outdoor Baseball photos question!

[tasmo2]

Hi all! I am shooting the all stars team for my first ball set this next week. I am shooting outside in full sun. Our regular season shots *taken by someone else* were sooo not great. So I really want to nail these and hope for more business! I will be shooting with a Nikon D80. Those of you who have done team shots before, what lens do you use? I have my kit 18-55, a 55-200 and will have 50mm by then. Also, I am looking into buying an external flash before then as right now all I have is my pop up. I am thinking my back to the sun with fill? They will all be wearing caps so I don't think we will have a squinting issue even facing towards the sun. Any suggestions on lighting tips would be appreciated! THANKS!

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by tasmo2

Hi all! I am shooting the all stars team for my first ball set this next week. I am shooting outside in full sun. Our regular season shots *taken by someone else* were sooo not great. So I really want to nail these and hope for more business! I will be shooting with a Nikon D80. Those of you who have done team shots before, what lens do you use? I have my kit 18-55, a 55-200 and will have 50mm by then. Also, I am looking into buying an external flash before then as right now all I have is my pop up. I am thinking my back to the sun with fill? They will all be wearing caps so I don't think we will have a squinting issue even facing towards the sun. Any suggestions on lighting tips would be appreciated! THANKS!

them looking into the sun with ball caps on will have you battling some pretty deep shadows on their faces that even fill flash will have trouple taming. If you go the other way and shoot into the sun watch for lens flare, you can have an assistant hold a scrim to eliminate it. Any chace of finding some shade?

[tasmo2]

unfortunately they want them taken on the field, so no shade will be around. Thanks for your response! If I shoot into the sun with a lens hood on, would that resolve the issue you think?

[GadgetRick]

Going to be a difficult shot with those lighting conditions. What flash do you have? One flash probably won't be enough for the whole team.

Not sure I'd want to shoot with their faces looking into the sun. Even with caps on you'll get squinting. You're going to get shadows from the caps as well unless you can light from below.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by tasmo2

unfortunately they want them taken on the field, so no shade will be around. Thanks for your response! If I shoot into the sun with a lens hood on, would that resolve the issue you think?

The effectiveness of the lens hood will depend on the angle of the sun. The lower the more chance of flare. If the hood is not enough and you don't have someone to hold a scrim, your hand makes a pretty good gobo.

Given the constraints, i would shoot with the sun to their backs, use a flash to fill in the shadows and bracket some shots with +exposure compensation.

[tasmo2]

I will have the SB600.. and some reflectors.. I am going to talk to her tonight and tell her that the best time to get the photos will be 7:30am or 6:30pm.. maybe they will go with that. The other photographer does them from 2-5pm and they were horrible. LOL

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by tasmo2

I will have the SB600.. and some reflectors.. I am going to talk to her tonight and tell her that the best time to get the photos will be 7:30am or 6:30pm.. maybe they will go with that. The other photographer does them from 2-5pm and they were horrible. LOL

The reflectors will be a terrific help. Good luck, sounds like you'll have it all dialed in. Looking forward to the results...

[tasmo2]

Thanks so much for all the help you all gave me! I think they turned out good! I don't know that I will ever think a shoot I did went great.. LOL But I am happy with the majority of them!

Next time i will do things a little differently! For starters, the kids were supposed to be there at 10:30 so I was going to have everything ready for the early ones at 10:15, BUT they started showing up at 9:50!! I got there at 9:45, so I felt very rushed! Next time I will just tell them, you are early, so bear with me while I finish up my set up!
Also, My husband came with me and he was WONDERFUL!! He has been saying that he will be my "assistant" when i have a job, but this is the first time he has done it. It was so great! He took all the money and orders, held my reflector, posed the kids where I told him to.. It was so great! LOL!
Anyway.. I posted some of the photos in the SYS here