Santa Cruz Surfing

[jamesdmo]

While on a bike ride in Santa Cruz, Calif. yesterday I couldn't resist stopping to take some photos of surfers. What a great vantage point! It is near the lighthouse on Cliff Dr. by the way. Here is an example.

In retrospect, I think I would have done better with a faster shutter speed. This is at 1/250, but I would have used 1/500 or faster to freeze the water better. Any C&C welcome.

[CanadianKitKat]

I agree on the shutter speed, I don't think 1/1000 would hurt if you had enough light. 1/250 is pretty much too slow for just about any sport unless you're panning or wanting some motion blur.

That being said though, it is a really nice capture of the surfer. A bit of a bump with curves would give your colours a tad more punch too.

[Smad728]

Sweet shot. I have always wanted to try surfing.:cool:

[marcusg6@bigpond.net.au]

Hi, if you cropped it then it is just a tiny bit too much. It is very hard to get a good surf pic without the sun but the shutter speed was your problem here, as most pros shoot at 1/1000 with iso100, thats with sun. Never shoot a surf pic under 1/1000. If you have no sun tweak your iso to suit 1/1000. Good shot though!!!

[Mick_I]

Cool shot!

[bobbyz]

It is a nice place though angle is quite steep. You must have cropped off a lot with 105mm as I usually use 500mm from roughly same place. Also why f16? Something like f5.6/f8 should be more than enough.

Here is mine with 500mm.

http://bobbyzphotography.com/img/v1/p1062302343-5.jpg

[ohheycheckmeout]

you can get away with 1/800 no problem, 1/640... its a stretch. f/5.6-f/10 for vibrant colors, iso 100-200, bump up if you need too. dont crop super heavily, as a surfer, you want to know where they are going, what is being done, the size of the wave, etc. also, it helps to put things in the foreground sometimes

[jamesdmo]

Thanks to all for your great suggestions. I learned a lot!

Summary of what I learned:
Keep the shutter speed fast (safe to say 1/1000 or faster) for action sports like surfing.
Use 100 ISO if possible. (It was and I didn't)
Be careful about over-cropping so as not to hide the context of the surfer.
Keep aperture down a bit for better color. (Hadn't heard that one before.)By the way, surfers were about 50 meters max away from me as waves broke off a point of land. I was on the point about 15 meters high. But I did crop some and perhaps should have left it wider. A 500mm lens, in this situation, would have been a study in nostril hairs, though.

Another constraining factor was that the sea and sky were both a definite gray color. When I bumped up color saturation it really only affect the colors on the surfboard. Any thoughts/tricks on shooting in a very gray environment?

I very much appreciate the opportunity to learn from those who commented. Thanks all!