Critique Sports Portrait

[steelerdean]

While not my forte, every now and again, when the opportunity arises, I have a little dabble with portrait photography. I'm an action photographer in the main. The ice hockey team I shoot were at a local steelworks museum shooting a promo video so I went along with my camera and, using the lights already down there, had a little play. I'd welcome your views/thoughts on this one. Is there anything I got glaringly wrong from a portrait-shoot perspective? On the other hand, is there anything I did right and should continue to do in future?

DJW_9969 by Dean Woolley, on Flickr

 

[Adam_M]

My first thought was why the hell is he so orange surely the white balance isn't that far out, the reading that it was in a steelworks makes it makes sense, so I guess for me if you'd included some of the light source to explain why, that would have helped set the context, other than that good job really.

 

[steelerdean]

My first thought was why the hell is he so orange surely the white balance isn't that far out, the reading that it was in a steelworks makes it makes sense, so I guess for me if you'd included some of the light source to explain why, that would have helped set the context, other than that good job really.

Yes and apologies, I should have made that a bit clearer. The ice hockey team is the Sheffield Steelers - hence the shoot being in the steelworks. Add to that the fact that the primary colour of the club is orange and that's the reason for using the light source as much as I did. It was basically all in-keeping with the theme of the club.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

•

As fanatic Canadian and hockey player,
I swear I'm almost not biased when I say
this is the grooviest sport portrait shot ever
posted here…
AT LONG LAST, a hockey stick!.

Seriously, I think a much colder WB would
suit the shot better!… like ice blue maybe?

Cool take, Dean!

 

[steelerdean]

•

As fanatic Canadian and hockey player,
I swear I'm almost not biased when I say
this is the grooviest sport portrait shot ever
posted here…
AT LONG LAST, a hockey stick!.

Seriously, I think a much colder WB would
suit the shot better!… like ice blue maybe?

Cool take, Dean!

Haha, a fellow hockey enthusiast - there just aren't enough of us this side of the pond!

Completely understand where you're coming from on the colder WB with it being ice hockey but as I touched on above (should have made it a bit clearer in my original post), the idea of this particular picture was emphasising the links of the club to the steelworks where the name originates, along with the orange colour which is the main colour of the club.

 

[juggler]

I like it, especially the composition but my wonk alarm is going off.
Maybe the orange would work better in the context of the club's website or an article about them? The reference to the steelworks is a bit lost in a stand-alone shot.

From a pure portrait perpective, the uplighting is unusual but works in this case. It'd be nice to separate his dark side from the background a little, either with a rim light or some light on the background.

 

[steelerdean]

I like it, especially the composition but my wonk alarm is going off.
Maybe the orange would work better in the context of the club's website or an article about them? The reference to the steelworks is a bit lost in a stand-alone shot.

From a pure portrait perpective, the uplighting is unusual but works in this case. It'd be nice to separate his dark side from the background a little, either with a rim light or some light on the background.

Wonk alarm - sounds painful! :-D

Thanks for the feedback. Can see where you're coming from on the dark side - Some parts of his body do get a little lost in the background. Will bear that in mind for future.

 

[cargo]

Yes the colour works really well. I didnt read the post fully and at first glance immediately thought of a furness (steelworker) didnt even see the stick straight off (well I were looking at his face) in my defence

Cool image.

Gaz

 

[juggler]

Wonk alarm - sounds painful! :-D

Thanks for the feedback. Can see where you're coming from on the dark side - Some parts of his body do get a little lost in the background. Will bear that in mind for future.

It's interesting to see how different people see and use different scenes. This is all idle speculation after the event but given the opportunity..

I'd use a flash in a smallish modifier from fairly high up to rake down his body and bright out his abs & pecs. Then add another one for a rim light and a fairly slow shutter speed to allow the constant orange lights to illuminate the background a little. In this pose I'd expect the end of the stick to need a spot of flash too.

If I was dragging the shutter anyway then I'd probably risk a few shots experimenting with intentional camera movement, turning it on its axis.

 

[steelerdean]

Yes the colour works really well. I didnt read the post fully and at first glance immediately thought of a furness (steelworker) didnt even see the stick straight off (well I were looking at his face) in my defence

Cool image.

Gaz

Thanks Gaz - the initial impression you got is exactly what I was going for - steel worker mixed in with the hockey team. Good to know that i've hit that kind of note!

 

[steelerdean]

It's interesting to see how different people see and use different scenes. This is all idle speculation after the event but given the opportunity..

I'd use a flash in a smallish modifier from fairly high up to rake down his body and bright out his abs & pecs. Then add another one for a rim light and a fairly slow shutter speed to allow the constant orange lights to illuminate the background a little. In this pose I'd expect the end of the stick to need a spot of flash too.

If I was dragging the shutter anyway then I'd probably risk a few shots experimenting with intentional camera movement, turning it on its axis.

That's exactly why I posted the shot up - I really did want to get the views of more experienced portrait shooters to take into account in future. The shoot was a little off the cuff so not much prep involved but even so, the kind of suggestions you're making are exactly what I wanted to get from this thread so I really do appreciate it. I do like the idea of the high flash and in hindsight, I could have quite easily set up my flashgun on a trigger to do something like that. Live and learn!