Kelsi #2

This image is from the shoot with Kelsi, the Friendswood High School softball player that Larry, Doug, and I photographed on January 18. I used this shot for the photo club's surreal composite assignment last night. It scored pretty well -- 19 points and a silver award. I'm including the starting point below. I got a lot of inspiration for this from two young sports photographers -- Zach Ancell from Eugene, Oregon (link) and Greg Sims from Boise, Idaho (link) -- both doing some great stylized sports portrait work. Ever since we went to the McNally workshop in November, we've really wanted to do some edge lighting, so the shoot with Kelsi was a perfect opportunity for Doug, Larry and I to give this hard edged lighting style a try. We were fortunate to have a great sky that afternoon. My surreal touches were a couple of Topaz Adjust layers on Kelsi and the sky, lightning in the sky, rain, dirt on pants, eye black under the eyes, light stands, and light beams. Lighting at the scene included two SB800s flagged from either side and slightly behind her at 1/8 power pointed at Kelsi's nose and Larry's Elinchrome Quadra with a large softbox providing the front light.