Looking up

Since things aren't looking up for the New England Patriots this year as they were eliminated from post-season play by the Jets this week, I figured it a good time to grab a shot of the jerseys in action before they were retired until next season. I quickly realized why this type of "white seamless" (although this isn't "seamless paper" back there but an old bedsheet) photos are typically shot in a studio with a lot of space, both between the subjects and the white background as well as above the subjects (i.e. high ceilings). Without that extra space, the light blasting the background to make it pure white bounces all around the room and actually lights up the subjects up in the process. Rather than worry about having too little contrast on them because of this "spilled" light combining with the soft light I wanted to light them with, I just used the bouncing light as "fill light" to fill in the shadows of a brighter, more focused (by using a grid spot) key light on them. Not too bad for making do with what one can get...

They asked if we were going to send this picture to Tom Brady. I said sure - anybody have his address? ;-)

Strobist info: Background is a white sheet, blasted with two flashes (one right, one left) on ~1/4 power. Subjects are lit with a gridded SB-800 on 1/4 power from high, camera right. Fill light is unavoidable (in this "studio") as it is from the background lights bouncing off the sheet and then all over the room and off the low ceiling.