New 70-200 f4L Wakeboard Shots

Khalid, don't you mean that if I tried f8 and >, that I'd gain DOF? I'm guessing that I'd probably gain some sharp-ness too, but as Mike said, would have to soften the background artificially.....which might be worth it.

Ya gotta love the 70-200. #6 and 11 are great. . . . . . and ahhhh don't get to close to the fisheman.

Daniel, The DOF on a digital camera isn't the same (more or less) as a film camera. So where f2.0 would blow out the background on film, on digital cameras it's only going to make it out of focus. There's a lot of math involved as to why (has to do with sensor size, pixles and things like that, but mostly I just looked at my images when I went from film to digital and found my backgrounds were not being as blown out with the same lenses and settings as they were on my EOS 3.

The other aspect of digital over film, is that you need lenses that are sharper (hence better quality and more expensive) for digital than you do film. This is why so many people that switched to digital find they don't get as sharp a picture with their kit lens as they did with their film camera.

Here are a few links that will probably explain it better than I can... and I know there are a number of people on here that can explain it as this is where I have read about it a lot.

http://wrotniak.net/ph​oto/dof/
http://www.photo.net/l​earn/optics/dofdigital​/
http://www.luminous-landscape.com …standing-series/dof.shtml


I hope some of this information helps.

Mike

Yes, I've been reading about this and it seems it has to do with the crop factor (1.6) of the 300D & 10D. That is, the circle of blur doesn't extend as far out, because of the sensor size.

Off Topic: (sorry)

WHALER; Fishermen, Smishermen! I used to worry about staying way clear of the fishermen, but my attitude has changed a bit. Every weekend there are bass tournaments on our lake and every high-dollar bass boat comes by my dock/boathouse and throws their luers under my boat house, onto my boat lift, INTO MY BOAT, and are constantly loosing their luers in our swim area, where my 2 little girls spend time in the water. I fully acknowledge that no one owns the water, but if they can't show enough mutual respect to not throw luers under, into and around my boat & dock, then I'm not going to worry too much about steering far away from them when we're skiing/wakeboarding. I guess I've dug 1 too many rusty hooks out of my upholstery, dock and feet! That said, remember on those shots I was shooting at 200mm FL...so we weren't as close as it appears.

-daniel

Wo! Wo! Wo! Bro. . . . not trying to start a pissing contest. It's just that some people are just inconsiderate, including the **** fisherman that crosses my lines while trolling and toss lures where kids a swimming. I fish a very large lake, Berryessa, in CA. It's one of the largest impounds in the state. I'll be trolling along in a REMOTE part of the lake and some &$#@ water skier, wakeboard, or 3 kids on a GIANT frog come wizzing by. Consideration was all that I was implying.

lol....easy whaler. Consideration is exactly all that I was implying. Consideration works both ways....not that your one of those fishermen with 100 luers in my boathouse. I wasn't saying that at all. Maybe, being a fisherman though, you could tell me why it is so important to toss lines underneath peoples' boats that are hanging in their boat lifts? What makes that such an attraction that some fishermen are so intent that they disregard all "consideration" for my property and throw luers at my ski boat?

By the way, #6,11 are probably my 2 favorites as well.

-daniel

So now, about that bokeh...

Dsze: Next time also try some slower shutter shots. Freezing the water scene is cool and you have some great shots here. I love the water in 3600. Very cool. However, slower shutter shots can give a different perspective of action and it makes for a neat effect on water. It's nice to have a mix. That's what I do when shooting the Sprint Boats.

Jim,

I do like the effect of slow shutters with movement...I was worried though when shooting these that without the very fast shutter, I would not only get the water-movement, but I'd also get a blurry wakeboarder. How slow were you thinking of trying?

I love shooting these (probably because I love wakeboarding as much as photography) ...but the bummer is that I never get to see shots of myself. I guess I need to get some friends who are not only into wakeboarding, but also into photography!

Experiment. I'd play with 1/250 a bit, but would go for about the 1/500 to 1/1000 range. Depends on what the subject is doing. If they are crossing behind the boat then you'd hope your Drebel would kick into AI Servo and follow the subject. With AI Servo it's pretty easy, but you'll just have to experiment a bit and see what the camera does.

If they are straight behind the boat 1/500 should be fine. But, motion blur even on the subject can be a good thing too.

I've done pans as low as 1/15 with some great effects. You get a lot of throwaways shooting at slow speeds, but when you get a keeper, they're awesome.

Don't know Dan, I've never understood Bass fisherman. Sparkles on boats? Outboards the size of refrigerators pumping out a gazillion horse power? Anyways. . . . ya gotta love the 70 - 200

Ha ha...ok, I hear ya. I think the sparkly boats are what push me over the edge! ....and the fact that they need those gazzillion HP to run 75mph across the lake.....cause you know the fish will only wait so long for you. If you don't get there as fast as you can they might be gone! lol


Anyway, Should the DREB kick into servo mode automatically or is that a setting I've missed somewhere? For all of these shots I had just the center focus-point selected. Should I have been doing something else?

-daniel

I think you were right on target. #6 the handle is in focus even though it's partially submerged.

Yes, I was really impressed with how fast this lens focused for these shots. At 200mm, when I wanted to get him in the air, I couldn't follow him through the viewfinder from the flats into the wake and into the air. So, I just pointed at the sweet spot in the wake and waited for him...as soon as he came into frame I placed the center dot on him and shot.