February surfers - please critique

Canon PowerShot Pro 90 IS

02/03/2006 08:44:13 AM · #1

I shot these in the last few days....... you guys have helped me in the past and I would appreciate your comments on these - I am shooting from land, above the surfers - I wait for them to catch a wave that brings them closer to me - there are more surfer photos in my portfolio as well that I would really appreciate feedback on. Thank you.

coolhar

02/03/2006 10:27:11 AM · #2

I think they are all pretty, green board my fav. I have not shot much surfing but I think I would say to try to use as fast a shutter speed as the lighting conditions will allow. People would be able to make more intelligent criticism and suggestions if you were to include exposure data with your shots when uploading.

TroyMosley

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/03/2006 10:35:03 AM · #3

I really like this one, it shows how powerful the ocean can be,

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

02/03/2006 10:48:27 AM · #4

Great shots. What lens did you use? The clarity is great for what I assume was quite a distance?....

02/03/2006 10:59:22 AM · #5

Info on shots - exp - 1/2000 - f-stop - 5.6 - ISO 400 - you are right, hard to critique without that info. Appreciate the comments, thank you

Message edited by author 2006-02-03 10:59:54.

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM for Canon

02/03/2006 11:08:38 AM · #6

Thanks Idnic - I used my canon EF 75-3000 mm - F/4.0 - 5.6 11/111 USM - I am saving every penny for a better lense - I wasn't really far away... I climbed out on a point where I could get close shots if the waves they were riding brought them my way... and the waves were good to me :)

cbonsall

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

02/03/2006 11:37:33 AM · #7

cool, where can I get myself a 3000mm lens? Isn't that about the same as hubble??? :-)

really great pics, I'd love to do some surf pics myself, live in Cornwall UK where there is loads of surf but I've yet to find somewhere I can get close enough for them to be more than a tiny figure in the picture

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

02/03/2006 11:38:03 AM · #8

This is from stdavidson who accidentally reported the post instead of posting. :)

Originally posted by stdavidson:

Nice captures... you don't say specifically where in CA you took these, but looks like it could be Venice Beach. :) I really like the captures... the way to improve them is in sharpness. Many of them seem a little soft focused to me which is typical out-of-camera with the D20. They do that on purpose! They expect you to sharpen them with software. A sharpening technique that works well is by using "layers" if your software supports it. The key to understanding sharpening is knowing that it is achieved by adding white pixels on one side and black pixels on the other side of a border in an image. That makes it sharper! Assuming you use a flavor of Photoshop for image processing this is a technique the "pros" use to improve sharpness: 1-Always apply sharpening last! 2-Duplicate your background or final post processed image data layer to start 2-Apply USM to the duplicated layer. It is OK to overdo it slightly. 3-Duplicate the sharpened layer You now have two EXACT sharpened layers at this point. The screen appears unchanged. Here is where the greatness of this technique comes into play. You remember where I said that sharpness is achieved by adding white pixels on one side of a boundary and black ones on the other? Now we'll put them into two separate layers... 4-Change the "Blending Mode" of one of one sharpened layer to "Darken" 5-Change the "Blending Mode" of one of the other sharpened layer to "Lighten" The screen appearance is still the same, but what you have accomplished is separating the black sharpening pixels and the white sharpening pixels into two different layers. Why? Because now you can apply fine tuning to what USM does. You can adjust the application of white and black pixel additions separately! That is MAJOR power! How do you apply that power? Simply adjust the opacity level of each layer. My experience is that I typically leave the "darkened" layer at 100% opacity, meaning that I apply all the sharpening of the black pixels, but that I lower the "lighten" pixel opacity to around 18-40%. For some reason that looks better. The secret is that you have better control over sharpening because you adjust the addition of white and black pixels separately.

Message edited by author 2006-02-03 11:38:36.