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"Portrait Session with Frankie Herr"Workshop at the Ranch Hi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch.
The strength of a sports photographer is in their ability to
freeze the action and capture an athlete making the key moment
during competition. This tends to come easy for those who cover
sporting events on a regular basis. But on many occasions the
sports photographer is called upon to do an athletes portrait
and although it might not be our strongest photographic talent
I want to encourage those who call the courts, fields and stadiums
of America their office to be ready when the phone rings and
you are asked to do a portrait. More often than not making a
good solid portrait will lead to bigger assignments inside the
organization and team. When a photographer turns down the job
of taking a portrait the PR person will go to someone else ..........
and usually never return to you. I'll admit it, portraits are
not my strong point but I like to do them and improve each time
I go out the door to do one. Practice and be ready to do this
basic job of photography.
This was a really fun evening of photography
and getting to know Sprint Car driver Frankie Herr. Many thanks
to Frankie for being willing and patient with the portrait process.
The night before race day is loaded with last minute things
to do and I appreciate Frankie opening up his schedule to accommodate
me. And a huge thanks to Bill Anderson for inviting me out for
the weekend of racing. Bill made all the arrangements with Frankie
Herr and both speedways. His hospitality and generosity was
fantastic. Thank you Bill.
Past Workshop at the Ranch Issues
May, 2010
April, 2010
March, 2010
February, 2009
December, 2009
November, 2009
October, 2009
September, 2009
August, 2009
July, 2009
June, 2009
May, 2009
April, 2009
March, 2009
February, 2009
January, 2009
November, 2008
October, 2008
September, 2008
August, 2008
July, 2008 |
Image
#1 The First Set Up ...
Here is an image of the first lighting set up. Once I
have the general set up I try not to make too many adjustments
while shooting. Too much running around, moving lights,
taking exposure readings, etc. is an easy way to loose
your subjects faith in your abilities. This general set
up of a single strobe with Soft Box for my main light
and a single strobe with reflector for my separation light
served as the set up for images 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Once
this arrangement was in place I could move around, position
Frankie and take pictures. We have moved one of the race
cars from the garage onto the driveway. The sun has set
and so I set my exposure for the twilight sky which would
leave my subject in dark silhouette. The use of lighting
reveals my subject from the silhouette. The Elinchrom
Rangers RX Speed AS is a portable battery power pack and
strobe head system that offers 1100 Watt Seconds of power.
The "A" Lite Head or sport strobe as I call
it has a very fast flash duration of up to 1/5120. I wanted
to really blue the twilight sky so I used a cooler WB
of 4000K and then added some warmth to my strobes by placing
one of Frankie's orange tinted face shields over the front
of each strobe head to counter color the blue WB ... (I
had forgotten my warming gels but made due with the orange
face shields.) Nikon D200, ISO200, 1/250 at f10, Nikon
12-24mm Lens, Zigview Eye Piece, WB 4000K, Power settings
for the Rangers: Main Light 5.3 power, Separation Light
5.3 power, Lexar 8G Flash Card. Now we are ready to make
pictures ............
Image
#2 Man and Machine ...
I start simple with a very straight forward image. I
placed the camera on the garage floor and used a Zigview
(electronic eye piece that attaches to the eye piece
of my camera) to see through the view finder and compose
the scene. The low angle creates the bigger than life
aspect of the subject and is often used with sports
and athletes. The deep blue sky helps give depth to
the image. Nikon D200, ISO200, 1/250 at f10, Nikon 12-24mm
Lens, Zigview, Rangers: Main Light 5.3 power, Separation
Light 5.3 power, Lexar 8G Flash Card. 
Image
#3 Man and Machine 2 ... After making some images from a
low angle I like to go eye level with my subject. I changed
form a horizontal format to a vertical format. All the camera
and lighting set up is the same, remember I don't want to
be adjusting lights too often and loose the connection between
myself and my subject. I tend to make conversation with
my subjects during the shoot. It helps keep them engaged
in the portrait process and helps me get to know them. It's
fun to chat. I also like to encourage the subject and let
them know they are doing a good job and that the pictures
are looking great. I will show them images on the LED screen
on the camera quite often. Same camera, lens and lighting
settings as the previous images. 
Image
#4 Frankie Herr the Legend
... From eye level I then changed the perspective again
and positioned myself slightly above Frankie and took a
few pictures with a Nikon 12-24mm Lens. Then I changed lenses
and used a Lensbabie to focus in on Frankie's left eye and
let the "tilt shift look" produced by the Lensbabie
to do it's thing. I like this image. With the Lensbabie
mounted to the Nikon D200 the exposed image changed and
the test image looked 2 stops over. The Lensbabie has no
aperture setting ring and so I made 3 test shots and powered
down a little at a time until I had I reduced the power
of the Rangers to about 3.0 power. I took a shot and took
a look at the LED screen each time until the exposure looked
correct. I also noticed that there was a definite color
shift with the Lensbabie and made the necessary WB correction
during the test shots. Nikon D200, ISO200, 1/250 at No Aperture,
Lensbabie with f4 ring, WB 3000K, Rangers: Main Light 3.0
power, Separation Light 3.0 power, Lexar 8G Flash Card.
Image
#5 Cockpit View ... I wanted
some pictures of Frankie in the car so I increased the
power level of the Rangers up to the original setting
of 5.3 power and set my exposure to 1/250 at f5.6 as there
was less light inside the car. I also reset the original
WB of 4000K. I took 2 or 3 angles of him sitting in the
car with his helmet off using a Nikon 17-55mm Lens. Then
Bill suggested using the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye. I had Frankie
put his helmet on, buckle in and grab the wheel. I stood
next to the car, simply pre focused on Frankie, locked
the focus and held the camera with the fisheye directly
over the cockpit, took a shot and took a look. Way Cool!,
as my daughter would say. Nikon D200, ISO200, 1/250 at
f5.6, Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye Lens, Rangers: Main Light 5.3
power, Separation Light 5.3 power, Lexar 8G Flash Card.
Notice how my separation light that is located off the
front of the race car on a small hill has now become my
main light source simply because Frankie is looking out
the front of the vehicle. I did not move my lights from
their original positions as seen in Image #1, but merely
made the aperture adjustment for a correct exposure. The
original separation light has become my main light and
illuminates Frankie's helmet and face shield while the
original main light with the soft box illuminates his
hands on the steering wheel, the instrument panel and
blue gages.
Image
#6 2nd Set Up ... I felt
Frankie deserved a break and I wanted to see a new perspective.
This short break of about 5 minutes allowed Bill and I
to move the original main light with it's soft box around
to the other side of the car and the separation light
around as well. The Rangers are now different distances
from our subject than the original set up. Therefore,
the power settings will also be different. A test shot
reveled that I needed to lower the power setting on the
main light power to 3.2 and that I also needed to lower
the power of the separation light on the hill to 3.2 power.
These settings would expose Frankie to match the garage
exposure. ISO250, 1/15 at f2.8, Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye Lens.
Rangers: Main Light with Soft Box 3.2 power, Separation
Light 3.2 power. 
Image
#7 Frankie Herr in Motion
... I wanted a "racy" look to our final portrait.
I took another test shot of the garage with it's lights
on ... (ISO200, 1/4 at f4.) This exposure would brighten
the illumination of the garage. I also needed to power down
the lights to better match the garage exposure, 2.3 power.
I explained to Frankie the concept I envisioned, that being
having him sharp and the background in a whirl of motion
that would suggest the speed of Sprint Car racing. I pre
focused my Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye Lens, positioned myself
slightly above Frankie and spun the camera clockwise 1/4
turn while taking a picture. The shutter speed of 1/4 and
my spin of the camera provided the necessary motion to the
background while the flash from the Rangers froze Frankie.
I then asked Frankie to rock 10 inches or so towards his
left while I took the next picture. This movement gave a
slight blur of motion off the right side of his head and
shoulder while the spin of the camera whirled the garage
background and the flash of course froze Frankie. Again
let me say, WAY COOL! Nikon D200, ISO250, 1/4 at f4, Nikon
10.5mm Fisheye Lens, 2 Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS battery
power packs with Sport Strobe Heads: Main Light with Chimera
Super Pro Soft Box 2.3 power and Separation Light with Sport
Reflector at 2.3 Power, Pocket Wizard Multi Max Transceivers,
Bogen Lightstands, Lexar 8G Flash Card.
