PBR Whitewater Festival pics, advice sought

[Conundrum]

I took these last weekend and am following the Shepherd Wong and getting some advice after posting in the kayak thread . I'm pretty new to the photoging. Taken three different days. Lots of events. Rafter cross, boater cross and night rodeo.

Night disco rodeo

















Rafter X

















Boater X

[Shepherd Wong]

Looks good, I thought the night shots were a little dull and the highlights seemed kinda burried. Did you do any post processing work?
I just tweaked the levels slightly and put a pretty agressive curve on it to bump up the highlights. I over did it on purpose to show what it did in the extreme case. If it were my shot I would probably go about half as far as I did and crank down the saturation slightly to preserve the mood more. Great shots!

[squirrelmurphy]

i really like that one too^^^ except maybe crop out that handle or whatever in the foreground

[Tippster]

My favorite:



The guy's flashlight really adds a neat little element.

[Deep Days]

Holy cheet! Nice pictures, man. Ditto what squirrelmurphy said.


I really like this one. Your subject is extremely distinct with the low DOF and is really really sharp. The expression on his face shows the intensity of what he's doing, too.

Nice work, man! (And in a size that allows most viewers here to see the whole frame at once. Much appreciated.)

Edit: Any way to get some exif data on this one?

[Conundrum]

Edit: Any way to get some exif data on this one?

sRGB, F 5.6, 1/4 sec exp., pattern metering, ISO 400, 66 mm focal

I shot it with a 20D, 17-85 IS and no flash. I just started screwing around with a flash and turned it off for awhile right before this pic.

[smmokan]

Surfer X looks like Steve-O from Jackass.

[smalls]

sRGB, F 5.6, 1/4 sec exp., pattern metering, ISO 400, 66 mm focal

you're losing a bit of color info by shooting in sRGB. you may want to switch your camera color space to adobe RGB.

[Storm11]

Your color, exposure, focus all look good in general. (listen to what smalls has to say about sRGB though...shoot in AdobeRGB). WATCH OUT FOR BLOW HIGHLIGHTS (the most prominent problem in most the shots). Shooting WW in the middle of the day is most often futile because of the high contrast range, so try to shoot early or later in the day. The number 1 thing that I think needs work in these photos is composition. Seems like you're either going too wide or too close in most of the shots you posted.

Starting with photo #1: I like it, well thought out, nicely executed, except for the people in front of the girl. I'd like to see a little more figure definition (i.e. - include more of them in the shot, not just an elbow and 2 heads.) This could have been remedied by simply stepping to your right a little bit and recomposing.

#2: why so much uninterresting sky when the texture and color of the water is so much cooler? Maybe staging a boater in the eddy right in front of you would have been a good choice (if you had a boater willing to set up for the shot).

#3: Too much direct flash. Zoom in to get detail, eliminate the boring fence and signs.

#4: Good blur. I shoot a lot of this type stuff when shooting whitewater. Shoot a lot of it and pick the best ones (usually when their face/body is fairly sharp. Try to spot moments when their bodies are the most static and shoot those moments most, but just shoot a lot) Zoom in closer and crop out that light

#5: bounce your flash so it doesn't hit the foreground as much. less sky. more zoom.

#6: Nice shot. Would have liked to have seen a little more environment around him though. (ie. zoom out a tiny bit if possible)

#7: Zoom out. Give them somewhere to go in the photo.

#8: Zoom in and focus on 1 raft, or zoom out and give more environment. ONce again, give them somewhere to go.

#9: good composition, but shots from behind are usually pretty dull. Not always though.

#10: same comment as #8

#11 Zoom out a little and get all of his paddle and atleast some of his boat. This would have been an interresting shot from behind if there was a little more in the frame.

#12: nice composition and background, but stand up a bit and get atleast a little bit of his boat.

#13: Good, but a little too close again.

#14: Good, and a little crop job in Photoshop would help this one, especially a bit off the right side and a pinch off the top. Hands infront of the face is the biggest problem when shooting kayaking and because of that this shot really isn't a keeper. Just a reality of shooting the sport. Other than that, a good photo.

#15: good shot except he has no where to go. Keep him in the left side of the photo.

#16: Zoom out so we can see the other guy

#17 & 18: Meh....

#19: Good except the other guy is in the way. Even if he wasn't, still needs more boat in the frame.

#20: Best shot of the bunch. I like the contrast in the photo, excellent composition. The only thing that I would have liked to have seen is if you could have moved down the bank a bit (only IF you could keep the same kind of composition with contrast between the water and the shadows in the top of the frame) so that we could see atleast a little bit of this face. If you would have done that, it could have been a cover worthy compostion. Crop just a pinch off the top of the existing photo (that little rapid in the top right in the shadows) and maybe a pinch off the left, and this photo is a keeper.


Good job all in all...keep shooting and trying different things, but you're on the right track.

[Conundrum]

Thanks guys, exactly the stuff I'm looking for.

The night shots were my first time using a flash and it was eye opening but the flash seemed really tough to aim to the right places.

Switched the camera to RGB.

Most of the events were in the middle of the day but I am going to get up there more in the evenings.

Storm-thanks for that response. I printed it off and compared your comments to the photos. Almost everything you said seemed like the pics would have been better with your advice. (a couple of shots had to include banners or logos as a favor to the event organizer).

Whitewater is tough. Sometimes the angles you want are just not attainable.

[Storm11]

Something I recommend that you get for your flash is a diffuser...theres a bunch of different brands, but the ones from www.garyfong.com seem to be getting the best reviews. The Lightsphere is awesome and the new WhaleTail is supposedly the shit as well. He's got videos on the website that show the difference it really makes.

Another thing I forgot to mention in my critique is that you should learn to read your histogram while you're shooting....it's the easiest way to get instant feedback on your exposures.