Photographing Baseball Players

[RBennett]

Ok, I know that we have a thread devoted to baseball shots but I did not want to hijack that thread. (Thought that would be disrespectful.) A coworker of mine came up to me today and said her husband got drafted into coaching their 11 y/o's baseball team this year and there was a photographer who showed up the other day giving a quote on photo packages for the team. Now my coworker said that the cheapest package he offered was $30 (not bad in my opinion) but she said it just went up from there. She then asked me if I would want to take some team shots for them. My response:

I don't know if they are just wanting a couple shots of the entire team together, and then a couple shots of each kid, or what. But here's my question: in just trying to get a good posed team shot, what is the best lighting situation. I know it will be outside so do I try to take a shot during the day with the sun behind me, above me, in front of me, or at night? I'm thinking to stay away from the "in front of me" because then I might catch a flare or exposure will be off. If I try and do it with the sun above me, will that play havoc with shadows? And then if I try to shoot with it behind me is that going to cause all of the kids to squint? HELP!!

 

[JoeDif]

Open shade with fill flash is an option. This way you get even light and the fill opens up any shadows.

I took some group shots at Easter in afternoon overhead direct sun because everyone was in a hurry and honestly they looked so bad I deleted them.

 

[MICKEY88]

Ok, I know that we have a thread devoted to baseball shots but I did not want to hijack that thread. (Thought that would be disrespectful.) A coworker of mine came up to me today and said her husband got drafted into coaching their 11 y/o's baseball team this year and there was a photographer who showed up the other day giving a quote on photo packages for the team. Now my coworker said that the cheapest package he offered was $30 (not bad in my opinion) but she said it just went up from there. She then asked me if I would want to take some team shots for them. My response:

I don't know if they are just wanting a couple shots of the entire team together, and then a couple shots of each kid, or what. But here's my question: in just trying to get a good posed team shot, what is the best lighting situation. I know it will be outside so do I try to take a shot during the day with the sun behind me, above me, in front of me, or at night? I'm thinking to stay away from the "in front of me" because then I might catch a flare or exposure will be off. If I try and do it with the sun above me, will that play havoc with shadows? And then if I try to shoot with it behind me is that going to cause all of the kids to squint? HELP!!

sun is evil...
LOL
overhead the peaks of hats will put eyes in shadow, behind you makes them squint as you stated, and in front of you can cause flare or backlit situation which as you stated can mess with exposure

 

[RBennett]

So unless I shoot inside or a shaded area, I'm outta luck? (Or night.)

 

[Geoff_M]

So unless I shoot inside or a shaded area, I'm outta luck? (Or night.)

No, your other option would be to use a decent flash set to -1 stop auto-fill. Line the kids up from 9 to 3 on the clock dial, but yourself at 6 o'clock and ideally have the sun at about "4:30" and not too high in the sky. But open shade would be better.

 

[MICKEY88]

So unless I shoot inside or a shaded area, I'm outta luck? (Or night.)

sure line em up at night, and use the headlights from a few 4x4s or a full moon...LOL

 

[photo_chick]

Tell mother nature you need a nice lightly overcast day for the shoot so it's like one giant softbox. LOL

Seriously, I did out football team a couple years ago. The professional company they had hired was anything but so I was asked. I'd never done sports before but after seeing what the franchise our league was bringing in I felt pretty confident I could do slightly better.

The sun is a bear. Go for the late afternoon time slot if you can, those last couple hours as it sets but you still have good light. That's what we did and though it took 3 days to get all the boys, it was worth it.

Take shots during practice and games.... most of the parents on our team wanted us to use those action shots for their trading cards. I think Mpix has a trading card template, but I'm not sure. We got lucky with ours because hubbie used to work as a designer for a sports card company.