Surfing in winter

gus

Got to the beach with some friends at 5.30am at a nice rock outcrop that would get me out beside the lads. To our dismay there was a surf comp on so we we trundled off to a break down the beach somewhat..only got about an hour in before it closed out on us.

It also ment shooting straight into the sun.

Looking toward chile



Bit flat at 1st..was he thinking about just how many noah's arks are circling below him ? They are all there... whalers...great whites..tigers...hammer heads etc etc




Starts to come up




Nothing i could do to remove the 'hot spots' in this shot...i havnt over saturated it.













Old woman island in the background...can you see her face on the right ?




Not a lot i could do shooting into the light...

DoctorIt

you made the best of a non-ideal shooting situation

this one is fantastic!

wxwax

I wouldn't complain about the light, I'd use it! And you did, I reckon. Cool silhouettes, and the light coming thru the water is really interesting to look at. I'd go back and shoot some more under those conditions. Great stuff, Gus.

ian408

Gus,

Maybe not what you had in mind but these are great shots--well if the surf
were up a bit--but regardless, the lighting gives you such a different look
that I think it'd be worth going again.

Ian

Dee

Humungus wrote:

Not a lot i could do shooting into the light...

These are great. Different, and I like them! And I like them all for different reasons. With those hot spots, just create a second layer and pick up the color and paint over the hot spots and try mulitply or color burn or color to see if that gets rid of them.

gus

DoctorIt wrote:

you made the best of a non-ideal shooting situation

this one is fantastic!

Tks doc..its about the only one i like doc...thats it though isnt it ? Shoot 150 & like 1.

gus

wxwax wrote:

I wouldn't complain about the light, I'd use it! And you did, I reckon. Cool silhouettes, and the light coming thru the water is really interesting to look at. I'd go back and shoot some more under those conditions. Great stuff, Gus.

Ta mate, im actually going again next week-end. Will try a diff spot where i can get side on.

gus

ian408 wrote:

Gus,

Maybe not what you had in mind but these are great shots--well if the surf
were up a bit--but regardless, the lighting gives you such a different look
that I think it'd be worth going again.

Ian

Thanks ian. I was having a lot of trouble getting the 400 f/5.6 to 'lock on' in the poor light. I have to read more about focusing...had the 20D on IA servo...its that correct for this ?

gus

Dee wrote:

These are great. Different, and I like them! And I like them all for different reasons. With those hot spots, just create a second layer and pick up the color and paint over the hot spots and try mulitply or color burn or color to see if that gets rid of them.

Thanks dee. David has kindly ordered a PS book for me so i can learn to do just that. Im missing a lot from my shots not knowing how to use CS to my advantage.

Gus

ian408

Humungus wrote:

I have to read more about focusing...had the 20D on IA servo...its that correct for this ?

What you don't want is the lens to continually hunt. Maybe try setting the
camera to focus using the back button (www.siphoto.com for settings).
This way you can get focus right and then either leave it alone or adjust
accordingly. But the back button does allow you to stop using AI once
you're focused allowing you to continue using 1/2 shutter for AE lock.

Using the back button ("*") does take getting used to.

Ian

gus

ian408 wrote:

What you don't want is the lens to continually hunt. Maybe try setting the
camera to focus using the back button (www.siphoto.com for settings).
This way you can get focus right and then either leave it alone or adjust
accordingly. But the back button does allow you to stop using AI once
you're focused allowing you to continue using 1/2 shutter for AE lock.

Using the back button ("*") does take getting used to.

Ian

Thanks ian...i will investigate those buttons. I only realized 3/4 the way through shooting that i didnt have ANY red focus dots in the view finder at all. Fiddled with it & all seemed to work ok from there.

Anson

Gus... oooh!
ooooh-La-laaa !
I love 3..... Alot!:oogle

# 9 is pretty darn nifty
..followed by #8

...for my money

regards,

A

ian408

Humungus wrote:

Thanks ian...i will investigate those buttons. I only realized 3/4 the way through shooting that i didnt have ANY red focus dots in the view finder at all. Fiddled with it & all seemed to work ok from there.

You're welcome!

Looking forward to next week's batch.

Ian

gus

Anson wrote:

ooooh-La-laaa !
I love 3..... Alot!:oogle

# 9 is pretty darn nifty
..followed by #8

...for my money

regards,

A

Thanks anson...3 was my fav also.

gus

ian408 wrote:

You're welcome!

Looking forward to next week's batch.

Ian

Maybe next week-end i can get to the rocks beside them so im at 90 degrees to the action. Most of the blokes are a bit older & ride mals so these isnt anything happening too fast.

rutt

These are beautiful. I've also been shooting surfing pictures with the sun in the background. That "golden" look happens when the there is a large difference in correnct white balance between sky and water. I haven't exactly figured out why. Does anybody actually understand it? It's cool, but I don't think it's what I really see. I got a bunch of them and then went out and looked very carefully. Still, it makes dramatic shots.

Here is an example. It was darn hazy as well as being backlit. This is the out-of-camera jpeg:



After post (color balance, crop, sharpen, curves to darken silhouette):



I'm convinced the reworked shot is more close to what my eye was actually seeing there on the beach in the hazy late afternoon, but really there is not truth about this. I loved the golden shot when I first saw it, but somehow it isn't what I ended up with.

gus

Thanks rutt. My biggest problem is learning to do layers & getting rid of 'blown out' areas. David has sent me a book on CS2 & i hope i understand it as i miss so much not being able to use CS2 correctly.

I actually like your original shot...

rutt

Humungus wrote:

Thanks rutt. My biggest problem is learning to do layers & getting rid of 'blown out' areas. David has sent me a book on CS2 & i hope i understand it as i miss so much not being able to use CS2 correctly.

I actually like your original shot...

Yes, I like it, too. But I don't understand where the colors come from. I don't think it's really how it looked, but rather some artifice of AWB in the 20D.

rutt

Humungus wrote:

Thanks rutt. My biggest problem is learning to do layers & getting rid of 'blown out' areas. David has sent me a book on CS2 & i hope i understand it as i miss so much not being able to use CS2 correctly.

Hey, 'Gus, I wrote something about this. Did you read this:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9805

If there is any detail left in the blown areas, this is just about as easy as it gets.

gus

rutt wrote:

Hey, 'Gus, I wrote something about this. Did you read this:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9805

If there is any detail left in the blown areas, this is just about as easy as it gets.

1. Adjust exposures and shadow in ACR so that neither end of the histogram is clipped.
2. Convert the raw into 16 bit mode
3. Apply shadow/highlight with low shadow amount and large highlight amount
4. Restore contrast with curves

Its still over my head rutt...ARC ? ...I dont know how to convert to RAW...I dont know how to apply shadow highlight....I dont know how to restore with curves.

Thanks for trying.

Its just not my bag. Its like me explaining split phase motor rewinding to someone whom has never done it...the very essense is missed. I can do it blindfolded.

I have to get a book & sit with CS open & do it by numbers in my own time.

Khaos

Those are some fantastic shots!thumbYou used the light really well.

bfjr

Stunning work gus
those golden colors are super
got get my butt back to shoot some surfin soon, this gives my inspiration

gus

Tks kaos & ben. I can feel summer juuuust creeping in now. Then the cyclones will bring the big stuff in.

dragon300zx

Great shots gus. Light there sucked but you made the best of it. Hmmm winters where you can surf and no snow. Dude thats not winter it's a long fall/early spring.

gus

dragon300zx wrote:

Great shots gus. Light there sucked but you made the best of it. Hmmm winters where you can surf and no snow. Dude thats not winter it's a long fall/early spring.

Hmmm...winter where you cant surf How bad is that ? I'll have you know that it was only about 60f that morning. I actually got of the sand & onto a bit of wood cause my feet were too cold.

dragon300zx

Only 60F. Wuss. You need to get some of these michigan below 0 winters. Or better yet some alaskan winters. 60F cold bah, thats sun bathin weather where I'm from.

David_S85

Holy Cow, Gus
Them's are just super shots. Light is your friend. Strange light like that is your best friend. Wow!

gus

Tks david. If i get 1 in 200 that i like (as i did with this lot) then its only 200 000 shots till i get 1000 in an album to sell.

Steve Cavigliano

Outstanding Gus The light looks bad, but you really did make the best of it. Some of those shots are just awesome (wallhangers fer sure ) The golds and greens are accentuated so much more than in a "good light" shot. I really like it



Steve

gus

Thanks steve...i have some terrible fights with focusing that 400mm f/5.6 in the dark i'll give you the drum.

Steve Cavigliano

Humungus wrote:

Thanks steve...i have some terrible fights with focusing that 400mm f/5.6 in the dark i'll give you the drum.

....It could be worse. You could be trying to focus the Bigma under those conditions It's not exactly lightning fast in the best of light (though, not bad). But with poor light it does lots of hunting

I don't care if you had to take 200 shots to get these. IMO, it was well worth the time and trouble I wasn't blowin' smoke up your skirt about some of them deserving space on your wall And yes I'm jealous :lol

Steve