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Above is the latest image I shot for a series of motivational posters being used at the local high school. This one was tough because the team practices at the University but I have been unable to secure track time to set up a shot. What I ended up doing was shooting in the gym of the high school and then getting rid of the background and adding some tweaks in post.
The image was shot with a Paul Buff Einstein
in a gridded softbox in front of the runner, aimed directly at him. I used another Einstein in a giant softbox behind him to create the cross lighting that you see. I didn't use any diffusers for the shot because I wanted the bare bulb look. Using the softboxes allowed me to control the light spill enough that I could eliminate the background quite easily in post.
The strobes were triggered with Elinchrom Skyports and I used a Canon 1D Mark IV with a 50mm 1.4 lens.
The runner started right in front of the rear softbox from a sprinter's start and had room for about two steps before he had to veer to avoid the front light. I had the front light about a stop higher than the rear one due to the distance difference from each to the subject.
Post Processing: Two curve layers to darken the background and to lighten some areas of the runner. Another layer used in overlay to add some yellow to the floor. Last layer was used to add in some motion blur and then I selectively masked it out to taste.
That's it!
