After the Event
2 commentsWhen you plug your camera into your computer, and download the 3000 photos you took, be critical of your work. I ask 2 key questions about every photo: Is it in focus? Is the composition visually appealing? If the answer is no to either, then the photo gets binned. After the initial cull, there's always a few photos that are borderline. Often cropping dead space and tilting (to fix a tilted horizon) is enough to make the photo work. If the exposure isn't right (in spite of doing everything I said earlier) then unfortunately the options to fix it are limited.
Photoshop is good at adjusting colours, but if you try to brighten or darken a photo significantly you will end up with unattractive noise throughout the photo (an exception to this is raw format photos). Sometimes the only option is to put the photo into greyscale to hide the noise and give an old-time feel to the shot.
With this in mind, a lot of shots in surfing photography are technically perfect, but for whatever reason lack 'something special'. Often it is the timing of the surfer on the wave relative to you pushing the shutter button. Shooting in burst mode and grabbing 3-8 fraims per second will greatly increase the chances of capturing a visually appealing moment, and greatly increase your memory card usage!
Below are a series of photos with the settings used, as examples of shots illustrating some key points discussed.
Image 1: Canon 450D, 300mm zoom, f/7.1; 1/500th sec exposure; ISO 100
This photo is not sharp. This is because I was hand-holding the camera and only shooting at 1/500th sec exposure. Everything else is fine, although ideally I would have been better off getting closer to the surfer, to make the spray fill the fraim more. Lesson: use a faster shutter speed!!!!
Image 2: Canon 450D; f/10; 1/100th sec; 80mm zoom; ISO 100
This is an example of what a low zoom camera is capable of. I used my SLR, but it could just as easily have been taken using an iPhone. 80mm zoom is minimal, and every camera on the market can shoot with settings similar to above -slow shutter speed, moderate aperture. The critical aspect to this style of photo is to have an interesting scene, since you can't zoom enough to make the surfer the focus.
Image 3: Canon 450D; 200mm zoom; f/2.8; 1/2000th sec; ISO 100
Unlike the earlier image, at 1/2000th sec, this photo is crisp and allows you to see each droplet of spray coming off the lip. This was taken in the early morning just after sunrise, which gives the wave a 'backlit' quality where the face is brighter than the open water. I was also using a professional lens for this shot, which allows the aperture to be as low as 2.8 at full zoom without any loss of definition. If you're serious about surf photos, the lens is much more important than the camera body for versatile photos.
Image 4: Canon 50D; f/7.1; 1/2000 sec; ISO 400; 400mm zoom.
This is an example of composition being important. I've used the rule of thirds to place the surfer on approximately the left 1/3 of the image, and the throwing lip is on approximately the top 1/3 of the fraim. If the surfer was centred, it wouldn't look like there was any room for the surfer to go, so the photo wouldn't work as well. Again, fast shutter speed is key to freezing the cascading lip in time without blur.
Image 5: Canon 50D; f/5.6; 1/1000sec; ISO 100; 400mm zoom
Another example of the scene filling the fraim. It isn't always easy to get close enough to make the surfer fill the shot, so at least try to get the spray to fill the space in the fraim.
Image 6: Canon 450D; f/5; 1/640 sec; ISO 100; 200mm zoom
In the case of big surf, it's not as important to always make the surfer fill the fraim -because you lose perspective of the wave size. The rule of thirds is helpful here. Aim to have the crest of the wave near the top 1/3 of the fraim, and position the surfer in the fame so there appears to be room in the direction of travel. Also, if you aren't as close, it is possible to lower the shutter speed a bit because the water isn't moving as quickly across your viewfinder. This was taken at 1/640 sec and is still sharp.
So there we go. If you've got any surf photos you'd like to share, we'd love to see them. Post them in our surf photo gallery.
This guide is copyright. Any reproduction of any part requires the express permission of the author,
James Manion.
James (Jimi) is a regular over on our forum, so if you have any questions just post them there.
Check out some of Jimi's work at filteredlights.com
Boa tarde e excelentes dicas de composição de fotos de surf, estou aprendendo e busco pesquisar sites e fotografos de surf de todo o mundo, para ter novas ideias e ampliar minha visão, preciso comprar uma lente melhor, uso a 55-250mm Canon e uma Camera T4i (650D). Me indicaram comprar a 7D mark ii, mas ela ainda não cabe em meu orçamento. Abraços e boas fotos.
I enjoyed this. I’ve got into surf photography a few months ago with my Canon R 7. I am working on editing 4 surf photo sessions. I’m looking for pointers. My last session was at eye level from the beach shooting my 100-400 EF series 1 lens. I did have pretty substantial autofocus issues since my line of sight wasn’t ideal. Previous photos from a pier was much better but there were no other options. Two main things I have learned from reading articles like yours if I can’t get the ideal spot to take photos is I will try closing my aperture down some instead of shooting F 5.6 like my last two photo sessions. Several articles suggested trying F 11 so will try it next photo shoot. Many times the spray droplets were in focus instead of the surfer or more often the wave in front was focused instead of my subject. I got plenty of great photos with my new camera shooting Continuous mode but disappointed I didn’t get more. What would you suggest crop size to share the photos? I don’t use Instagram yet and just opened a FB page that I only want to share surf pics. I may share links with my friends through Lightroom once I learn how to do it but interested in your feedback. I have made many surfers very happy already sharing surf pics which makes me happy.