Soccer Photography Studio Setup Techniques

This perfectly concise video clip gives us a high-energy montage of a manufactured soccer shoot, brought to us by Norwegian photographer Jens Haugen. This guy is an expert on scene construction, among other things, and this recently released short gives us a quick teaser into what his process is like:

We’re not given much information, but we can see that one of Jens Haugen‘s secrets is the use of a medium-format camera. These are pricey machines, with image sensors measuring roughly 55x44x33mm—about four times the size of a conventional DLSR sensor. This records much more light information, creating greater detail and depth in the final image. Other than that, his setup is minimal: a white backdrop, a few lights, and some duct tape. Out of these simple tools he begins to create the manufactured image, a new kind of art which has been made possible by the digital age.

sports photography

This is an incredible and unwieldy power that we’ve been granted, this ability to manufacture reality in such a way. Haugen undertakes this with significant style, creating bold and dramatic images that set themselves apart from the everyday and into the glorified. They are created in a similar way that a painting would be, and they echo the importance of the process, rather than trying to subdue it. It’s in this way that this type of photography can advance itself and a distinct school, all its own.

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