Pickleball…in a studio…with a 14-24 mm f/2.8 wide lens – what could go wrong! The NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S isn’t the lens you generally think of for portraiture, but it was also kind of cool. How do I go wide, and photograph a person, and not go off the deep end with angles and lines? How do I treat the human form decently in this wide, wide world I’d be shooting in?
My mandate was to capture something different using the 14-24 – not landscapes or scenics. Logical to reach for this lens for landscapes, right?
Well this time – it was going to be portraits. We assembled terrific talent on the set and he started hitting that little plastic pickleball everywhere. Andrew Ash was our multi-talented player/flyer, who careened with purpose right at the camera with relentless energy. And the technology! In all that wideness, the Nikon Z 9 AF with the eye detect worked flawlessly. Nailed the eyes virtually every frame.
There were some questions on the lighting over on Instagram. It was all Profoto, and not complex. Two sources, over and under, with soft fabric grids governing the flow of light from two 1×4 softboxes. the main light was a Pro 11, which is a monster of a light. All flash came from camera left, trying to angle the camera so there wouldn’t be multiple strobe hits in the voluminous yards of glass in the windows. We were largely successful at that, and the reflections that existed were expertly managed in post via the editing gifts of MD Welch.
(Side note: When growing up in the business, and learning lighting, pre Photoshop, avoiding hits in the glass was an important skill to acquire. Save one photog, the formidable Harry Benson. Harry was wily and ferocious on assignment, with a keen sense of human nature and how to get subjects into all manner of positions, compromising and otherwise. He would get behind the camera and blast away, in a searing search for a photo that had teeth and meant something. He was after a moment and didn’t care about the blaring umbrella in the far window. The result was many strobe hits in the windows, to the degree that if you were guilty of this lighting faux pas, it was referred to as “pulling a Benson.”)
As always, kudos to the production perfection by none other than our studio manager and executive producer Lynn DelMastro! Grateful for the wonderful glam crew of Samantha Brown and Cassie Bledsoe, and a super photo team – Andrew Tomasino and Charles Sammann.
This was not only a fun assignment, it pushed me to think of this lens, which I have carried in my bag religiously for many years, in a different way. It altered some patterns in my head, the kind of patterns all photogs fall into over time. Changed the compass a bit, made me think. That’s the beauty of jobs like this. You take the lessons forward.
More tk…..
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Hi Joe, great shoot as always! Is there a reason for 2 softboxes in this case vs one?
Love it! To jumping outside the box . . .!
Thanks for the inspiration Joe. It’s easy to fall into the trap of shooting the world the same way. This idea of shooting with a lens you might not normally grab is a wonderful way to challenge yourself technically and creatively.
‘Pulling a Benson’…… I hadn’t heard that one before. I know Harry well and have been a great admirer of his work all my career. His Beatles pillow fight picture (taken with flash but no reflections there!) is one of my all-time favourite pictures – it’s just about perfect in every way. Harry, as you say is definitely ‘wily and ferocious on assignment’ and I have heard stories from retired colleagues about how he would beat them to getting ‘the picture’ and getting it back to the office first. Apart from his amazing body of work I always associate Harry with his ubiquitous bright green silk handkerchief flowing from his jacket pocket. He always was, and still is, a bit of a Dandy and long may that continue. Better be bright green than beige!
Stunning and inspiring
Harry and I were always respectful but occasionally combative colleagues. Not that I could hold a candle to his inspiring tenacity in the field and determination to get “the” photo. Witness his archive and the huge number of pictures that became the definitive image of a celebrity. A standard bearer and history maker. And there was indeed the hankerchief! The French I believe call it a foulard. He was always impeccable. All Best, John
Hi Ravi…yes. I have pitched down from a high position. The other is low and pitched up, almost like a beauty fill.
Thank you Randy!
It is. I was grateful for the assignment. Any job that makes us take a turn in our thinking is a good one to get!