I was assigned a sports feature this past week about a local tennis player Michael Schaeffer that took online courses for high school to follow his tennis dreams. More about how the portrait was made after the jump…

The story was slated for just the sports section, but after getting the images back to the editor and finding out that sports was black and white, the above image was moved up and ran on the front page. As you can see there are a couple layers of things happening in the photo, so I thought I’d take a moment and give a behind the scenes look at the portrait shoot. I met Michael at his home and though he has a tennis court, the rain nixed any thought of an outdoor shoot. We decided to shoot in his room where numerous tennis trophies were on display. Below is quick sketch of the lighting scheme…

For the background I put a green gel on a flash and pointed it along the back wall. For the key light I used a homemade grid spot to isolate the light just on the face. This was working out, but something was missing for me, so I grabbed a tennis racket and put it between the camera and Michael to add the shadow-like grid across the image. Pre-focused on the eyes and away we went…

Here I have two slightly different portraits of Michael that could run as secondary art now with the piece or later as a file photos if he wins big at Oregon. Again, below is a quick lighting sketch for the left portrait, using three lights this time. The face key light made using a homemade snoot to isolate light to the face and chest. A flash with a green gel and snoot for the back ground and a bare flash set behind and left of Michael to create a separation of rim light. For the portrait at right, I turned off the third flash being used for the rim light.

A little peek behind the lens and some info links to boot… Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. Good luck at U of O, Michael!