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Action Sport Photography with Red Bull Photographer Corey Rich

Lesson 41 of 50

Lighting with Strobes: Indoor BMX Park


Action Sport Photography with Red Bull Photographer Corey Rich

Lesson 41 of 50

Lighting with Strobes: Indoor BMX Park


Lesson Info

Lighting with Strobes: Indoor BMX Park

Okay, Corey, I think when you're ready, we are sticker-free. So I'm pre-focusing on the wall, I'm at infinity, so the difference between the one foot, or the two feet that his head's gonna be away from the wall, doesn't matter. So now I'm finished using auto-focus, I'm locked-off, my focus position is correct, the stickers are gone. I'll just do a couple more carves. Perfect, that sounds great. Cool, that actually seemed to be just within the frame. That was great, Corey. Okay, it looks like he's gonna hit it again. Since I'm staying low, I can just jump from the concrete parts or the black parts. So this is looking good, you're staying totally within that realm. And is that, that's the spot. I mean, where is the peak action? It's either gonna be level, like I said earlier. When you're completely horizontal. Right, so when you're carving up the wall, if you're doing something, whether it's a trick or tucking, you wanna get the moment right there, the center moment of that...

tuck. Okay, good. So that's important, right? What Corey just explained, is that, from an endemic perspective, if I'm shooting this, not for the New York Times, but I'm shooting it for the BMX World or for Red Bull, this is what an athlete wants to see. This is what that audience wants to see. And it's really important to point out that what the endemic audience wants to see might be different than what National Geographic, or Time Magazine, or the New York Times will put on the cover of their paper or of their magazine, and so you're always trying to walk that line between what does the endemic audience want, what does the mainstream audience want, what makes a great photograph, what do the athletes think is great? But this is a Red Bull shoot, which fits into that endemic world, and so we're trying to make sure that we get him right there, and not at an odd moment. And so that was borderline, Corey, that was almost too high, like you crossed in-- What I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna try and do just a little chiller. So I'll jump up into the black, that way, tweaking it, the peak is right there. Awesome. I probably went too far. So let's do one more where I can just see that, like what the move will be, then I think, let's start adding strobes. Perfect. So I'm 1/1000th of a second, f/4, 4000 ISO on a Nikon D5, 200 to 400 millimeter lens. Cool, yup, that looked good. And Brett, can we check focus? Lemme just make sure that. And it looks like we lost a little bit of ambient light there. Oh yeah, that's sweet. That's kind of, essentially what I'm going for. All right, so, I think guys, from a light perspective, what we're gonna try to do is let's start simple. My philosophy always with lighting is let's not try to add three lights at once, or two lights at once, let's start simple. So right now, Jeff, my take is, let's actually just use strobe on the right. We're using Profoto Packs, and we have, what, is that the zoom reflector or the magnum on the right? That's the magnum with the ten-degree grid. Okay, so we're using a magnum with a ten-degree grid, this is allowing us to really channel all of the light, there's a silver reflector inside, and then the grid allows us to actually direct that light, so we're shaping the light. Now the goal is, and I'm glad that we just looked at a number of the natural light photographs. It's pretty boring. It's a pretty boring photograph. But we figured out the moment, that's the key. Corey explained to us what are we trying to accomplish, and so now we get to add the artistry of painting with light. Now we get to decide how do we make this a more compelling photograph. And I think it's safe to say that in the action-adventure sports world, the bar has been raised pretty high, when you can add light. In the Red Bull content pool, the pictures, oftentimes, that jump out at you, are the images that are the unexpected. And adding light is oftentimes what makes a picture a little more surprising, a little more dynamic. And so let's do a test frame. We obviously set up, we started moving the lights in position during the break, because we didn't. We're not dialed completely, so we can still work a little bit. Oops, and I just fired twice. So where are you at? I'm 1000, f/4, 4000 ISO. And are we definitely seeing? You're seeing, this is all daylight. So we wanna bring our ambient down. Okay, so we're gonna go to 2000 ISO. What were we on our ISO? I'm gonna go 2000 ISO, you want me to stay at 1000 ISO? 250 shutter, too, right? So these guys obviously spent a little time, during the break, figuring this out. And then you're at 5.6, yeah. Great, let's see what that looks like. There we go, so now we start shaping the light. So you just saw an ambient light exposure, which was 4000 ISO, 1/1000th of a second, f/4, so now we're bringing our ambient down, and we're exposing for our strobe. So, there we go, there's the difference. So that's why I'm using the magnum and grid is I wanna keep our pool of light fairly tight, so we can make a more dramatic-- And if my editors from Red Bull were channeling their messaging over my shoulder, they're gonna like this picture, because part of our highlighted area happens to be the Red Bull branding, and that's actually positive. So I'm gonna do two things, I still, actually let's, for the sake of education, I'm not gonna try to refine this frame. There's a few things about this I don't like, which is, I'm not even level, but I'm not gonna tweak that right now, and I'm not a huge fan of that highlight from the sun, in the lower-right side of the frame, but we're gonna live with it right now because this more about shooting, learning, going through the process, than actually making it perfect. So, let's actually put Corey in the frame and see what this looks like. Yeah, that's what I like to do. Okay Corey, when you're ready. We'll do a test on the strobes. Do the strobes now? Yup, let's do it. I just went to five, yup. Yup, let's do it. So now guys, I only get, I think I'm one frame. Yeah, you're one frame. Looks good. Okay so, compositionally. Yeah, compositionally. Corey, what's your take there, from a athlete perspective on this moment? Position and timing is great, depends on the look and mood you're going for. In my opinion it could be a little dramatic, but it's cool. I dig it. Can we zoom in, Jeff? I just wanna make sure I am actually sharp. There we go, razor sharp. Oh yeah. It's always hard when you're looking at this in low resolution. So that's good, now that I've confirmed we're sharp, I don't have to mess with focus. That focus plane is not changing. So one thing, this, just as a photographer, I like that I'm seeing the Red Bull on your helmet, but the flip side is I kinda wanna see some face. And I don't know if there's anything that we can do that allows us to see more of your face in that situation. Nothing from the back angle, back shot like this. Okay, so, which leads to, maybe the natural progression will be, let's shoot a few frames from here, but maybe I need to go in wider, so that I'm getting sort of underneath you. It might actually give me the opportunity to see more face in this shot, which will be valuable. So, body position, I like it. From a lighting perspective, it feels like maybe we could open up slightly, so it's a little less dramatic. Let me actually just make one adjustment. Is this a ten-grid? That's a ten-grid. That's what we got for the magnum. So I'd probably move to a zoom and see if we can, or I can switch over to the seven-inch reflector and go with a tighter-- One other thing that I wouldn't mind doing, could you bring this even lower? Almost put this on the seam of the concrete versus black? Because then we'll get a little more of this shadow carrying into the black, which might be a nice. What do you mean, lower in height? I can bring the light down, or we can switch to a different stand, I can go handheld, I've got a C-stand over there. The shadow cast on the wall-- Yeah, so I think if Corey does the move here, right on this, the concrete-wood seam, we'll get more of the shadow across the black. Let's see what that looks like. Yeah, I'll slow it down. Yeah, if you literally transplanted it right to the edge. I'll try it. We won't make any light adjustment, we'll just see what that looks like. Yeah. Cool, thanks. And again, a lot of this is just experimenting. It's figuring out what's working, what's not working. Okay, and yep, let's do it. That still felt pretty high. Yeah, no, that's okay. And it felt a little high. Good? Yup. I think from the perspective of, it could still come even lower. Oh gosh, it might be difficult because the way the transition is, I have to go to the top of the gray part to get that pop that I need. Got it, got it. Let's do this, let's see. Why don't we actually move in, because I am feeling like this is a great representation of what we can do from this distance. Let's actually move in and I'll switch to a wider lens, and let's just see what it looks like from that perspective.

Class Description



Join us for this live class, and you will learn:




  1. Class Introduction
  2. What Makes A Great Action Photo
  3. Conceptualize the Shoot
  4. Research Location / Wardrobe / Props for Action Shoot
  5. Safety Tips for Action Photographers
  6. What Gear Do I Need? Packing and Prep
  7. Workflow and Asset Management
  8. Ingesting and Organizing Files
  9. Editing Down Your Selects
  10. Post Processing Overview
  11. Working with Clients to Select Finals
  12. Retouching & Post Processing: Image 1
  13. Retouching & Post Processing: Image 2
  14. Retouching & Post Processing: Image 3
  15. Final Client Delivery
  16. Introduction to Snow Athletes
  17. Setting up the Shot: Using Natural Light
  18. Getting that First Action Shot: Snow Park
  19. Scouting Location for Action Shot: Snow Park
  20. Capturing Variation of Snow Park Action Shot
  21. Refining the Snow Park Action Shot
  22. Action Shot with Strobes Overview
  23. Shoot: Action Shot with Strobes
  24. How to Light Using Strobes
  25. Action Shoot: Snow Park with Strobes
  26. Refining the Snow Park Action Shoot: Using Strobes
  27. Capturing Variation with Snow Park Athletes
  28. Capturing Portraits: Snowboarder
  29. Capturing Portrait: Skier
  30. Shoot: Feature Jump Action Shot Afternoon Natural Light
  31. Introduction to Today's Shoot
  32. Building a Rapport with the Athlete: BMX Rider
  34. Getting the First Action Shot: BMX
  35. Conceptualizing the Action Shot: BMX
  36. Prepping Gear & Refining the Action Shot: BMX
  37. Action Shoot: BMX Athlete with Natural Light
  38. Setting up Remote Cameras
  39. Capturing BMX Action Shots: Remote Cameras
  40. Conceptualizing the Shot: Using Strobes in Indoor BMX Park
  41. Lighting with Strobes: Indoor BMX Park
  42. Action Shoot: BMX Athlete with Strobes
  43. Capturing Variations of BMX Athlete
  44. Shoot High Angle Action Shot: BMX Rider
  45. Directing an Athlete Portrait: Indoors
  46. Lighting a Portrait: Indoor BMX Athlete
  47. Portrait Demo: Indoors BMX Athlete
  48. Portrait Demo: Adding Atmosphere
  49. Transmitting Live from the Field
  50. Panel Q&A


a Creativelive Student


Zoe Heimdal

I really enjoyed this class! I am not an "action sports photographer" -- just an avid photo enthusiast, and I found this class highly informative/interesting. Corey has a very down-to-earth quality in the way he presents information... a regular guy, who knows a ton, and is sharing his wisdom. Clearly many topics/tips were off-the-cuff as he ran into situations during his shoots -- it just felt very "real" -- like I was there with him, getting a private lesson. There was quite a bit of info dealing with camera cards/photos/apps that was ubiquitous to any photographer. And then it was interesting to hear about his travel bags and what he brings to shoots (a ridiculous amount of gear, but everything with a purpose). There are hours of on-site filming for an outdoor ski and an indoor bmx shot... with Cory trying/failing/succeeding in many attempts at things -- just like a real photo shoot would happen. His advice for capturing a good/workable shot from the get-go and then spending the time on the riskier/more-creative shots, was solid -- as far as keeping your clients happy no matter what. I was genuinely surprised at how interesting/useful I found this class (being that I rarely take action shots) -- and I'd encourage any photo enthusiast, or person in the earlier stages of any professional photography career, to check out this class. My one piece of constructive criticism for Cory/CreativeLive -- try to represent women? This class only had the briefest of inclusion of females, and left me with the impression (I'm hoping incorrectly), that the world of action sports photography, is a man's world.