Water Skiing

[Rita]

I checked out a new area to walk over this weekend and ambled on some water skiers. Turns out where I live has a water ski and wake board club. It is very close to where I live so I do plan to try this type of shooting again. My goal in these pics was to get the skier and the spray and I was hoping to convey the speed and agility of the skiers. As I have never done this type of image before I would appreciate any feedback, comments etc. so that I can be better prepared next time I go.


1.


2.


3.


4.


5.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, a couple of those shots look painful.

[Digital]

Rita, nice series.



Bruce

[FootLoose]

I think the trick with this type of shot is to capture the person in an action pose and to show detail in the water being sprayed up. So for me the 3rd is really impressive because it shows the blurred spray to the left of the skier and the textured water behind him. Nice set, Rita.

[Rita]

Thank you John. A couple of the shots look painful you say, no, I never felt a thing

Bruce, thank you.

Thank you Greg. I can't go now for a couple of weeks because of my work schedule but I will sure be going back. I will watch for the action pose

[bnnrcn]

Nice series Rita

[deetheturk]

Nice series Rita,#3 is my pick

[Rita]

Thanks Binnur and David.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rita,

For me, #1 and #5 work very well and #3 almost did, just unlucky with a spray burst partially obscuring the 'skier.

In my opinion, #2 and #4 don't hold my attention because I cannot see the person, just the abstract shape of the spray.

I don't know if you can, or did, but you might try burst shooting of 2 or 3 frames to be able to select the best spray/background composition.

It seems, from the EXIF data (which if you'd put with photos, would help us), that you chose a shutter speed of 1/250s and that resulted, in most, but not all, with an aperture of f/10. At 75mm on Oly E-M5, at 500 iso - was there a reason for those choices - I'm not saying they are wrong, or right, just wondered?

Good for you trying something different, well done - I like the compositions.

HTH,

[JR1]

unfortunately they are either obscured by water unless that is what you wanted or OOF on the ones that are not so look unsharp and unclear

It helps to know the gear used or comments are pointless.

If you used a DSLR then you really need to shoot with just the centre focus point and keep that on the subject at maximum fps using a fast SD card.

[Brownbear]

Hi Rita,

I love the first image for the overall scene, how you captured the beauty of the wave and spray and the expression of determination that I can almost see on the mans face. Great capture!

I don't know if you can chose focus points on your camera but if you can I would try placing the focus point on the water skier for sharper focus on the skier.

[Rita]

Dave, I appreciate your feedback. At first I thought that it was a different look having the skier lost in the spray but the more I look at it the more I think that what I tried to do didn't quit work for me.

I did shoot in burst at 4 fps.

Now for the exif data. I thought that the exif came through with the pics when I upload them in tiny pics? Do I have to do something different to get it to come with the pic? My settings were based on just trying to get a decent exposure. I kept the ISO as low as I could to get a SS to try and stop the motion while attempting to maintan bit of blur for the movement. I could have put the ISO up higher for the faster SS but I am hesitant because I find this camera with higher ISO can quickly turn into lots of noise. Hope that I am making some kind of sense here


Jeremy, I probably should have used a different focus. For equipment I was using an Oly E-M5

Christina, thank you. I did try and keep the focus on the skier but wasn't overly successful Just as I am writing this I am thinking I should have been smarter at the time and used continuous focus (DUH). Next time

[Brownbear]

Hi Rita,

Yes, continuous auto focus helps... Your subject is like a big bird in flight. There has been many a time that I have forgotten to change my focus mode.

I found this article on what I think is your camera and focusing. Even if it isn't your camera I think it is a good article, and the horse images are to die for!

http://www.bestmirrorlesscamerarevie...-lumix-lenses/

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rita,

Thanks for all the other answers.

Now for the exif data. I thought that the exif came through with the pics when I upload them in tiny pics? Do I have to do something different to get it to come with the pic?

It came through with the pictures OK, but only about a third of us have the ability to see it easily - and even then, it makes comparison between shots in a series a feat of memory recall of all the different variables - and mine ain't that good

The only answer is to take the time to type it out as text with each image - a tad onerous, I know (I do it), but entirely possible.