With the college basketball season nearing an end, I figured I would post the campaign we photographed this year for my alma matre ASU. To say life has been a bit hectic is an understatement of monumental proportions. In the last six months I have added a complication to my photoshoots in that I don’t sleep anymore, for my newborn doesn’t let me. However, as is this industry, the show must go on…
The ASU campaign this year was a celebration of color and light with the infusion of gold abound to tie in with the schools core branding. Most of the images were shot on location at the ASU basketball arena, but certain aspects were brought in during post production to intensify the action. With this shoot, like any other, the planning and light setup was crucial to immersing the audience in the moment.
On the technical front we also made things a bit more complex as we planned to combine two camera platforms for the photos, the Hasselblad X1D-50c and the Hasselblad H6D-100c. While this doesn’t seem that hard, the difference in resolutions between the two systems would have to be balanced in order to keep image uniformity. To do this we would plan aspects of full view and partial view where details like lights and arena that were captured on the X1D would be brought in to compliment the larger canvas H6D-100c images.
As is the case with all photography, the presentation of the piece is the presentation of its light, and by soft, angular light we could show the athletes form. From there we would let the rear lights integrate in the place of the arena’s lighting for more drama. We let the images determine the overall placement of there the key and fills were, but the contras ratio remained the same over the entire body of work.
