# The softball photo shoot - pic heavy



## SquarePeg

As some of you may remember, I agreed to help my friend do a photo shoot for her daughter’s college softball team.  In the end, I did most of the photo shooting while my friend made a behind the scene video and kept the girls loose.  We had a lot of fun and the girls were thrilled at the “legit” photo shoot with backdrop, lights and reflectors.

They had some poses they wanted to do and I brought my iPad loaded with some cool softball poses I found on the web.  For lights we had two soft boxes, a speedlight off camera with a flash disc modifier and a wall of floor to ceiling windows with a partly sunny/partly cloudy mid day sky.  Ceiling too high for bounce flash.  We shot some of these with just the soft boxes and some with just the flash, trying to use the windows and changing light outdoors as best we could.  No time to reset lights for each shot but we made adjustments as needed.

The lighting needs work I know but I learned a lot and have a long list of do/don’t do for next time.  This experience was exhausting and challenging and I actually liked it more than I thought I would.

Here are some of my favorites:





























I put this in Just For Fun because there’s so many photos but feedback and constructive criticism are more than welcome.


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## tirediron

VERY nice; well done!  I like the simple lighting, and the creative poses are excellent.  I am officially stealing both the "bicep balance" and "glove mask" ideas for future use!  A few VERY minor nits:  There seem to be some WB differences between the images (easily corrected), and when using the a ball in sporting shots, bonus points for positioning in "upright".  Also (especially with females) watch the hair so that it doesn't mask the team branding.  You need to go back and reshoot #2 so and have someone pitch the ball so that you can catch it just before it hits the glove.

I expect they are VERY happy with these!


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## Derrel

Wow! Pretty GOOD photos. This is indeed "a legit photoshoot". I like the way these turned out.


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## SquarePeg

tirediron said:


> VERY nice; well done!  I like the simple lighting, and the creative poses are excellent.  I am officially stealing both the "bicep balance" and "glove mask" ideas for future use!  A few VERY minor nits:  There seem to be some WB differences between the images (easily corrected), and when using the a ball in sporting shots, bonus points for positioning in "upright".  Also (especially with females) watch the hair so that it doesn't mask the team branding.  You need to go back and reshoot #2 so and have someone pitch the ball so that you can catch it just before it hits the glove.
> 
> I expect they are VERY happy with these!



Thanks for your feedback and kind words.  The darker photos are a filter that I liked but I didn’t want to use it on all of them.  The glove mask idea was mine, she came up with the bicep “balance” on her own - my habit of always having duct tape in my bag saved it from being a fail.


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## SquarePeg

Derrel said:


> Wow! Pretty GOOD photos. This is indeed "a legit photoshoot". I like the way these turned out.



Thanks!  I’m happy with how it went and the girls loved the finished photos.


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## jcdeboever

Fantastic job, you should be very proud. I think they're wonderful.


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## SquarePeg

jcdeboever said:


> Fantastic job, you should be very proud. I think they're wonderful.



Thanks jc!


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## zulu42

Awesome job. Softball players are strong and tough and your images really brought it.


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## SquarePeg

zulu42 said:


> Awesome job. Softball players are strong and tough and your images really brought it.



Thank you.  We took quite a few “game face” photos which really showed off how intimidating they can look when they want to.  This is my favorite of those.


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## Light Guru

Pictures look nice, my only question is why not shoot on the ball field? That gray background just seems unfitting. Maybe a solid white background if you insist on shooting inside. 


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## SquarePeg

Light Guru said:


> Pictures look nice, my only question is why not shoot on the ball field? That gray background just seems unfitting. Maybe a solid white background if you insist on shooting inside.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Thanks for your thoughts on this.  The date of the shoot was set by the coach as the team was leaving for FL a few days after.  I would have loved to wait a few weeks for spring and shoot outside but they wanted the photos before the season started.  UNE is on the water, mid coast Maine - it was way too cold and windy to shoot outside last weekend and the field was closed due to all the rain from the nor’easter the day before.  

We may go back and shoot again on the field and on the beach when it gets warmer.


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## adamhiram

You did great!  Really nice job.


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## Light Guru

SquarePeg said:


> We may go back and shoot again on the field and on the beach when it gets warmer.



Beach? I’ve never heard of softball being played on the beach. That’s even more odd then the gray background. 


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## snowbear

Great set. Thanks for posting them.


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## SquarePeg

adamhiram said:


> You did great!  Really nice job.



Thanks!



Light Guru said:


> SquarePeg said:
> 
> 
> 
> We may go back and shoot again on the field and on the beach when it gets warmer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


You’re just a big ol ray of sunshine, aren’t you?



snowbear said:


> Great set. Thanks for posting them.



Thanks.


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## Gary A.

Well done.


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## rosh4u

You did it well. I liked them being simple and elegant.


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## SquarePeg

Gary A. said:


> Well done.



Thanks!



rosh4u said:


> You did it well. I liked them being simple and elegant.



Thank you!


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## ac12

SquarePeg said:


> Thanks for your feedback and kind words.  The darker photos are a filter that I liked but I didn’t want to use it on all of them.  The glove mask idea was mine, she came up with the bicep “balance” on her own - my habit of always having duct tape in my bag saved it from being a fail.



I REALLY like the glove mask pose.    (big thumbs up)
The neat thing is that the white glove matches her uniform.

I've kinda seen the position on the field, but it never clicked in my head to use it as a pose.   
Kudos to you for seeing it and doing it.
I'm going to put that pose into my poses library.


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## zombiesniper

Great set and as mentioned before well done with the creativity.
I'm sure the girls are thrilled with the end product.


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## SquarePeg

ac12 said:


> SquarePeg said:
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for your feedback and kind words.  The darker photos are a filter that I liked but I didn’t want to use it on all of them.  The glove mask idea was mine, she came up with the bicep “balance” on her own - my habit of always having duct tape in my bag saved it from being a fail.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I REALLY like the glove mask pose.    (big thumbs up)
> The neat thing is that the white glove matches her uniform.
> 
> I've kinda seen the position on the field, but it never clicked in my head to use it as a pose.
> Kudos to you for seeing it and doing it.
> I'm going to put that pose into my poses library.
Click to expand...


Thanks AC.  The white glove was a nice bit of luck and since the season hasn't really started it was pretty new looking.  We tried a variation of this pose with the first baseman but her glove was huge and it just looked funny:







zombiesniper said:


> Great set and as mentioned before well done with the creativity.
> I'm sure the girls are thrilled with the end product.



Thanks!  Your feedback is much appreciated.


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## ac12

BTW, considering how concerned you were when you first posted about this gig, and the many posts on that thread,
. . . it looks like you did just fine.

That the girls like the photos is the main thing.

So you get a big 'thumbs up'


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## SquarePeg

ac12 said:


> BTW, considering how concerned you were when you first posted about this gig, and the many posts on that thread,
> . . . it looks like you did just fine.
> 
> That the girls like the photos is the main thing.
> 
> So you get a big 'thumbs up'



Yes having never done anything with speedlights/ocf  before I wasn't sure how things would go.  I got some excellent advice here and on the Fuji forums and I spent a couple of nights viewing tutorials on youtube and various other sites.  

A big thank you to everyone who offered advice and suggestions!


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## terri

Considering that this was your first attempt at such an involved photo shoot, I'd say you killed it!   I love your bicep ball shot on a couple of different levels - great from a sport perspective,  and great from a show-of-strength-from-a-young-woman kind of perspective. 

Love the glove mask shot as well.  All of them are very well done, and the girls are happy.   Great job!


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## Cody'sCaptures

Really nice! Very creative poses. Not sure if it's just me but, in #4&5 the uniform looks slightly off in color from the rest.


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## SquarePeg

Cody'sCaptures said:


> Really nice! Very creative poses. Not sure if it's just me but, in #4&5 the uniform looks slightly off in color from the rest.


Thanks for the feedback, it’s much appreciated!  Re the uniform colors - some of these have a filter preset added to them but not all.  I wanted the girls to be have some of both styles.


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## Fujidave

Just having a look through the forum, and these photos really do stand out beautifully.  IMO all are very well taken, with great eye contact and totally love the attitude the players are giving off.


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## SquarePeg

Fujidave said:


> Just having a look through the forum, and these photos really do stand out beautifully.  IMO all are very well taken, with great eye contact and totally love the attitude the players are giving off.



Thanks for the nice comments.  I’m very happy with the way they turned out. The girls have been posting them all over Instagram and Facebook so I know they like them.  I even got an offer to shoot some headshots for a real estate firm and another for a senior photo shoot from people who saw the softball photos.  I don’t think I’m ready for the senior shoot yet but I may do the realtor thing for the experience since the company belongs to a friend and she is well aware that I am not a professional.


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## Braineack

no critique on the lighting, but the color of the BG is changing a lot between some of the shots.  (not including the ones youve added the blue hue to)


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## neeraj1960m

Leh


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