Its always exciting and rewarding to shoot a sports portrait. Athletes are always upbeat people who are happy to get some recognition for all the long hours and hard years they put in.
Prakash is one of Ireland’s up and coming stars in a very competitive sport, he just missed the cut for the Olympics this year.
For this shoot I used a small flash unit triggered remotely and used off camera on a light-stand. We looked at a number of interior locations but none of them work. I decided to echo the green of the badminton racquet by getting up higher than the subject for a few and using the green of the cricket pitch. I used a medium sized soft-top relatively close to the the subject, and mostly without a reflector to give a strong, contrasty directional light for drama. I upped the shutter speed to cut the ambient light and exaggerated the dark clouds. This works a treat, and everybody was very happy with the results, especially and most importantly, the client.
