Tennis Concepts

[lonetango]

After shooting action shots of tennis players for about a year, I decided to try something different by staging shots, which are not natural and a bit more role-played and abstract; if that makes any sense. Here's my first attempt and this shot was inspired by one of my idols, Pete Sampras, which made the dunk smash famous. This is my first post so I hope I'm doing this right by posting it on Flickr with the link here:

The dunk smash, made famous by Pete Sampras | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I had to do a bit of post processing by burning the bottom area and cropping it wide to hide the trampoline we used for him to make the jump. I used a 1Ds Mark II with a 16-35mm wide angle and had a friend hold a Quantum T5D-R to get some fill light on his face.

[Jim Bryant]

Nice.......however, get the ball in the frame. Much Better photo.

[lonetango]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Nice.......however, get the ball in the frame. Much Better photo.

Thanks for the tip, Jim. And I agree, I wish I could have. I had one friend hold the flash for me while I was on the ground shooting upwards. I tried to get him to toss the ball up to include it in the shot but it was extremely difficult to synchronize as well. One of these days I'll make it work!

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Originally Posted by lonetango

Thanks for the tip, Jim. And I agree, I wish I could have. I had one friend hold the flash for me while I was on the ground shooting upwards. I tried to get him to toss the ball up to include it in the shot but it was extremely difficult to synchronize as well. One of these days I'll make it work!

Since a tennis ball is round I think it would probably be a piece of cake to photoshop one in wherever you want it

[lonetango]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

Since a tennis ball is round I think it would probably be a piece of cake to photoshop one in wherever you want it

You're right, I can always Photoshop the ball in. But this composition pretty much leaves no room for that as the ball would have to be placed above his current position. Definitely something I need to consider next time.