Pro Snowboard Photog's

hey guys just wondering if we have any pro snowboard photographers among us. i have some questions for these guys.

thanks.

Why dont you throw out some of those questions to entertain the rest of us? haha

I don't shoot much of snowboarding, but I do shoot "a bit" of a skiing, so...
PS: "A bit" of skiing means more or less 7 months of shooting World Cup racing and racers during races and trainings.

Pretty sure Primoz is going to be your best bet, he knows his snow shooting.

If he won't ask questions I will.

What sort of exposure adjustments do you do to keep the camera from being fooled by all the white snow?

Whats the best time to shoot?

What type of filters, if any, do you use and why?

When you ride do you carry a Monopod or Tripod with you?

How many flashes do you use and where are good places to put them if they are off the body?

I too would be interested in hearing some insight on this

primoz wrote in post #8938773
I don't shoot much of snowboarding, but I do shoot "a bit" of a skiing, so...
PS: "A bit" of skiing means more or less 7 months of shooting World Cup racing and racers during races and trainings.

Please return and provide answers

paweez

Sorry guys. I was out of office, so I wasn't much around here, and therefore I somehow managed to miss this thread

I shoot manual. It's too hard to do it in any other program mode (tv or av) since camera can get fooled too easily. If you can't get used to manual, then add something from +1/3 to +1 stop of adjustment. It should do. But once again... try manual. Set you camera so, that face of skier will be lit normally. Snow will most likely be overexposed, but it's not about snow, it's about skier, and that's what you want to have exposed properly.

For me? Whenever race is on I can't influence FIS when they will have start of their World cup race so... But if I do commercial shooting, I normally pick "morning" (something between 10 and 12am) or later on afternoon (around 4pm). But with skiing, it's no big deal even if you do it at 1pm when sun is up. In winter sun is never straight up, so conditions are much easier.

Most of time none. If I do use something, then it's polarizer, but it's very very rarely. Up in mountains conditions are different, and sky is nice and blue without polarizer already. So there's really not much use for filters. And if you want to be on safe side, with times faster then 1/1000sec, losing 2 stops is not best way to go.

Never tripod. On races, tripods are not allowed anyway. But I do use monopod on 300/2.8 and 500/4. It's just so much easier then hold them for 3 hours.
Otherwise when I go skiing myself, I go skiing... without camera. I spent all my life on skis (including almost 20 years of racing) so skiing is still huge part of my life. And I want to enjoy it at high speed... without camera

Most of our shooting is editorial, which means on races. There's no way to put flashes there, so I depend on sun. And even during night races, place is so well lit, there's no need for extra flashes. For commercial shots, where I have some more freedom and space, and most importantly no race directory who needs to take care of safety, I normally use just reflectors to reflect sun to right place. I use strobes very rarely when it comes to skiing.

Does this answer your questions? If yes, I'm glad I could help, if not, feel free to ask more. And have fun on snow.

Thanks Primoz for your feedback!
Great shots on the web site, like this one:
http://www.photo.si …iing_20091025nw​_03653.jpg

Thanks Primoz! I can't wait to get up to the mountain. Though we don't have any snow yet.

wow didnt realize this post was still alive...thanks for the tips, i was actually just looking for someone to tell me how they got started and tips. i got a good grasp on strobes and exposure on the slopes just wondering how they got to where they are.

i cant wait for the snow either another week and theres some that open around me...cant wait to move to BC in the new year though.

Primoz: any nordic or jumping on your calendar this winter?

Yup, at least some XC skiing World cup on Rogla (in December), biathlon WC on Pokljuka during same week(end), so it's gonna be a bit of challenge to handle everything. And if nothing else, Ski flying World championships in Planica in March 2010. I don't know about the rest, but there might be some of 4 hill ski jumping tournament around New year, and some Tour de ski xc skiing races. But not sure about that yet. Especially since quite lot of them are on same dates as alpine skiing WC is.

Thanks Primoz for the info. Im thinking spot metering is your friend when exposing for the skier/snowboarder.

Does anyone use strobes in the snow? I am planning to set up some speedlight to place at the base of sum jumps this season but am not sure what kind of light stands would be suitable for the job.

Anyone have any experience with strobe set ups on the slopes? I'm also thinking that the Think tank 360 could be a wise investment as last year I was bring my Burton Zoom onto the slopes with me which proved way to heavy (considering I ride freestyle with or without my camera gear) and taking off your back pack every few minutes is really not something I want to go through for another season.

Im thinking of riding with 1 camera body, 1 lens and 2 speedlight in the think tank day sack with 3 telescopic monopods straped to the sides to dig into the snow. 1 to support the camera and 2 to support the flash's.

I know several accomplished skiing photogs hang out at this forum in the photo and video specific forum...
http://www.tetongravit​y.com/forums/forumdisp​lay.php?f=20
Careful how you approach this gang, if they sense over sensitivity, or stupid questions, they can pounce, but there is lots of good info available.

FIRST POST!!