The Final Dunk

This photo was created using single images of each boy including 2 images of the final two jumping boys.

The gym we were in was crowded with volleyball players, had the overhead lights on, and wasn't very pretty to look at. But I had to work with the unavoidable situation I was in.

So it came in very handy that I had an empty court shot from the new middle school gym. I did a lot of work to the court shot to create an "arena" feel. Then placed each boy into the frame.

Some of the challenges I incurred included picking the best image of each boy and fitting that image into the overall composition. Lighting was tricky as well considering the awful yellow ambient light in the gym. I used a speedlight with a beauty dish modifier to illuminate each boy. I set it to full power to override the ambient light. Unfortunately when shooting quickly like I needed to, the speedlight's power output was variable and the recycle time was too slow.

We were being rushed out of the way by volleyball players, so I got what I could as fast as I could. Luckily it seems to have worked out! :)