Photographing a Surfer?

[JoshD]

Im going to take some pictures of my brother surfing this Friday. I plan on bringing my zoom lens, Canon 75-300 to take the shots. I understand this isn't the greatest zoom lens in the world, but I will have to make do. Unless the waves are real close to the shore that day, than I can get away with my 18-55 EFS lens I guess.

What would a general rule of thumb be for shooting this type of action? I will be on the beach at the waters edge I suppose, hence the need for the zoom. So what would be best technique? Panning or not? Aperture? Shutter speed? I take it a faster shutter speed might be needed, to minimize blur.

Any tips?

Thanks

[retroactiv]

Fast Shutter Speed, F/stop as low as possible.

What I would do is set my aperture to the lowest possible that my lens will allow for yours prob 5.6 or 2.8. Shoot RAW, so if I messed up on white balance I could fix it in PP, if you happen to have a polarizing filter I'd slap it on also, then once I got done post the photos on the forum.

Most of all just have fun and try a bunch of stuff out.

[JoshD]

Fast Shutter Speed, F/stop as low as possible.

What I would do is set my aperture to the lowest possible that my lens will allow for yours prob 5.6 or 2.8. Shoot RAW, so if I messed up on white balance I could fix it in PP, if you happen to have a polarizing filter I'd slap it on also, then once I got done post the photos on the forum.

Most of all just have fun and try a bunch of stuff out.

Thank you Chris. I do have a polarizing filter I can use. I am not sure what the lowest F-Stop is on that lens, but I will mess around with it and then post the shots here this weekend for critique

[JoshD]

Ugghhh just got done reading a bunch of reviews of the 75-300 lens (non IS). I guess there is a reason they threw it in for 50bucks when I bought the camera

Oh well..I'll hope for a bright day outside, keep the zoom in the 200mm range, and hope for the best!

[another view]

Don't worry so much about the sharpness of the lens - try it yourself and see what you think. I get the feeling that a lot of reviews for 70-300 lenses of any brand are based on people using bad technique to evaluate a lens. This can include hand-holding the camera, not using a cable release, etc.

Chances are with surfing you'll be shooting handheld, of course. I wouldn't try the polarizer at least for your first time out since it'll add to the complication (up to two stops light loss, one more thing to adjust). Shoot it one stop down from wide open if you can, otherwise just shoot it wide open. Try an AF mode (sorry, I'm a Nikon guy) that follows moving subjects and I guess I'd hope for a 1/250 or faster shutter speed. I wouldn't be afraid to use it in ISO400 either - a little bit of noise (likely not even noticeable) is a better than a blurry shot from too slow a shutter speed.

How close can you get? I have shot from a wall at a lighthouse that was about 200' out from shore and also along the shore in a bay away from a beach to get closer. Even 300mm will seem short! I'm not sure how the pro shooters do it...

Keep it simple and focus on the action. After you get a few shots in, take a look at what you have and decide if you need to adjust anything. Let us know how it goes!

[brmill26]

Just to add to the above: the weather on the day matters. If it's sunny, I'd shoot it in Av mode, probably F/8 to help keep that lens sharp. See what shutter speeds you're getting. You're going to want AT LEAST 1/500 or greater to freeze the action. Bump up your ISO as needed, if it's sunny, you shouldn't need more than ISO400 - and don't be afraid to go there, 400 is no problem at all; keeping the shutter speed up is very important - faster is better with action shots!

If it's cloudy, I'd shoot Tv mode to make sure you've got enough shutter speed to freeze the action. The aperture will have to be more open to compensate, but that's a trade off worth making to keep the images blur-free. See if you can get about 1/800 at ISO400. If not, drop the shutter speed to 1/640. If you can't get that speed (the meter will blink to show you it can't open the aperture enough to properly expose), bump your ISO to 800. I can't imagine you needing that though.

I would avoid manual mode since you're just starting out, and depending on which way he moves b/t you and the sun, the exposure may vary a pretty good bit.

Metering: I think you have the XSi, which I think has spot metering. Use that. Remember to keep the spot on the surfer, obviously. That will help get the ride exposure on him rather than water reflections or whatever.

Focusing: Use AI Servo mode. That's the focus tracking mode that will follow the moving subject. Choose the center focus point to go with the spot metering (and your center point is always the most accurate for focusing - crucial with fast moving subjects).


Another thing you may want to consider is setting the focus control to * button. A lot of sports photographers use that method; I like it so much I leave it there full time. Basically it separates the focusing function from the picture taking action. I like it b/c I can use that button to follow the action w/ focus, then meter/fire the shot at the instant I want to. And in other circumstances, if I'm shooting at a fixed distance, I can get the focus set, then every time I half-press to check my metering, I don't have the focus resetting itself. Anyway, if you've never used it it may not be great to try if these shots are important. If you do want to try it, on my XTi it's Custom Function 04, and set it to 3.


Oh, and I would not try panning (in terms of trying to blur the background with it; obviously you will pan to follow the subject). The reason being surfers are almost constantly moving in 3 dimensions. That makes a panning shot extremely difficult to get sharp. If you're feeling very ambitious you may give it a try, but given the focal length you're using, the distance of the surfer, and the fairly low speeds they go, I highly doubt you'd get anything other than a totally blurred photo. My guesstimate would be that you'd need about 1/100 or so to blur the background behind a surfer at their speed/distance, and using a 300mm lens hand-held, that is only going to give you blurred photos 99% of the time.

300mm should be sufficient from the shore; you should be able to crop a pretty tight photo. BE SURE to keep a filter on whatever lens you're using - salt will condense on it! Filters are easy to clean; front elements are not! And of course, show us what you get! Preferably in the sports forum...

[JoshD]

Thank you both!

Another View-How close I get depends on how close the waves are to the shore. If they are close this might make it alot easier, if not I would have to zoom more obviously. Basically, I will be standing on the shoreline.

Brad, great response thank you. You gave me every option it looks like to use, depending on the weather! Very informative, like always. I appreciate it. I am going to try that Custom Function as well, see what that is like

Thanks again