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Hey folks, some time ago we did a shooting in Cologne in the “KÖLN ARENA”. SledgeHockey-Shooting. SledgeHockey is a paralympic sport and we got to shoot with the German National Team for Bejing 2008. We had exactly two hours of time. For the whole shooting.

Take a look at some images and keep on reading after the images.

Ok, 7.5 on the Elinchrom Ranger means FULL POWER means 1100Ws of flashpower of each flash. Thats is pretty bright as we can tell you :-). But keep in mind that you need a lot of power to work with medium format and f16 with ISO 50 or even 25. That is a clear advantage of 35mm cameras. Depth of field is larger at smaller f-stops so you don’t need that amount of power.

… you are still reading. That means, that you are interested in the process of making those photos. But first things first. Take a look at one of the resulting photos.

As you probably have noticed, we had three flashes involved. The facts are fairly simple. In every of our lighting setups, each flash has it’s own reason to be. So the key is to identify all of the reasons of each flash to look behind the process of making the photo.

We know why we used every single Ranger, so here are those thoughts:

1. The first light was a beautydish coming from a boomstand over the border from the top of the players. This was to create the usual look of those indoor sports domes. The light has to come from the top and you have to have some highlights from above. (GREEN)
2. The second flash came from 45° from the right. A big softbox had to eliminate all of the hard shadows from the beauty dish. The big softbox is a perfect “shadowkiller” with the reflecting ice. (RED)
3. The third flash gave the whole scene the needed depth by adding highlights from behind. We used a big MAXI LIGHT REFLECTOR which is nearly 4 times as bright as normal reflectors. It narrows the flash beam to 30° and is mirrored inside. The most efficient way to highlight a big scene like this from behind.
   Important is, that you have a big distance between the scene and the flash to level the highlights between the most left and the most right player. (BLUE)

The setting is really simple when you think about the single flashes as part of the big picture.

So, and now, lets get to another topic. QUALITY!!! Yes, when you start using your photographs in sizes bigger than webpresentation or a sheet of paper, then you quickly start to realize that working properly gets you to a whole other level of customers.

Think it this way, even when you don’t make money with your photographs: Take 20 minutes more to make your setup of flashes perfect, take half an our to think about your lighting proportions of all your light sources, take 10 minutes more to work calmly to get sharper RAWs. This makes one hour of work more on location but it safes you 2 hours of work at home.

Ok, another step in quality you make with proper equipment. You all know, that we don’t propose to only relay on your lighting gear. Less is often more but there are certain facts, you cannot deny.

Here is one example to make it clear. Down below you see the result of the shooting. JPG out of RAW, only shrinked and croped. Imagine the same image taken with a two or three years old DSLR. Here you go… YOU CAN’T COMPARE IT.

This Hasselblad H3D II has a 39 megapixel digital back. Take a look at a 100% crop of the image.

You will ask yourself: “WHAT THE…, why are they showing some images of such a camera for the price of a good car?” Where is the learning factor?”

Start the saving process in your head. The L-factor comes now. The essence of this second part of the post is, that you never try to do stuff, for which you don’t have the proper gear. You have to do it the other way round. Take a look at your gear and start thinking about what you can do with your gear, what others cannot. Do not try to chase after a car like a dog. Cars are to fast. :-)

More clearly: WE DON’T SHOOT LIVE-SPORT BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE THE GEAR FOR THAT. YES WE COULD MAKE A BIG HIT AND GET A COOL PHOTO, BUT WE COULD NOT BE SURE ABOUT IT. IT IS PURE CHANCE, NOT CONTROLLED PHOTOGRAPHY.

Example for you: We do a lot of stuff with our on-camera-flashes. You get possiblities to shoot in spots and on locations where one could never shoot with tons of lighting gear. The next TECHNICAL-post will cover that topic. Great photos made with small little on-camera-flashes. It is no handicap to have smaller or cheaper gear but then you have to convert your disadvantages into your advantages. Like shooting in some crazy places where “normal expensive” gear could not get.

You got it?

Thats for now… If you want to watch a video tutorial about the whole shooting than click to www.fototv.de (GERMAN). The direct link is: www.fototv.de/hasselblad_on_ice.

EDIT:

- click to enlarge -

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