budget lighting, media days, and dramatic sports portraits
3 lights - Amaran 200x top down with a soft box and egg crate, and 2 Nanlite 4’ Pavotubes for accents with some atmosphere aerosol.
That Media Day/sports portrait photo above is probably my favorite I’ve ever taken. I’m not saying it’s a Pulitzer Prize worthy photo…but I love it. And it was technically done on a budget, with a minimal set, and as an afterthought.
Which, brings me to the old cliche “less is more.” Sometimes it categorically is not, but in terms of photography, specifically sports portraits and media days, I believe it can be sometimes. Now to be clear, I would love to have 6 strobes and an assistant and lasers and all the other bells and whistles you see for the big budget media days. I’d love to photograph pro sports teams, but you got to start somewhere small. So for me, that was typically in youth and high school sports. And when you’re doing those shoots, with over 20 kids asking if they can do a million different poses with a million different combinations of their friend groups….you have to be able to move quick and not have your gear be a hindrance in your workflow.
2 Lights - Nanlite FC500b and 1 Nanlite 4’ Pavotube
The way I frame my media days is to have 1 station with continuous video lights to get tighter portraits focusing on the eyes, facial features, etc. Plus, at this station I can shoot video clips (which the teams love!). Then, I’ll have another station in the middle of the gym/studio with my strobes, the Westcott FJ400 and FJ200 (both with soft boxes). But for my most recent media day, I wanted to see what I could achieve without strobes. All things considered I had under $1000 in lighting equipment. I’ve outlined my equipment below:
Nanlite FC500b with Rapid 90 Parabolic Softbox: $399 + $129
Two 4’ Nanlite Pavotubes: Currently $359 (I paid near $500 originally…damn!)
Various C stands and a Savage backdrop.
I guess the elephant in the room, when people talk about “low budget” is all the other stuff. Yes…I shot these photos on a Sony A7RV with a 24-70 G Master II lens and a Sony Tough Card. So when I say on a budget, I’m strictly talking about lighting! The reason I think this is important is because if you own a decent camera, maybe shoot sports action/game stuff, and want to get into Media Days, the aforementioned lighting setup costs under $1000. Can you do more, get more creative, freeze action and keep noise levels lower with strobes? For sure. But the barrier to entry is lower with powerful, high wattage lights.
Simple, top down lighting, with 1 key light.
Again, just to reiterate, I own and use strobes. I do the fun shots with the light trails and action freezes and all the other stuff the kids like. But, the purpose of this media day was to shoot this on that budget, with 1 key light and 2 accents…all continuous lights, and keep the lighting style/configurations as simple as possible. Focus on the eyes, the athlete, the gaze, the actual portrait. No need for lasers or to spray water around or any of that. Top down lighting was my go to, a little bit of split lighting, and some silhouettes for fun. And you know what…the athletes loved them all. They were thrilled, and that’s all that matters! Okay maybe I threw in some haze (below).
Dramatic baseball silhouette always a hit with the athletes!
So, my goal with this shoot - which I go into a bit more detail in the video below was to show that you can achieve great results with less, with a smaller budget, and without all the best gear. Simple lighting on a budget, simple poses, simple sports portraits, and a creative media day. Check out my video below, complete with BTS and some more lighting breakdowns. Enjoy!
Low budget lighting tips, techniques, gear, and breakdown for dramatic sports portraits and media day photography and videography.
