As expected, I didn’t reach expert status in those few nights, but I needed to keep moving forward and I selected Remask as my software of choice. It was more intuitive for me and I was getting better results. That is NOT to say anything negative about Mask Pro. Both are awesome, they just work differently.
After using Remask on my test shots and revisiting some other resources, I realized my lighting was wrong and was complicating the masking process. Back to dragging everything out to the garage again, begging the family members to play along for more test shots and off to the computer and Remask again. This time it looked like there was a glimmer of hope. Good thing as the photo session was just around the corner.
Task 5: The Shoot. After 3.2 million emails with the team representative, the session is scheduled to begin around 8:15 pm. I show up at 7:00 pm and haul stands, lights, generator, camera, and computer from my car to the middle of the field and begin setting up. My plan is 6 lights including key, fill, rim and hair lights. Between family and team parents I have a crew of 8 scheduled to help wrangle players, hold flags behind players if needed, spot for me on the tethered computer, and adjust lights if necessary. 8:15 pm arrives and all that is on the field is lots of gear and 9 adults. 8:30, 8:45, 9:00, 9:15 – cars begin to appear, but the guys had showered and no uniforms. We get that all worked out. The team thought it was one shot, in the bleachers, under the lights – be there, shoot it, be gone in 15 – silly people. After I finish shooting all the groups, the coaches for a different product and get a pano of the field, it is midnight. Below is one of the individual group shots.
Task 6: Post-Processing. Agreed that it is always best to shot it right and not have to rely on post-processing. I am a firm believer in this mantra. I knew going in though that this was going to be intensive post-processing. Briefly (unlike most of this post) here are the post-processing steps:
- Create the pano of the field for the background and adjust to desired final look
- White balance the individual group shot RAW files
- Mask in Topaz Remask – with mask layer
- Sharpen
- Noise removal
- Topaz Adjust – custom setting - for the final look I was going for
- -repeat for all groups-
- All but two players were shot so they weren’t touching and I could do some adjustments to player positioning if needed.
- Get all of the player positions worked out
- Process the two players I had to shoot in my garage because they couldn’t be at the main session
- Drop all of the players onto the background pano
- Clean up masks where some bad edges were apparent
- Add some hair back in using Nagle brushes in a few instances
- Then do the rest of the stuff on the poster – names, schedules, etc.
In the end, as the final posters are due back from the printer in a few days, it was a really fun project, I have gained some great new tools, the players were totally great and it appears that the final product is something the team is very proud of. Perfect.
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