How do sports photographers obtain such incredible images in post processing?

[christian.rudman]

i think those images have less to do with post production and more to do with the constructed shot. he puts alot of work into making his photos as gorgeous as they are. it's not a point and shoot and photoshop setup.

to me it looks like single image done with the crispness of a quality lense and plenty of toying with desaturating the images. he loves his earth tones.

but im no pro, this is just my opinion. but im pretty damn sure the majority of his quality comes before the shutter is even released, thats why he gets the big bucks.

 

[dupek]

If someone have to post process the photo, then is is something wrong with the way the person is taking the photo, unless the client request some fancy editing. Then, there is art of photography, where photos are edited to "test" of photographer (vision). The presented photos will go to art category.

 

[osirus]

volleyball one looks like its mostly done with the lighting .
1 flash to camera left creating the highlithgt on the models right arm and side,
another flash to front camera right, lighting the models back.
, and another softer light lighting her from the front filling in shadows.
they have also purposly underexposed the background to get the darker dramatic effect to the photo.
swimmer looks similar, with some raw file processng to get the desired effects

 

[djacobox372]

Good lighting, and use of photoshops "shadow/highlight" adjustment along with a lot of pixel poking and blurring.

 

[imagemaker46]

First off, Joel Grimes is not a sports photographer, he is a studio photographer that creates amazing images using athletes and a lot of post process, does he do all the post process I have no idea, chances are he has a crew of people working with him. Regardless, the photos are designed for advertising.

I would be surprised that he could shoot an entire sports event and walk away with amazing images. Sports is not setup, his images are.

 

[AnthonyRyanPhoto]

That photo has amazing PP done to it. That is a combination of both the in shot set up and the lighting. It does have an HDR type effect, however I doubt it is an HDR image.

 

[iolair]

Does the photographer have contact details on there? Why don't you just send him a message saying you admire his work and asking if he'd share with you some tips on how to achieve similar results?

Oh, and DEFINITELY portraiture and not sports photography!

 

[carldelain]

I have gotten results most similar to those with PP in Light Room.

With these settings (depends on the image for the most part)
Recovery = 100
Fill Light = 100 (this would be one of the main things you have to worry about. If there are a lot of shadows in your picture it tends to make them very noisy and pixelated. So, A nice studio set up is always ideal for these kind of shots, In my opinion)
Blacks = Between 17 and 28
Contrast = 100
Clarity = 100
Vibrance = 100
Saturation = Around -81
Then move back to your exposure and adjust to your likings.

Hope This helps!

 

[ann]

goggle Dave Hill, or Lucis Art.

 

[Village Idiot]

Joel Grimes uses a lot of light and HDR techniques.

For the most part, everyday is different. I am still focused on the the sports series. One of my goals is to get more HDR backdrops to drop my subjects into. For some reason it seems to take more effort to get the backdrops than it does the subjects.

His site:
Joel Grimes - Sports One, Sports Two, Music, Portrait, Beauty/Fashion One, Beauty/Fashion Two, Polaroid Type 55/Portrait, Everyday Life, Desert Life

 

[gsgary]

First off, Joel Grimes is not a sports photographer, he is a studio photographer that creates amazing images using athletes and a lot of post process, does he do all the post process I have no idea, chances are he has a crew of people working with him. Regardless, the photos are designed for advertising.

I would be surprised that he could shoot an entire sports event and walk away with amazing images. Sports is not setup, his images are.

Joel Grimes does all of his editing, i will dig out an article on him from about 3 months ago in Photo Pro (uk) most of the look is done with his trade mark cross lighting

 

[gsgary]

What lights do you think he uses, they are cheap ?

 

[gsgary]

He uses 3 lights, 2 back lights with same size modifier and keeping them the same distance from the subject and set at the same power, the other light is overhead and is always dead centre over the top of the camera he says the overhead is critical so he can drop the subject into another background the volley ball player was probably not shot on the beach

 

[Village Idiot]

What lights do you think he uses, they are cheap ?

In an interview, he said he uses White Lightnings. The quote after that was, "light is light."

 

[Village Idiot]

He uses 3 lights, 2 back lights with same size modifier and keeping them the same distance from the subject and set at the same power, the other light is overhead and is always dead centre over the top of the camera he says the overhead is critical so he can drop the subject into another background the volley ball player was probably not shot on the beach

I don't think he uses the same setup all the time. Some of the shots are obviously different.