Penguin Plunge - What's wrong?

Macushla

Hi - I went to a Penguin Plunge today. That is where people jump in freezing cold water. In this case the Hudson River. I was having some problems getting the exposure correct. As the people moved from the shore further out the photos became over exposed. I did try to put the camera in Automatic but the flash kept popping up. I panicked, forgetting about the No flash button and switched to manual. I have only the most basic grasp of what I'm doing and just tried to get the histogram to look OK.

I don't know what's exactly wrong with these but they just aren't that good. I'm at a loss as to how they would have been better. ie: captured the event better. (not to mention crisper focus) I just went to the event for a photo opportunity to see if I could photograph it well. As my daughter would say; "Epic Fail". (OK maybe not epic but it's not great)

1.


2.


3.


Aperture F/3.6
ISO 400
Shutter 1/800 (I don't know why it was so high - maybe this was part of the problem)

I think maybe I should just stop trying to shoot manual until I get better. Here are the rest of them:
http://picasaweb.google.com/yohenrys/PenguinPlunge#.

... sigh. Some days I feel discouraged. Any and all suggestions welcome.

jsqueri

After seeing #1 I had several answers to your question of "what's wrong", but after reading I see you're talking about exposure settings.

I am by no means an expert, but your exposure doesn't look that bad. Do you have software for post processing? Hope you don't mind me posting a pic in your thread, but here's that first one (my favorite!) with levels and vibrance tweaked in photoshop.



As far as capturing the event, I think you did pretty well. #3 would be especially good if you had the rest of the boat in the frame.

Macushla

jsqueri wrote:

After seeing #1 I had several answers to your question of "what's wrong", but after reading I see you're talking about exposure settings.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what is wrong with the composition or any other stuff also.

Thank you so much for taking the time to edit that photo. It does look so much better. I just got photoshop elements for mac and I'm still trying to figure it out.

I tried to edit the photo to get similar results. I started with the original image:


1.
Here's my edited version:


2.
I took a shot at the other two:


3. I recropped it to get more of the boat. That's all there is. I also took a shot at the colors


I am going to really have to work on my photoshop skills also. I think I'm afraid to go too far and I'm not going far enough.

Macushla

Now I'm going Photoshop mad.

What do you think?

TonyCooper

Macushla wrote:

Hi - I went to a Penguin Plunge today. That is where people jump in freezing cold water. In this case the Hudson River. I was having some problems getting the exposure correct. As the people moved from the shore further out the photos became over exposed. I did try to put the camera in Automatic but the flash kept popping up. I panicked, forgetting about the No flash button and switched to manual. I have only the most basic grasp of what I'm doing and just tried to get the histogram to look OK.

I don't know what's exactly wrong with these but they just aren't that good. I'm at a loss as to how they would have been better. ie: captured the event better. (not to mention crisper focus) I just went to the event for a photo opportunity to see if I could photograph it well. As my daughter would say; "Epic Fail". (OK maybe not epic but it's not great)

... sigh. Some days I feel discouraged. Any and all suggestions welcome.

The only problem that I see with your shots is that the swimmers don't look cold. The shots could have been taken
in July from the looks of the swimmers. The whole point of your series was to capture people plunging in to freezing
cold water on a cold day, but this doesn't show in the photos.

On your Picasa page you have some shots of the spectators all bundled up in warm clothing. If you could have
managed a shot of a swimmer coming out of the water and surrounded by the bundled-up spectators, you would
have established the cold conditions for the swimmers.

Isn't that the way it is, though? After the event is over, and you're home processing the photos, someone comes
along and tells you what you should have shot. Sorry about that.

jsqueri

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what is wrong with the composition or any other stuff also

I was just kidding.

When you asked what's wrong and the first thing I saw was a fat hairy guy in a captain America speedo and viking hat several things came to mind.

Macushla

TonyCooper wrote:

The only problem that I see with your shots is that the swimmers don't look cold. The shots could have been taken in July from the looks of the swimmers. The whole point of your series was to capture people plunging in to freezing cold water on a cold day, but this doesn't show in the photos.

On your Picasa page you have some shots of the spectators all bundled up in warm clothing. If you could have managed a shot of a swimmer coming out of the water and surrounded by the bundled-up spectators, you would have established the cold conditions for the swimmers.

I think that really is the problem, they didn't look cold enough. Which is crazy because it snowed 15 inches here on Friday and it was about 30 degrees. Thanks for your suggestions.

TonyCooper wrote:

Isn't that the way it is, though? After the event is over, and you're home processing the photos, someone comes along and tells you what you should have shot. Sorry about that.

I practically begged for help beforehand but i guess I put it in the wrong place.

Macushla

jsqueri wrote:

I was just kidding.

When you asked what's wrong and the first thing I saw was a fat hairy guy in a captain America speedo and viking hat several things came to mind.

rofl

Macushla

I think I also had trouble shooting this because I didn't know anyone there so I was just snapping random photos not really concentrating on any one person. I also wasn't paying attention to the background and some are just too close up. Maybe a broader perspective would work better?



I wish the diver wasn't cut off.