Hitchin women’s rugby portraits: 42 people in two hours

How the collaboration came about

Amelie originally contacted me to ask about the cost of photographing the players. She wanted a sense of pricing for headshots and possibly some group photographs before taking the proposal to the club’s committee.

I suggested approaching it as a collaboration.

The idea appealed to me: a set of more dramatic player portraits, photographed outside with professional lighting and the rugby posts in the background. Something with a clear connection to the club that they could use in their communications.

I occasionally take on community projects as collaborations, and I wanted to support this one. It gave the club new photographs and me the opportunity to create this style of sports portrait with them.

The final session focused entirely on individual portraits. We didn’t include group photographs.

Photographing players while training continued

The date and time were fixed because the shoot was taking place during a training session. We couldn’t simply start earlier to get more daylight.

I worked from one part of the pitch while training continued behind and nearby. Players needed to come over for their portraits as the session carried on.

Having help with coordination made a huge difference. Someone from the club gathered players in advance and got the next people ready, which kept everything moving smoothly.

That meant I could concentrate on the person in front of the camera instead of stopping to find whoever was next.

If you’re organising photographs for a whole club, this is one of the most useful things you can arrange: someone who knows the players and can keep them coming over at the right time.

My guide to organising a headshot day covers more of the planning behind photographing a large number of people.

How I lit the outdoor rugby portraits

I used two flash units to create the portraits.

The main light had a softbox fitted to soften the light falling on each person. I positioned a second flash behind them as a rim light, helping separate their outline from the background.

On that rear light, I used a standard reflector rather than a softbox or strip light. I was concerned about the wind catching a larger modifier and blowing the light over.

It was a practical compromise for working outside. The lighting needed to suit the look I wanted, but the setup also had to make sense on an open pitch.

The rugby posts stayed in the background, giving the portraits a sense of place. We were photographing the club’s people at their own ground, and I wanted that connection in the pictures.

Helping people relax in less than three minutes

Photographing 42 people in about two hours meant less than three minutes per person on average.

That’s not much time to build a rapport.

I had to make that connection quickly, usually by saying something to break the ice, get a smile and help the person feel less tense. There wasn’t time for a lengthy conversation before every portrait, but those first few moments still mattered.

The club’s coordination helped here too. With the next players being gathered for me, I could give my attention to whoever was being photographed.

Working quickly doesn’t remove the need to make people comfortable. If anything, it makes communication even more important.

“I was apprehensive about having headshots taken; however, Lee made the process an absolute dream. He was relaxed, friendly and helped me settle into being in front of the camera.”

Ailish, Hitchin Women’s Rugby — excerpt from her Google review

When the daylight disappeared and the pitch lights came on

The biggest complication was the changing light.

Within about an hour of shooting, the evening daylight was starting to disappear. I’d expected to have more of it, but the training schedule meant an earlier start wasn’t an option.

Then the pitch lights came on.

They introduced a green colour cast into the images, making the editing trickier as the session progressed. Although I was using flash, the surrounding light was still affecting the photographs.

The later images therefore needed more attention to colour during editing.

That’s the reality of photographing outdoors during a working training session. You have control over your own lighting, but you’re also working with the conditions and timetable in front of you.

For another evening shoot like this, I’d give more attention in advance to when the pitch lights would come on and how they would affect the setup.

The finished portraits and how the club is using them

The club received around 140 finished individual photographs within a week.

They’re now using the portraits across their social media, giving them a collection of images of the people involved in the team.

For me, that’s the useful outcome of the collaboration. The photographs are being used by the club, rather than simply sitting in a gallery.

The shoot also shows what goes into photographing a large group of people individually: the lighting, the organisation, the quick conversations and the editing afterwards. Having someone coordinate the players was every bit as important to the pace of the evening as having the camera ready.