Surf Shot getting air

[Dr. WooD]

About 60% of my shots are sports. Either surfing, or baseball. This is one of my favorite shots of 2007.

I was following him shooting away, and was holding a good focus on him. I was expecting him to do a cut back, and never seen the air coming. That's why he's a bit out of focus. The sun getting low behind me didn't help much. Had to bump up the ISO to 800. I was shooting a 1/2000 second, because I like to get as much detail in the spray as possible.

Other than choosing a larger aperture, I don't know how I could have improved this shot.

If anyone has any ideas on how this could have came out better, I'd love to here them. Other than crop this is SOOC.

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 420 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0/6 EV
Exposure Program: Manual
Date and Time (Original): 2007:12:23 16:54:12


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wood-shot/2299986020/" title="DSC_4334c by wood420, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2061/2299986020_bec63416f4.jpg" width="500" height="344" alt="DSC_4334c" /></a>

[Scottie137]

Nice shot! A little longer lens with a tighter frame might give it a little more impact, but the composition looks good otherwise.

[daft_biker]

How would you feel about an even tighter crop to portrait format? Nice timing! :)

[Digidave]

With a focal length of 420mm, how far away was this guy? The reason I ask is, why not open up your lens to f/5.6 or something? You could have lowered your ISO & sped up your shutter at the same time, I believe. I don't know the math behind it.:o If you were trying to maintain as much DOF as possible, keep in mind that DOF grows with distance & according to this calculator, with a focal length of 420, you would have a DOF of 15.6ft. shooting at f/5.6 with subject being 200ft. away.

DOF Calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html)

[Dr. WooD]

With a focal length of 420mm, how far away was this guy? The reason I ask is, why not open up your lens to f/5.6 or something? You could have lowered your ISO & sped up your shutter at the same time, I believe. I don't know the math behind it.:o If you were trying to maintain as much DOF as possible, keep in mind that DOF grows with distance & according to this calculator, with a focal length of 420, you would have a DOF of 15.6ft. shooting at f/5.6 with subject being 200ft. away.

DOF Calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html)


I apparently had already cropped that image once before. I linked to an untouched photo where the surfer was setting up for the air. Its hard to say how far away I was, but I'd guess at least 300 foot. When shooting surf shots DoF is never a concern. I was shooting earlier when the sun was straight up, and set my stop to f/11 trying to keep the white water from being blown out. I like to try and keep as much definition in the water as possible, I dump a lot of pictures because of that too. The sun can play havoc on a breaking wave when the light hits the water just right. Only options I know are to either under expose which I hate to do because then the surfer looks to red, or lower the aperture.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3138/2300540616_d62d1eeeeb_b.jpg