The kit
Every media day we shoot runs on the same gear: four Westcott FJ400 strobes and a Canon R5. Two strobes go behind the athletes as rim lights. Two go in front as the main lights. For lenses, the Canon 70-200 and 24-105 cover almost everything.
There is no light meter in the bag. The camera meter and an eye for the picture do that job.
What changes from one media day to the next is not the gear. It is where the lights go and how hard they fire, and that depends almost entirely on whether we are inside or outside.
Outdoors: beating the sun
Outside, the sun is the problem. Harsh midday light puts hard shadows across eyes and blows out skies. So we start with the ambient. We read it with the camera, bring it about a stop under what would be a perfect exposure, and then add the strobes on top. The strobes do the flattering work and the sun becomes background.
The goal outside is even, soft light, even in harsh sun. You can see that look in our Westridge flag football media day.
Indoors: starting from dark
Inside, we do the opposite. We kill nearly all of the ambient light, until the overhead gym lights are barely visible. That is on purpose. Then we build the picture from the back forward, rim lights first to cut the athletes off the dark background, then the mains.
We often add a haze machine and gel the rim lights to match the school's colors. The goal indoors is contrasty, cinematic light. See it in the Providence volleyball media day and the Sierra Canyon volleyball media day.
Book your media day
See how our high school media day works for your school, or browse more athlete work on the sports portraits page.
