The 'Friday Night Lights' feel

[fjrabon]

IMG_9321 by franklinrabon, on Flickr

I've been trying to capture the 'feel' of high school football more in some of my shots. It occurred to me that a part of what makes high school football special, especially what I loved about the first couple of seasons of the show Friday Night Lights (before it got convoluted plot wise and was just driven by atmosphere and highly improbably comebacks), is the atmosphere of the stadiums and place. The way the slightly dim lights feel, the vastness of the black sky above the relatively small stadiums, how small the players look on the field (again, compared to NFL), etc.

That's what I was going for here. Thoughts?

 

[ronlane]

You have acheived your goal then, at least with me. Makes me miss play a little. Another part of me wants to go to a football with my camera and take some action shots. Great job.

 

[MLeeK]

OOOOOOO! I like that! I wish there were lights crossing from both sides and the entire field laid out before us, but this works!!!
Maybe even a little distortion play when shooting something like this.
Damn. I am not shooting this weekend!!! Why you gotta spark my interest when I have to wait a week and a half to play????

 

[Derrel]

My city's local news does Friday Night FLIGHTS....where they fly a helicopters over the various big games and shoot some video for highlights to be shown in the show, as well as have ground-level, experienced camera crews provide video footage from the best games in an extended segment that airs after the 11:00 news on football Fridays!!! The lights, and the stadium are indeed BIG aspects of the night football feel. My suggestion would be to shoot with as long a lens as possible, to prevent the field and stadium from shrinking down so much. A remote camera mounted a ways back would be really,really cool (and quite a bit of hassle too).

I DO LIKE this photo,somewhat...but that far-away,wide-angle look makes it less than great. But YES, the night sky, the lights and their glare--all of that stuff is part of the scene. I love that aspect of this shot! You're showing the game more as environment, more as "scene", than as "action",and that is in my opinion a VERY,very worthwhile way to think about covering football. Very worthwhile! I would LOVE to see more of this. I've actually shot a few Pac-10 football games this way for personal reasons, covering the games as "events". There is soooo much that goes on behind every football game...band stuff, Gatorade coolers, tape kits and benches, the chain crew, pre-game warmups, fans being seated, ticket takers, parking lot shenanigans, tailgating,the bottle collecting hobos, etc,etc.

 

[fjrabon]

My city's local news does Friday Night FLIGHTS....where they fly a helicopters over the various big games and shoot some video for highlights to be shown in the show, as well as have ground-level, experienced camera crews provide video footage from the best games in an extended segment that airs after the 11:00 news on football Fridays!!! The lights, and the stadium are indeed BIG aspects of the night football feel. My suggestion would be to shoot with as long a lens as possible, to prevent the field and stadium from shrinking down so much. A remote camera mounted a ways back would be really,really cool (and quite a bit of hassle too).

I DO LIKE this photo,somewhat...but that far-away,wide-angle look makes it less than great. But YES, the night sky, the lights and their glare--all of that stuff is part of the scene. I love that aspect of this shot! You're showing the game more as environment, more as "scene", than as "action",and that is in my opinion a VERY,very worthwhile way to think about covering football. Very worthwhile! I would LOVE to see more of this. I've actually shot a few Pac-10 football games this way for personal reasons, covering the games as "events". There is soooo much that goes on behind every football game...band stuff, Gatorade coolers, tape kits and benches, the chain crew, pre-game warmups, fans being seated, ticket takers, parking lot shenanigans, tailgating,the bottle collecting hobos, etc,etc.

Thanks, yeah, also bear in mind that this shot is mixed in with a lot of other tele close up action shots in the set I sent to the high school. So, it's as much there as a 'change of pace' offering as well. I've got a few others that are similar, and maybe perhaps better pulled off, but I liked this one maybe more than those because of how the lights ended up being a leading line, and it captured the kick returner on his toes, with the ball a few feet away. Now that I've sort of 'opened my eyes' to this shot, hopefully I'll pull a better one off in a future game.

 

[Designer]

I've been trying to capture the 'feel' of high school football more in some of my shots. That's what I was going for here. Thoughts?

You did it! Even though it is apparently a larger school with a larger budget than my own HS, I get the feel of it.

 

[Derrel]

I am fully confident that now that you've thought of a new approach that you will get some great stuff by using said new,exciting approach! Cool beans dude!

A famous Gary Winogrand shot of a football game at a big stadium, comes to mind. B&W, shot from the sidelines, with a Leica and 24mm W/A lens I believe....shows ALL 22 players, in ONE frame!!!

here's a link to the shot: winogrand_austin.jpg

 

[ronlane]

Derrel, is that OU-Texas in the Cotton Bowl?

 

[MLeeK]

I am fully confident that now that you've thought of a new approach that you will get some great stuff by using said new,exciting approach! Cool beans dude!

A famous Gary Winogrand shot of a football game at a big stadium, comes to mind. B&W, shot from the sidelines, with a Leica and 24mm W/A lens I believe....shows ALL 22 players, in ONE frame!!!

here's a link to the shot: winogrand_austin.jpg

It most definitely captures the feel of a game!

 

[MLeeK]

My city's local news does Friday Night FLIGHTS....where they fly a helicopters over the various big games and shoot some video for highlights to be shown in the show, as well as have ground-level, experienced camera crews provide video footage from the best games in an extended segment that airs after the 11:00 news on football Fridays!!! The lights, and the stadium are indeed BIG aspects of the night football feel. My suggestion would be to shoot with as long a lens as possible, to prevent the field and stadium from shrinking down so much. A remote camera mounted a ways back would be really,really cool (and quite a bit of hassle too).

I DO LIKE this photo,somewhat...but that far-away,wide-angle look makes it less than great. But YES, the night sky, the lights and their glare--all of that stuff is part of the scene. I love that aspect of this shot! You're showing the game more as environment, more as "scene", than as "action",and that is in my opinion a VERY,very worthwhile way to think about covering football. Very worthwhile! I would LOVE to see more of this. I've actually shot a few Pac-10 football games this way for personal reasons, covering the games as "events". There is soooo much that goes on behind every football game...band stuff, Gatorade coolers, tape kits and benches, the chain crew, pre-game warmups, fans being seated, ticket takers, parking lot shenanigans, tailgating,the bottle collecting hobos, etc,etc.

This is where my thoughts are headed more too. I have one team where for the coin toss the capitains go out, but as they approach the entire team walks arms linked. Then just short of center field the captains step forward and the rest of the team waits about 10 feet back. I've gotten them in a composite of the back side that totally sucked, but I am thinking that from the other side, just in the bleachers a bit I could get the entire field and both banks of lights, the main stands, booth... all of the elements.
Excuse the crappy composite and imagine...

PS-that's my crappy field, can't you tell? It's HORRIFIC!

 

[Derrel]

Derrel, is that OU-Texas in the Cotton Bowl?

What makes you think THAT? It's in Austin, Texas. And that's UO and Texas playing. Is this at the Cotton Bowl in Austin,Texas? Is this the Red River Shootout game? Where is Carmen San Diego? These and other questions, well, I got no answers Ron, I got nuthin'. Absolutely nuthin'!. (I BTW loooove college football!! Go Ducks!)

 

[amolitor]

Winogrand, it is worth noting, tilted the frame pretty radically (he did that a lot, and it didn't always work) which is a really powerful effect here. Also, note the blown highlights, chopped limbs, and that one guy's shoulder at the lower left

But all this stuff works together! He's got the important things in the right places, and the rest is just window dressing. It's an interesting take, and well worth looking at deeply. What's driving this image, and how are those things working together or conflicting?

 

[.SimO.]

I definitely get a "Friday Night Lights" vibe. I know alot of the images I have seen from FNL shoots are focused and razor sharp images of only the field and players and the actual lights from the stadium lights. This image captures more from what I see of the actual filming. The filming is done a lot darker overall. Every thing else is toned down dramatically. Looks decent though.

 

[imagemaker46]

I like the shot, it does have a nice feel to it.

 

[Derrel]

My impression is that fjrabon is working for a company that provides coverage of high school sports events for web and yearbook coverage,and also perhaps for per-image sale to students and families, so...focusing on the "spectacle" of high school football seems like a logical angle to allocate to at least some of his frames...maybe I am under the wrong impression, but that is the basis of my understanding of his sports event coverage...