12/52 - TRI

Over the last couple of weeks, I've started to notice a lot of photos using multiple lights to create a pretty dramatic look. There is typically a light on either side of the subject, creating a strong "rim" light, then another, more subtle light, in front of them to slightly fill in the shadows.

I've looked through a lot of them and thought they were really cool looking, especially for athletes. They really make the scene look a lot more intense when combined with a background, and alone, they really make the subject pop.

This last weekend, my parents were in town and I showed my dad a lot of these photos. Being that he's a professional photographer, I thought they would be a great addition to what he provides for high school seniors and athletes.

I just picked up two more flashes off of Craig's List and was eager to try them out, so, I decided that I wanted to attempt one of these pictures myself.

The set up was pretty basic. I hung a black sheet on the wall and stood in front of it. On either side of me, about 5 feet away and slightly behind me, were bare flashes aimed at me. In front of me was another flash, but that one was shooting through an umbrella. Pretty simple set up.

I didn't expect to be posting any of the pictures from the shoot, since I was just trying out the lighting set up, but I really liked the way it came out, so I thought I'd put it up.

After I edited the photo to make it look a little more dramatic, I cropped it so that I would have a lot of extra space around me. I did that to show my dad that you could put a school's logo or team name or something like that in the extra space to personalize the picture even more.

I didn't have a school name or anything to put with mine, so I thought I'd fill it in with the different events in a triathlon, since I've done so many of those over the last several years.

(And, I just realized, after posting this, that I have the order of events backwards for the race. I'm an idiot. When I correct the photo, I'll post it again)

I thought tha the picture ended up looking like an advertisement and really liked the way it turned out.

I'll have to try it a few more times and actually get a real athlete to pose for me!



- Updated image with correct sequence of events.

- Another update. Changed lighting ratios slightly.

Let me know what you think.

T.