skaters

[Brian001]

well, you guys got any advice/changes/comments on some of todays pictures?

[gahspidy]

Brian, of the three I feel the second shot is the best. There are a few elements there that bring it to another level from the other two. The background scene is interesting and compliments the subject. The skater was caught in a good position with his arms up in the air filling the white blown out sky. ( Blown out skies are usually not desireable, but in this case I feel it works). The skater being in between the tree and the shed is very good as well. The person in the back looking on adds alot to this too.
The first picture is ok but lacks all the great elements of the second shot. The third shot is too dark, skater not captured in a good pose, and scenery around the subject is too busy and uninteresting. The second shot is surely the keeper.

[livin4lax09]

the blown out skies don't work for me. you need to carefully pick your time of day for shooting, especially with something as versatile as skaters at a park. The blown out sky wraps around the subject, and really isn't pleasing. you're also overexposing by probably about 2/3 of stop in the first two, and underexposing by about 1/3 in the last one.

[jbaldocchi]

Nice action shots. I would try to bump up the contrast on image 1 & 2. and maybe try to lighten 3.

Jim B.

[Brian001]

alright, the sky i cant do much about, the sky was very crappy to shoo in case when i had the sunligh i wanted there were clouds above, when it was clear above, i had no sunlight

ill try messing around with them in PS ill post the finished ones later

[GB1]

You caught the action, but the background here is sort of uninspiring. I would get as low to the ground as I could and try to get an up-angle shot. Even though the sky wasnt all that interesting either that day, I still think that it would be an overall superior shot.

GB

[Fillmoe Slim]

alright, the sky i cant do much about, the sky was very crappy to shoo in case when i had the sunligh i wanted there were clouds above, when it was clear above, i had no sunlight

ill try messing around with them in PS ill post the finished ones later

One thing you might try would be to expose your shot to the rider, pop the shot off, then two a second shot from the same general angle and expose for the sky. Then with PS you can add the correct exposed sky with the correctly exposed rider.

On these shots they are overexposed. Are you shooting manual, program, or auto? One thing that I find useful is the histogram when finding the right exposure.

[Brian001]

One thing you might try would be to expose your shot to the rider, pop the shot off, then two a second shot from the same general angle and expose for the sky. Then with PS you can add the correct exposed sky with the correctly exposed rider.

On these shots they are overexposed. Are you shooting manual, program, or auto? One thing that I find useful is the histogram when finding the right exposure.

i was using manual for these shots...this was my first time shooting skate boarders, with a brand new camera....its a new world to me, but i am slowly but surely figuring it out

[Fillmoe Slim]

One thing I found useful at first was to use the AV and TV modes before going full manual. It let's the camera make half the decision for the exposure but gives you the creative control over either the Aperature Value (AV) or the Time Value (TV = shutter speed). A photographer friend broke it down in a way I could understand.....Use TV when the priority is to eithere freeze the action in a shot with a high shutter spped or drag the motion with a slow shutter speed. Use AV when you want priority over depth of field is more critical than the motion. For skating and MTB shots you take try setting your camera to TV and choose a quick shutter speed say 800 to 1000. Basically this will lock you in at a quick shutter speed so you can freeze the action but then the camera chooses the appropriate aperature based on the cameras light meter to get what the camera feels is the proper exposure. When I first got my camera a few months ago before i knew which knob was doing full manual introduced too many variables in scenes that were not static. Also it helped when one setting was locked to just depress the shutter halfway down and see what, for instance a locked shutter speed of 1000, the camera determined the appropriate aperature setting (f/stop) was by looking at the display on the camera or in the view finder.

From what i've learned so far, experts correct if i'm off somewhere, is that proper exposure is based off two things aperature and shutter speed. Both ultimately and together control the amount of light that ultimate gets exposed to your sensor or film when the release button is pressed.

Aperature is like the iris of your eye it gets smaller and wider. Measured in Fstop numbers. What's kind backwards to the starter is a smaller fstop number means a larger opening in the lens (like a cats eye at night) while larger fstop means a smaller opening. Smaller number = letting in more light = less depth of field, basically more background or forground blur with a narrow slice of in focus area. Larger number equals = less light coming in = more area in focus.

Shutter speed controls how long the mirror is flipped up to let the light that is now shining through your aperature setting hit the sensor or film for. High shutter speeds = less time the light hits the sensor = more of a stop of motion. Slow shutter speeds = more time for the light to hit the sensor = motion blur of an object.

[Brian001]

wow, thanks fillmoe...that helped yet another great deal.

thas what i love about this form, so many people and things to learn from.

i will try this when im out wensday (hopefully)