Rangefinder - September 2014

BUILDING UP THE GROUP

I slowly brought people in, two to three at a time, to pose each of them. A quick lighting test was also done to see where my light is at and if I had to make any adjustments.

FINAL COMPOSITION

Once the entire group was in place, I made any final adjustments to their posing.

Then I just focused on the group and had fun shooting.

THE RIGHT LIGHT

This shot (above) honors the best student athletes that attended my alma mater, Washington High School in Fremont, California.

I used harsh, direct and
gridded light as back light
and as rim lights to cre-
ate separation between
the subjects and the dark
background. What that also
does is creates shadows
going toward the camera on
the ground, making leading
lines to the group. The harsh
light was opposite very soft
light that was lighting the
group in front. Two large
softboxes and one Octobox
was used to light the group
softly from the front.

NOTE: To create extra impact, I had assistants stand behind the group with four bottles filled with water spraying mist. I hid them as much as possible behind the group and cloned them out in post. The back light makes the mist stand out.