A Master Class in Messi Lighting

(Photo ©Gary Land)

At only 24 years old, Lionel Messi is the best soccer player in the world, period. Anyone who tells you different (save it for the comments, folks) is probably biased toward some Messi-less team.

Photographer Gary Land photographed him for an Adidas shoe campaign, using seemingly every light mod in the Profoto catalog. And as you can see in the BTS video below, pretty much every square inch of Mssr. Messi gets its own light -- with the shoes being just a little bit brighter than everything else, of course...
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The lighting is so specific that the diagram shown below is almost useless. You kinda have to picture it in 3-d to get it.

Fortunately Gary gives a great walk-thru, with special attention to how he married the composited Messi to the existing stadium lighting. Then he finishes it off with a gridded light for every muscle, article of clothing, shoe, badge, bead of sweat, etc.



For right now, I think I'll just stick to shooting soccer from the sidelines with a Nikon D3 and a 200-400. Just thinking about these 57-light setups makes my head numb.
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More videos from Gary Land, including how to get yourself fired from your day job so you can go freelance without securing your wife's blessing, here.