Not the usual team shots ...

I had some fun shooting basketball team photos last week. It's easy to fall into a trap when taking team group shots: Line 'em up in two rows and hit the shutter release. However, if the players are enthusiastic, there are many other cool images to be had. For youth teams—when it can be like herding cats to get them in order for a "formal" group shot—telling them they can do a couple of goofy shots AFTER they do the standard shot can get them to settle down. By high school, boys usually just want to do the normal serious shot, but girls are often not only receptive to goofy shots, they often suggest ideas.

The "circle" shot is a popular one. I stole the idea long ago after seeing a similar image online, and use it often when shooting girls' teams. I used a DSLR to shoot it, but it's a very doable with a point-and-shoot camera. To do it, get down on the floor on your back and have the players line up around you in a circle looking down. Make sure all of the players' heads are fully in view. The key to this shot is to make sure the players tilt their heads downward — if they don't, you'll be looking up a bunch of nostrils, which just doesn't work well. Make sure the camera focuses on the faces. I use manual focus to make sure the autofocus doesn't look through the middle of the group and lock on the ceiling. A room with a high ceiling works best — so the flash won't illuminate it — as you want a dark background. I also use a diffuser on my camera flash to soften the light, as direct flash can be harsh at close range. Some photo editing is also usually needed to even the lighting.

Doing a shot of goofy poses can also work well. This photo is one of my favorites of these. My directions were simple: Everybody do something different with a ball. The girls were great: they got creative and came up with their poses in a matter of seconds. I took four or five shots. Each was slightly different, and this was the best. Make sure you can see all the faces and that none of the basketballs is blocking someone's face or the light.

I think both of these work well (and were fun to shoot) because it lets the personalities of the players come through in the images, which — of course — is always the goal when photographing people.

A word on backgrounds for group shots: AVOID WALLS. (OK, that's two words, but it's important.) The wall itself (even if plain) will be distracting, and the resulting shadows directly behind players' heads are also distracting. Get into an open area, so that the background objects/walls will be darker (which directs attention on the people).

Tech info:

Circle: Canon XTi with Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 17mm; Canon 550EX flash with diffuser mounted on camera; f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 200.

Goofy group: Same camera/lens/settings, but at 21mm, with two tripod-mounted Canon 550EX flash units with umbrellas, one at each side.