Top 25 photos from 2014 High School Football season.

Man, I can't believe it is already over. I've been crazy busy the last weeks and my blog has been taken a hit on updates. I hope to update more and more and do some posts on what I've done over the past few months as well.

I really enjoyed shooting this year. I was able to actually get paid to do something I love to do. Working with the newspaper allowed me to be focused on certain aspects of the game and allowed me to grow as a photographer and dare I say journalist.

Lessons I learned.

As the weeks went on I was able to practice different techniques and work to get unique shots. One of the things I learned very quickly is that I need two bodies. It seemed to always be that the lens I needed for the shot was always the one that wasn't attached. (Murphy's law right???) However I did use this setback to challenge myself to get what I could with what I had. Learning the quarterback and coaches tendencies to position myself in the best spot possible.

I seemed to make some good friends out there as well. You usually see the same photographers out there and I felt we had a really good culture and atmosphere out there where we were always rooting for each other. I will miss that as you don't really see that for the other upcoming sports.

Another lesson I learned is the need to get as close as you can, and then get closer. I've always known this, but as I look back at my photos, I wished I had longer glass to get in closer. I had looked into rented a 300 2.8 or 400 2.8, but the price was a bit much and the timing didn't work out. But I will definitely need to do this for next year.

On to the photos...

These are not in any particular order and while some are not technically a good sports shot, I still like them. Typically for it to be a considered a good sports photo you need peak action, one or two feet off the ground, the ball, and their face. Again in the world of sports it is very hard to get these, especially under the yucky lighting conditions of a high school football field, but that is what you strive for.

MHS Senior Giovanni Smith

Great expression, low angle, what's not to love?
 

MHS Senior Colby Baca and Johnny Johnson on a tackle

I don't know why I like this photo so much. It's a good close up shot which helps blur out the background and makes it pop.

MHS Cheerleader flipping out

Often overlooked is all the other things that go on during the game. I loved the symmetry of the shot and again peak action, right in the middle of the flip.

MHS Senior Elisha Donaldson

I like the wider angle on this one. You can see more of the field and players along with it being the peak action of the catch. I do with I could see his face though.

Mountain Pointe Frank Matchinsky

I was able to cover the Awatukee Bowl and loved this catch and how they both are in the air.

Desert Vista TJ Roberts

I loved the expression on this photo.

Mountain Pointe Senior Brandyn Leonard

What I think really makes this photo is the background, filled with fans. It is very challenging to get good backgrounds.

MHS Defenders

Talk about low angle, I was laying down and they were right at the endzone. Helps clean up the background and makes them look huge!

MHS Kenny Gay with a sack

Peak action and the look on the QBs face.

MHS Aaron Owens

He was such a wiry QB. Great expression.

MHS Nikolai White

I wish I had more celebration shots, but this one really takes the cake.

MHS Kameron Jones

Is he going to get it???

MHS Senior Elisha Donaldson

Great peak action here, I just with I was lower...

MHS Senior Damien Mitchell

AZ usually brings great sunsets, one of my favorite "non action shots"

MHS Senior Elisha Donaldson

I love how he is looking back at the defenders trailing.

MHS Junior Johnny Johnson

Expression, angle, and touchdown.

MHS Junior Johnny Johnson

Both feet up in the air, face, and ball. Check mate.

MHS Junior Johnny Johnson

I like the defender trying to grab the foot and the other defenders behind him. Good lines.

MHS Senior Giovanni Smith

Interception, big air, towel waving, and the receiver's "aww no!" look"

MHS Senior Elisha Donaldson

Even though he is out of bounds, I love the angle of the leg and the head on approach.
 

MHS Senior Colby Baca

I love how stretched out he is for this interception.

MHS Senior Elisha Donaldson

Ball right in his hands. Legs up. Low angle.

MHS Senior Elisha Donaldson

Probably one of my favorite shots this season and it was from the first game...

MHS Isaac Pickett

I love the ball flying in the air and you can almost feel the hurt.

MHS Scrimmage

Fun with fisheyes and starbursts.

Football season is such a fun time. However, I am glad to have my Fridays and Saturday mornings free for the time being, at least this week, I'm sure by next week I will be wanting to get back on that grass. Next season is basketball and I am looking forward to capturing some indoor action and also have some cool stuff coming up as well that I just can speak about yet... Until next time, thanks for reading!

First football game of the Season

Well it is finally here! I love shooting football. The smell of the grill, the sound of the band, and the sight of a great hit or catch make it one of my favorite places to be on a Friday night. It felt good to be back in action. I thought I would share of my thoughts and reasons why I do what I do.

Access

One of the most asked questions I get is how do I get access? For high school it can be pretty easy. Just ask! When I first started shooting I went and talked to the Athletic Director and asked for permission, and in return I would give them all my photos to use. The schools are always looking for shots to promote their school. This usually works. You can also try to talk to either the head coach or the booster club. Most are very accommodating and as long as you stay out of the way no one cares.

You can also reach out to local newspapers. While many people say never shoot for free, I had no problem shooting for free while I practiced my skills in trade for access. You build the relationships and paid jobs will follow.

Gear

Here is my load-out for a game.

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From top left to right. Bag, 3 flashes (for impromptu portraits after the game), Batteries, Yonguo wireless triggers, Monopod, Kneepads, extra bag*, canon 70-200 2.8 IS, Tamron 28-75 2.8, 50mm 1.8, 70D with battery grip, multitool, bubble level, flashlight and pens, 8mm,  memory cards, notepad, flash gels, gaff tape, lens cloth, extra battery, rain cover, camera strap, flash bracket, tripod* with attachment to hold flash bracket, umbrella*

* stays in my car.

I usually like to bring two camera bodies for when I shoot football. I try to borrow a friend's camera body when I can. This is so I can very quickly switch from far action to very close action during the middle of the play. This game I didn't bring two so I had to position myself where I thought the action would go and hope the gamble pays off.

I use my canon 70D as my main camera. It does fairly well under the football lights regarding ISO, and shoots 7 frames per second which I love. It also has the 1.6 crop factor that gives me a longer reach with my lenses over using a full frame.

My main lens is my 70-200 2.8 IS. You need a 2.8 to shoot night sports. I rented mine every week last year until I could save up and buy it for this year. If you shoot during the day you don't need the 2.8, but if anything is at night, 2.8 is a must.

I also had a 28-75 2.8 that I switched to when I wanted environmental wide shots and when the action got near the endzone. I also carried a 8mm for fisheye shots of the band and when the football team huddled. But the lens that was on my camera 95% of the time was the 70-200.

I never use flash for sporting events. I feel it looks super weird and can distract the players. I was watching a HS game on tv last year and saw a wide receiver miss a big catch because a photographer right near him was using flash. No thanks..

I will however use flash when I am taking shots of cheerleaders or the people in the stands as the field lights don't reach them.

I also wear a pair of gel knee pads from home depot. *More on this later

Settings

For shooting High School football at night I found that shooting on manual with f2.8, 1/800 sec, and auto ISO works best for me. The camera will usually float around 3200 or 6400 ISO during the game which is totally usable. When I move to take shots of the environment or other things I'll bring the shutter speed back down. If I notice the shots are coming out a bit dark during the game I may try to drop the shutter speed down to 1/640 but that starts to introduce blur on the faster movements.

Where to be

The worst part about shooting sports is you can do everything right and still be wrong. You have to anticipate where the ball will go and what will happen. The more you shoot, you get to understand the coaches tendencies and are better able to predict what will happen.

When the offense is out I usually start 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and get a good shot of the QB. You can also get good shots of the wide receivers catching the ball as they look back. The downside to this is when they break through your now shooting their back.

When the offense gets into the redzone I will move to the back of the endzone. I'll switch off between being in the corner or if I think they will run it in I will be right in the middle. Again it's a gamble, you can only hope the stars aline.

For defense I will be again 5-10 yards behind the line of scrimmage as I can then see their faces as they come toward the quarterback.

*Protips*

I tend to shoot on the opponent's side and shoot towards the team I am shooting for. I prefer having my team in the background of the photos. Plus if it's a home game, there is more people in the stands and makes for better pictures, and there is usually a lot of people on the sidelines and being on the opposite side is a bit quieter.

Peak action- I always look for shoots that have feet off the ground, their faces showing, and the ball in the photo.

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I missed the face in this shot, but it has everything else, including the fact that it was a touchdown.

Don't be afraid to delete and only show the best photos. I took 1000 photos on Friday (which is a 2-300 more than normal, I was still getting back into the rhythm)  and only have 50 that I show, and that includes detail shots and shots of the band and cheerleaders.

Details- Don't forget the details! Cleats, helmets, pom poms.

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Shoot low! I always shoot sitting, kneeling (knee pads!), or even laying down. When you shoot up it makes the players look bigger and you can see their eyes under the helmet. Here is a shoot I took when I was laying down and was in the back of the endzone. It makes a big difference.

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Here is a video slideshow of the shots I did for Friday's game. I was overall pleased with my performance as it was the first game. I am hoping to take less shots next week and make them count.

I hope this helps and thanks for reading!

How I shot it- Gender Reveal

First, the story...

Prepare for a long post- but I wanted to share how this image was made as it was quite fun both in and out of Photoshop. My wife and I wanted to come up with a fun way of sharing the news. After hours of looking through 500px, Pinterest, and Google image search for inspiration I thought the glitter reveal could make a fun photo. So after a quick stop at Michaels for the confetti we were set. I originally wanted to shoot it outside, so when it came to the day I wanted to shoot we waited and waited till about 2 hours before sunset (the best light to shoot in) to take the shot. However, as I knew it was still super hot here in Arizona and i figured I would get a very short time period to shoot before my wife got tired, I made a last minute game-time decision to shoot in our house instead. This way I could utilize our table for both composition and easy clean up for the confetti, and most importantly AC and a comfortable area for Mrs. Lange. ;-)

Setup-

After moving all the chairs and stuff off the table I set up my speedlights, I love the 3 light setup so I set up 1 speedlight on each side of Shana ( my wife) turned to about 1/4 power. I then set up a half opened umbrella on a C-stand in front and above Shana as a Key light. I think it was on 1/2 power. I had the umbrella half opened just for space wise and so that it wouldn't be in the shot. This setup is extremely popular and people like Joel Grimes are masters of it.

Camera wise I set up to ISO 200, F4 for decent focus, and 1/125 sec to cut out all ambient light. I used my 70-200 2.8 IS lens with IS off and at 70mm on a tripod for easy masking later on.

The Shoot-

Once I had the lighting setup I brought in the model. I had her blow into her hands and shoot the confetti up in the air a bunch of times, it was a challenge to get a good shot of the confetti and Shana not looking weird when blowing the confetti in the air. Once I got the shots we liked I then had her stand to the side of the table and through the confetti up in the air over the table and i took multiple shots. It was a lot of fun making a bit of a mess! Below are screen shots of what I took.

Confetti!

Once I was comfortable with what I had I took some close up shots of the confetti. I had seen some cool shots of playing cards coming almost out of the screen and thought it would add some good dimension to the photo. Below are the shots I took. I used one of my flashes on low power up close and just experimented until I liked what I got.

Photoshop time!-

Once I got everything into lightroom I narrowed my shots down to two shots of Shana that I really liked and couldn't tell which one was better. When I really looked into it I loved the face of one and the body and confetti of the other. If only there was a program that could do what I needed... ;-)

So I brought all my files into Photoshop and started masking out the one face onto the other, I then had to clonestamp out a bit of her fingers as it just didn't fit right. After a simple crop to my favorite aspect ratio (16x9) and I had everything in place, I dodged and burned the light and dark areas to really make her "pop." There are a million different ways to achieve the D&B effect. I like using curves. I make a curves layer, either drag a mark higher or lower depend on which on I am doing, invert the mask, then paint with a brush on around 8% flow. Dodging and burning is one of the best things you can do your image to make it look amazing.

Before DB

and after.

After Dodge and Burn

Once I had Shana Completed, I moved on to the confetti, I used the Color range tool to select all the purple out of the images and it makes selections from it, added a mask and then just cleaned up the mask as it only really got me half way there with the selections. This was the most time consuming part as I had to go around and clean up each confetti piece on each layer.

After masking all the confetti. Almost there!

Next I did my first round of styling. I added a vibrance layer to really make the pinks and purples come out. Then added a vinette to draw your attention right into Shana's eyes. Next came a high pass layer, inverted, then put on vivid light. This is my preffered way to sharpen the image. I added a mask and selectively sharpened her eyes, face, and confetti pieces.

almost done!

I wasn't sure how good the extra pieces would look added in so really this could be the end image. But I went ahead and added in the some of the close up shots of the confetti. After masking out all the white, I rotated and moved the pieces into place, then used the perspective warp to give them more of a 3d look. To finish each piece off I went into the layer style and added a bevel and emboss, and inner glow.

Once I liked how each piece looked I then went into my final styling. I added another vibrance layer. Using the Camera Raw filter I added another little vignette and a pop of light on Shana's face. A curves layer to burn down the left side of the cabinets as they had a bit too much light on it and then decided to clone out the separations on the table as they were a bit distracting.

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All done!

In conclusion,

And that's it! Again most of my time went into masking out each confetti piece, I didn't need a perfect job on each as they are small, but needed to make it look good enough. Also I couldn't do any of it with out the lighting the way it was. I love using speedlights and love the challenge and creativity you can come up with when you make your own light. (Check out the Yoda and Obi Wan of speed lights here and here. I really enjoy doing projects like this and have a few more ideas that I hope come to fruition. Those of you who made it to the end of this I applaud you. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will be happy to answer them.

Thanks!