Last year I had the opportunity to do individual and team portraits for my daughter’s volleyball team. I arranged with the coaches to do the same thing this year.

We started with the team portrait. Fortunately I had access to the gymnasium this time, so we got the net set up for a background. I also noted that the overhead lights a combination of mercury vapor and fluorescent. Setting the camera white balance to “cool white fluorescent” gave me nice white walls on a test shot. I then added green filters to my flashes, and took a shot with flash a long exposure to be sure they balanced.

When all the team members were assembled, I arranged them in height order, pulled out the team captains, and divided the remainder into a “tall group”, a “medium group” and a “petite group”. I put the team captains in front holding balls, the medium group kneeling behind them, petite standing behind the mediums, and the tall group in the back.

I had two flashes, one on either side of the group, aimed across to the opposite side. A few test shots and I’ve got a decent team portrait.

After we finished with the team, I set up for individual portraits. One of the things I dislike now about the portraits I took last year is that with an umbrella on either side of the ladies, there was hardly any shadow left.  This year I wanted to do something a little more interesting without getting too complex for my current skill level–I really didn’t want to struggle getting the lighting right. With a couple of pops on a test subject, I knew I was approaching the look I was going for.

I had one flash camera left behind a shoot through umbrella, and the other flash camera right behind the subject. I like the picture above, but I decided to open the aperture and knock down the ambient a bit for the team. So I went from f/8 to f/4.5, ISO from 400 to 200 (so I didn’t have to adjust the flash power), and shutter from 1/30s to 1/100s. I set the shutter speed to knock down the ambient just a little bit for a little moodiness.

With the exposure set, we worked through each member of the team, spending about a minute with each on average. Anne helped with the posing when I remembered to let her, and I love this moment as she adjusted our daughter’s hair.

One of the tricks/tips/suggestions I’ve picked up in the last year was regarding “touching” models. I’ve seen multiple sources mention that a photographer should always ask permission of the subject before touching them to adjust anything for the picture, for example moving bit of hair. A couple of times as I approached a girl to adjust a small bit of hair, I remembered that advice and asked permission. My daughter, who of course loves me and knows me and trusts me, found it amusing that I was asking permission to adjust hair. My wife understood why I was asking and explained that someone (especially a young teen girl) might be a little creeped out by some guy touching them. So it was better that I ask.

All told, the shoot went incredibly smoothly, and start-to-finish, it was less than 30 minutes for the team portrait and 16 individual portraits.

I got two photography related questions from girls during the shooting. One asked if the umbrella served the same purpose as putting a piece of white paper in front of the flash like she did at home. Yup, it sure does. The second one ask how I turned a brightly lit gym a little dark. I didn’t take the time to answer as completely as I would have liked to and instead said something like “I set the camera to do that.” Bah. Horribly vague, and not really taking the question seriously. I wish I would have at least said “it’s the shutter speed that does that.”

Looking at the final result, I’ve got a few minor nits to pick with my work. First, I wish I’d tried on set up I’d though of to have the rim light directly behind the subject, hopefully lighting up the net as well. That way I could crank up the flash power, kill the ambient and make that back wall disappear. That might have been too moody for some, but I still wish I’d tried it. Second, I didn’t do a good job of watching where the net top and bottom were in relation to the girls heads and necks. I would prefer the white tape to not cross at their neck or right at the top of their heads. And last but not least, with the first couple of girls I forgot to have them do something with their left hands, namely put it on their hips.

Please leave your suggestions or other thoughts in the comments.