Workshop at the Ranch – February 2003 – Sports Arena Lighting

First, let me thank all of you who e-mailed me with wonderful comments and great questions. The most asked question was easy to answer, “Where do I buy my equipment?” The answer is also easy, Roberts in Indianapolis, and in particular, from Jody Grober. To contact Jody, call 800-726-5544 or log onto www.robertsimaging.com

Last month we talked about the “slowest” form of lighting, Light Painting. This month I want to introduce you to the “fastest” form of lighting, Sport arena lighting with STROBES.

This is a vast subject and involves some equipment you might not have, but first let’s learn why we need strobes anyway. Most arenas, even great ones where the NBA and NHL play have enough available light to shoot at ISO 800 or 1600 at maybe 1/500 sec shutter speed. Sports action is difficult to freeze at 1/500 sec and high ISO’s produce grain in film and some noise in digital. We can increase our image quality and freeze the action perfectly by lighting the court or ice arena with strobes (large flash units). The strobe contains a flash tube (or tubes) that must have a “flash duration” of 1/1200 sec. or faster. It is this fast “flash duration” that freezes the action and the amount of light that allows you to shoot at a low ISO setting.

A normal flash unit sits on your camera. These strobe units are much larger and are located in the catwalk of the arena. (If there are no catwalks, there are other ways to use strobes effectively – we will discuss this later)

Strobes, catwalks, flash duration…….TOO MUCH!

Stop right there! Those of you that are leaving in fear, this is well within your grasp, so stay with me, take a breath…… Ok, let’s move on.

We will begin with one strobe. There are plenty of great pictures made with one, two, or three strobes. While four strobes located above the corners of a basketball court are the most common you can make great pictures with one or two.

There a several manufacturers of strobe units. Elinchrom, Dyna-Lite, Speedotron, and Profoto. I use the Elinchroms. A mono-unit with the strobe head (houses the flash tube) and the power pack (source of power) all encased in one unit. Light, powerful, portable, and affordable. I have the Elinchrom 1000R units and the 500 units. The number represents the watts per second of light output the unit produces. 500 = 500 watts/second. 500 to 650 watts/sec. is a great starting point. For example, two 500 watts/sec strobes with a “flash duration of 1/1200 second or faster will easily light one half of the average college basketball court.Note: Jody at Roberts has these units and accessories in ready to go packages called “Arena Lighting Corner Kits” at 800-726-5544

What I will use:

Strobe and accessories:	Elinchrom 1000R with Sport Reflector of 50°. Bogen Super Clamp, and safety cable will hold the strobe safely in place. A Pocket Wizard MAX (this is the remote trigger wireless unit that transmits a radio signal from the camera to the strobe and fires the strobe)
Camera:	Nikon D1-X
Settings:	ISO 125, shutter (sync setting) of 1/500 sec., aperture of f8 (note: the flash duration will freeze the action)
Lens:	A variety of Nikkor lenses, depending on subject matter

Now let’s make an image using one strobe

	Using one strobe located in the catwalk above the corner of the ice rink. You can see from the shadows the location of the strobe, and that from above you will create long shadows.
	Using one strobe and positioning it to shoot between two flags (hanging from the ceiling) created a shaft of light across the court.
	Using one strobe located directly above the free throw line, a dramatic effect is given to the game.

Some examples of photographs using two strobes:

	Using two strobes I cross lighted the swimming pool, thus creating a shaft of front light, and a shaft of back light, and letting the background fade to black.
	Using two strobes I can light one half of the court and let the back half fall into darkness and achieve a clean Big Arena feel in a small arena.

Using four or more strobes:

	Using four strobes located on a lower catwalk are so as to extend the shadows completely out of the picture when the athlete reaches the peak of his jump serve.
	Using six strobes, I placed four in the catwalks over the corners of the boxing ring, and two with a red gel over the front of each to enhance what became a bloody battle.
	Using four strobes clamped to railings on a lower balcony. I aimed the strobes at the white ceiling and bounced the light off the ceiling. There were no catwalks in this arena, but it is still possible to effectively light a rather large area with strobes located away from the ceiling and bounced onto the scene. The available light was ISO 1600 at 1/125 sec., f2.8, but by bouncing the light off the ceiling, I achieved ISO 400 at f4. Far better than the available light.

We have covered a lot in this session and there are many options we did not address, like using hard wire flash sync cords instead of remote triggers, grids and gels, and creative angles and lighting design. E-mail me with your questions and comments regarding this material and other issues.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Workshop at the Ranch.

Adios