The fly

[Dazyl]

I'm sorry to post for feedback so quickly after the last, but since I expect to be spending the next several months on the sidelines of swimming pools during meets, I need to know how to do this.



The lighting and levels seem to have been perfect. The only change made to this shot was a foreground crop of the lower lane line.

I realize I cut the tips of her fingers off. I'll have to bring the zoom back a bit, I guess.

Does anybody else shoot fast action, and would you be willing to share any ideas or feedback? Thanks!

[Nicole]

I think you captured the action really well. The lighting looks good, although the face seems just a little dark, but if you really wanted you could lighten the shadows in photoshop. I think it's good though. And your timing seems fantastic

[jiminyClickit]

Dazyl, Welcome

On this monitor the face is dark, and judging by the top of arm, you could adjust f/stop or exposure compensation to get that shadow area better. Or edit for it. If you have time to edit before showing photos, why not back off a little on zoom? Unless you'll have to edit hundreds of these? Great color; hand position, you can practice to get the next one. It's a challenge, best of luck.

[Dazyl]

Originally Posted by jiminyClickit

On this monitor the face is dark, and judging by the top of arm, you could adjust f/stop or exposure compensation to get that shadow area better. Or edit for it. If you have time to edit before showing photos, why not back off a little on zoom? Unless you'll have edit hundreds of these? Great color; hand position, you can practice to get the next one. It's a challenge, best of luck.

I may have expressed that incorrectly. It was the lens (rather than an edit) that was zoomed too tightly, evidently, for this swimstroke's width. (I was at 240mm) Sorry to have mangled terminology.

My f-stop was set pretty high; I'll drop it down tomorrow and see if opening the aperture some helps with the shadowing. Thank you for the suggestion! I have to confess that I'm not sure how I would go about addressing exposure compensation, other than post-processing.

Nicole -- the only reason that timing was right was the beauteouos "continuous shoot" setting.

Thank you very much for your feedback, y'all. The sports and action shots have always been an enormous challenge for me, but I'm bound and determined to figure it out this summer. Sigh...

[jiminyClickit]

Dazyl,

I know about as much as my camera manual pointed out, plus all the DPS information. I have the option to change exposure level from +1.5 to -2.1 and certainly your Nikon can be adjusted for an occasion with sun and reflections off water. Possible?

Here's a case of double misunderstanding: you were clear, and my intent was that leaving some room in your framing of a shot is usually a good idea unless you will give yourself loads of extra work in editting. You're OK, I was trying to be brief.

[hpebley3]

Nice action and good light on the water.

If you find adjusting the exposure causes the water to be over exposed, you might try getting a polarizing filter to help cut some of the reflection. Another idea is to use a flash to help fill in the dark. The problem with this is most flashes won't keep up in continuous shooting mode so you have to do fewer single shots.

Hope that helps,
Harley Pebley

[Dazyl]

Y'all are super! Thanks!

I'll be out there again most of the day tomorrow, weather conditions should be the same -- so I'll try, try some more.

Harley -- good thought about the polarizer if all else fails. I just bought one... never used it yet... wondered when it would be applicable.

jiminyClickit -- Amazing how many ways to say things, eh? You're right, btw -- I'm not faced with hundreds to edit. Just tens of tens (LOL)... but I certainly can give some more room to the subjects in the framing. I clearly need more room to work with for awhile under these conditions.

[Nicole]

Just remember that you'll lose a stop or two when you use the polarizer because it darkens the shot. So you'll have to open up the aperture a bit to compensate because you probably wouldn't want a slower shot. Make sure you keep posting to show us how you progress, though from shots like this, I don't think it'll take long for the really, really amazing shots

[stevesutt89]

I'm not quite sure about this, but it seems to me from looking at the picture that the sun is shineing on the other side of the subjects face. This, logically, would mean that the subjects face would appear quike dark as it is in direct shadow, but the water is correctly exposed, as it is in direct sunlight. maybe next time you could try shooting from the side that the sun is shining from thus lowering the difference between the brightness of the water and the birghtness of the subject. but being careful not to get your own shadow in the shot.

hmm, easier said than done.

by the way this is a nice shot, the timing is just perfect! IMO

[Dazyl]

So -- go figure. Today, the lighting conditions were the exact opposite of yesterday. The day was overcast, and eventually things darkened up so much that the conditions called for shutter speeds too slow for the sport. Not at all what I'd mentally geared myself up for. LOL

Near the end, I just went ahead and let the shots underexpose so I could capture the swimmers. The good news, though, is that I think I did better overall. This one's my favorite:



I uploaded several representative shots from the day, and made a set of them, here: http://flickr.com/photos/polimom/set...7600111071549/

Thank you so much, y'all, for all your help. I went out today with so much more confidence!