Surfing - Backlit fixes

[paddleout]

I made a comment on some nice pictures from another thread yesterday http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=482973 and rather than hijack his on a different topic I started this one on backlit surfing images and fixes, settings or techniques anyone may have for solving this or other sports with the same issue.

Here is florida we seem to have alot of this as the sun is to our lens at the best surf times. Here is a fix I use for myself that seems to have an effect I like. I set my exposure to the surfer rather than the surf. This tends to blow out the water details but I would rather have the surfer's and work with the water than the latter. In CS3 I take and duplicate the layer then correct the levels and brush in or out the pieces I want to show or not. This takes awhile and hard to create an action for because of the varialbles.

Anybody have any other methods or settings that help with issues like this? Here are two I shot from Monday in Cocoa Beach for an example and used the above effect.

http://www.donx2.com/pier/images/IMG_6690.jpg

http://www.donx2.com/pier/images/IMG_6691.jpg

[squashed]

The PP one these look excellent. I would love to see what you started with.

[ikelsi]

love that first pic, great capture.

[robycapone]

do you shoot these from beach side?? is like a platform set up for you guys..

in Teahupoo we had to get into the water cause its a reefbreak not a shore break...

this is something im loving at the moment....

nice shots by the way.

[JSJR4]

very nice. thanks for sharing how you go about doing your pp work

[Hangbot]

that second pic is sweet!

[watchtherocks]

From what it looks like, youve overdone the shadow/highlights command a bit. One good way of doing things Ive found is to get the picture looking 'nice' (noise, basic exposure, etc), then duplicate that layer and do all my local adjustments (changes that dont effect the entire picture) on that layer. I slightly overdo it, and then simply drop the opacity of that layer and everything looks good.
The whitewater in your shots is way too dark to be realistic, and the surfer is slightly to light where shadows should be.

But that stuff is all PP. In your actual shooting, youve done an awesome job. Good framing, great timing. And at the end of it, thats all that really matters.

[paddleout]

Appreciate everyone's comments. Here is the image to start with leveled out as squashed asked for. Guess in my case I shouldn't use the term "fix" as in fix back to reality because this is what reality was at that time is this shot here... sun in my eyes and shadows riding waves. Guess I tend to lean more towards the HDR with a twist...LOL As in ... too dark here lighten up, and no detail sharpen up, add more depth of field, etc. Probably why my stuff ends up in ads instead of magazines.

http://www.donx2.com/pier/IMG_start.jpg

[willy b]

These are brilliant!!

[cgross]

great job

[ManOverBoard]

nice pics!! I have the same problem here in the St. Augustine area.....thank god for Photoshop.