Digital Photography

I am just getting into photography and was wondering if you have any input on what type of light filters work the best, and any other tips you might have. Right now I am shooting with a Canon EOS-10D with a 28-135mm lens as well as a 100-400mm lens. I have regular 1A lens filter for both lenses, but they don’t seem to cut it. I also gave been shooting at 1/4000, but I read that I should be shooting at 1/1000 (I’m going to try that next time). I have a lot of good riders to shoot out her in AZ, and really want to get good at taking pictures, so any help or contacts that you could send my way, would be great! Thanks a lot for everything.

What are you trying to achieve? Why do you say the skylight filter isn't cutting it? Maybe posting some examples would help.

I've had some success with circular polarizers and ND grads but really most of the pros shoot early morning or late afternoon when the light is the best. You'll need a fast lens to shoot at 1/1000th during those times. The hot setup for the Canon is the 70-200 L f2.8.

RD

Here is am example. As you can see Jimmy Wolff's body grainy and pixilated. I shot this with an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Please help! Any info would be helpful.

That has nothing to do with filters. What Iso setting are you shooting at? The amount of noise in that looks worse than a normal p&s digicam. The 10D usually only produces that much noise above iso 1600. It also looks like you're shooting in bad light. Try to shoot at sunrise and sunset with your back to the sun.

Try to shoot around 1/1000 - 1/750 and have the lense as wide as you can go without losing sharpness.

I shoot with a 10D and 70-200 f2.8L with circular Polariser for my pics.

Josh's analysis is right on. Use the manual settings only and lock the ISO at 100 or 200 max, make sure the light source is at your back. I have the 28 - 135 myself and it is a good all around lens but really not fast enough to shoot wakeboarding in optimum conditions at full zoom. I also have the 70-200 f4L (the poor man's version of the f2.8) and while it's a great lens too it's also somewhat limited. Buffalow has 2 of the 70-200 f2.8L's with IS, those babies are great! Also remember because of the smaller imager in the 10d there's a focal length magnification factor of 1.6. The 100-400 at full zoom really is only good for shooting birds or something off a tripod! If you are going for a long shot I would still use the 70-200 but with a 1.4 extender. If you can afford a bunch of different lenses it's great, if not I'd sell the 100-400 and invest in the 70-200.

im interested in getting a digicam! what good online shop can you recommend? thanx!!!

I agree with what Josh and Rich have said, but they missed the obvious - make sure your subject is well lit. Morning and evening are best because the light won't be overhead, but you still need light ON your subject not on the background.

A polarizing filter is great for bringing out contrast and making the sky darker and enhancing clouds. It may not be necessary in the right lighting though.

Also, the shutter speed you choose will have an impact on the look of the pic. Try from 750 - 2000 and see what you like best. If there are drops of water in the pic then it has a big impact on how they look and if they look real or not.

As they mentioned, the 28-135 is not a very good lens for shooting wakeboarding because you get too much depth of field. The shot will be much more dramatic if the subject stands out from the background more. Since that lens will have an aperture of 5.6 at 135mm you will have too much depth of field. If your 100-400 is the Canon L lens then definitely consider selling it and picking up the 70-200 2.8L lens which is about the same price. That's the perfect lens for shooting from a boat, and with an extender it works well from shore too.

Here's a pic that I took out at the Colorado River near sunset. Camera is a Canon T90 with Canon FD 85-300 F4.5 lens.



With a faster lens I would have even better separation of the rider from the background.

Shoot a lot of pics and figure out what works best based on what you're trying to achieve.

I would recommend picking up an intro to photography book. Learn about shutter speed, f-stops, film speed (ISO) and all that other stuff.

Here's a little breakdown:
Photography is the capturing and recording of light onto a film (or now electronic) plane. There are three basic things with which to control how that light hits the plane and how the plane is affected by the light.
1. Shutter speed. The faster the shutter speed the less amount of light and vise-versa.
2. Aperture (aka f-stops). This is like the iris of your eye. The smaller the number, the larger the hole. So f2.8 lets in a lot of light, while f16 lets in less. Aperture also controls depth of field, which is the amount of the picture (distance) that is in focus. A picture taken at f2.8 will have a very shallow depth of field - meaning whatever the camera is not focused on will appear very blurry. A picture taken at f16 will have a very deep depth of field, meaning the subject you focus on, as well as much of the background will appear sharp.
3. ISO - film speed. Different speed films need different amounts of light to be properly exposed. ISO 100 requires a fair amount of light, whereas ISO 3200 requires much less. The higher the ISO the more grain you will see in your pictures, especially when blowing them up.

Now here's how it all goes down for wakeboarding photography.
First of all, make sure your light source is good. The best times to take pictures are at dawn and dusk (usually dusk is better because riders are awake and riding better). During these "magic hours" the sun is low on the horizon and provides a warm, filling light. Overhead light (afternoon time) is harsh and creates shadows on the face and other crap.
2. Usually shoot ISO 100 or 200. This way you won't have to worry about grainy pictures. These film speeds are much better quality than 400 or 800.
3. Because you are shooting a slower speed film you need to let more light into the camera. Therefore you will use the shallowest depth of field you can (of course you can change this if you're envisioning something different where you would want the background in focus, but I'm just going over basic stuff here). All of my lenses are f2.8. This is great because the rider will be in focus, but the rest of the picture will not, so the reader's eye isn't distracted.
4. Becuase you are letting in so much light by using an f-stop of 2.8, you will need a fast shutter speed to compensate so the picture isn't overexposed and blown out. This works out conveniently for wakeboarding because it is a fast-action sport. Shooting in the evening in Nor Cal on the Delta, I'm usually using ISO 200, f2.8, ~1/2000 of a sec. This is with a Canon 1D and 70-200mm f2.8L lens.

There is a light meter inside your camera. Learn how to read it. It will tell you if you are over or under exposed. Make sure, though, that when you are reading that light meter, it is reading off of your subject and not off a dark spot of water, or a really brightly lit up mountain in the background. Expose your film for the subject you're shooting.

Photography is a ton of fun. It's especially fun when you get to combine it with something like wakeboarding. It can be frustrating at first, but people now how a huge advantage photographers didn't three or four years ago - digital. Instant results. Check to see if you got it. If you didn't try to figure out why. Look at your exposure: was the shutter speed too slow or too fast? Was the aperture too high? Did you have everything set right, but the ISO was at 1600? The learning curve for photography is so much easier because of digital, which I think is awesome because it will get more people into it.

Sorry for the essay, but I figured something like this might help a lot of people who had questions about taking pictures of wakeboarding (or just taking pictures at all). This is a really basic overview of the basics of photography. Look at some of the pictures in the mags and try to figure out how the photographers made them - this will give you some good ideas and motivation. A good photography book can help tremendously, and of course, nothing helps more than to get out there and take pictures.

Good luck and have fun.

Keep it real,
Garrett

Garrett Cortese Photography
http://www.gacphotos.com

Garrett: Are you shooting pretty much all digital nowl?

RD

Rich: As far as my wakeboarding photography, I've never shot film...

By the way, I know we've never actually met, but my family has been a member of the GGWSC for 5 years or so now. My dad's name is Mike. Hopefully we'll bump into each other over the summer.

KitR,
Garrett

Garrett Cortese Photography
http://www.gacphotos.com

I also have an EOS 10D with a 28-120 USM lens. Have been pretty happy with it. In most cases where the lighting is pretty normal, I'd just stick with the Sports Mode, which seems to take care of everything fine. Also, I use manual focus if I'm shooting from the boat since the focus length isn't going to change. If you want to go full manual, an ISO speed of 400 should be sufficient... more if your lighting is poor.

I believe you don't really need a super fast speed. Sometimes I'm forced to go down as low as 1/350 when the lighting is poor and the results should still turn out fine. Otherwise 1/1000 or 1/1500 should be more than sufficient. Learning how to Pan helps as well.

I've keep a photo journal on my website. Perhaps you can check it out. Its at http://www.wakeboard.com.sg and look under Photos/Photo Journal .

Check it out.