Behind the Scenes - Athlete Portraits

Recently I was asked to shoot a portrait of Canadian Snowboarder Cam Spalding that matched some previous portraits of athletes I had shot.

When I first started shooting these portraits I knew I was going to need to repeat the look between multiple different athletes. These portraits needed to feel similar, but didn’t need to be identical. From the get go I decided to use a very simple lighting setup as I expected the need to repeat this setup and wouldn’t always have the luxury of doing so from home.

The first few images were shot in my garage studio, but the image of Cam was the first one of the series where I needed to shoot on location where the athlete was. We shot in an underground parking garage which made it easy as there was very little ambient light to deal with and overpower.

Sandy Ward

Piers Solomon

All these images were lit with a single light. Using a soft box with a grid I was able create soft light on the athletes while limiting the light from falling on the background and allowing it to go black. With Piers and Sandy I used a gray seamless and allowed it to go to black. Since I was on location with Cam I opted to go with a collapsible black backdrop as it allowed for easy portability, but still gave the same look.

Gear:
Canon R5
Canon 24-105 f4 (~85mm)
Elinchrom ELB 400 with soft box
Black collapsible backdrop

Settings:
1/200 sec at f7.1, ISO 100