It’s that time again. 👀 @Darryn_P1 @KUHoops

It’s @CollSportsComm Member Appreciation Week! We have an incredible group here at KU that goes above and beyond every day! @DSBerk @Andy25eisch @ctheisenKU @olivia_micek @DSelf11 @bperel @aidendroge @lilyywiitkowski #CelebrateCSC

Thankful for the best creative/communications/social media/marketing/video SQUAD in the land! This team nailed arguably the most action-packed & impactful stretch in ⁦@KUAthletics⁩ history. Fun to honor them at legendary ⁦⁦@JohnnysTaverns⁩, a great partner.

This is a front of the jersey type of game.

I’m so pumped to say that I’ve accepted an offer to be the next manager of photography at @KUAthletics!! Thank you to @missyminear for being an amazing mentor and to @DSBerk for trusting me to lead this amazing program!! Rock Chalk!!!

This was another perk of using the grey paper because there were midtones to add color to in comparison to a blown out white. @_tkryger completely knocked it out of the park with the graphics side of things and produced something straight out of a magazine.

Postproduction wise the light grey was nice but it wasn’t popping like I had imagined it would. Taking all of the women’s outfits into consideration I decided to use the fantastic AI masking in Lightroom to add a slight blue hue to the background.

Then I used my favorite technique for soft light – bouncing. I had two lights on each side of the paper facing the white wall, bouncing light onto the subject. And then I had a basic umbrella key.

Typically, I would add a gel to a light to tint the light grey backdrop but since the team was all wearing different things, that wouldn’t have ended well.

I ended up using two of my favorite techniques for creating a soft and compelling set. For the backdrop, I decided to use a roll of light grey paper. This helps give the photos some depth while highlighting the subject.

If this was a one setup shoot the easy answer would be to go with a simple white set up. You could go with a darker color but the issue with that is you start to get the more contrasty and grittier photos I was trying to avoid.

Going into actual set design I had a list of what my parameters were: -      Soft light (4 lights max) -      Not color specific -      Not height specific -      Nothing too textured or busy (since we wanted to be able to use them for graphics in a magazine type look)

The difference between this shoot though was that I wasn’t wanting to portray the team as athletes. I couldn’t go color heavy with a backdrop or a rim light because I didn’t know what they were going to wear.

Lighting a set in a pleasing way is one of the hardest things to learn and something I have yet to master BUT throwing together a set for a sports photoshoot is something I’ve gotten pretty good at in the three years I’ve been at KU.

With the idea of the shoot laid out it was time for the hard part, what would the photos look like. As someone who is currently in the photo program at KU, I have spent countless hours in the studio, researching lighting setups, and trying new things out whenever I can.

Volleyball is one of my favorite teams to work with at KU solely because of their amazing personalities and that is exactly what the goal for this shoot was. We wanted them to be able to wear what they wanted to express themselves and show a different side of them on social media

This year for my final volleyball production day @missyminear let me take the reins for the second set. Typically we have a primary white set and then a secondary set that varies. We decided to do something a little different this year and I figured I'd walk through my process!🧵

Dillons Sunflower Showdown in one pic 📸

my version :)

3 huge wins for @KUAthletics this weekend, all captured by the legend @missyminear! A story can’t be told without powerful images and Missy always delivers! 👏👏👏