Grey old day windsurfing

[FlyingKiwiGirl]

It was a good opportunity to practice my action shots today when windsurfers arrived at the park in front of my house. It was a very windy and grey old day so I wasn't expecting too much. I read up a bit on settings and found that I should set my camera in Shutter Priority mode and up the ISO. I trialed my shutter speed at 1/500 & 1/640 (hand held no tripod) I set my white balance to Cloudy and had a go at both spot focus and continuous, the ISO was both 400 & 800. This is one of my shots and there are a few more on the Flickr link below.

Windsurfer Set - a set on Flickr

My questions are;
I assume the high shutter speed opens the aperture and gives a shallow DOF and this would be why there is no definition on the surfers?
I'm guessing my lens (18-250mm) limits me a lot in getting good action shots further away.
Is there anything else you can do to brighten up a dull day like this one was (although the bright colours of the sails really stand out).
How are my settings? Am I on the right track?

Thanks for taking the time to view.



Exif data
Camera Sony DSLR-A350
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 250 mm
ISO Speed 800

[RichardTaylor]

Re the definition on the sail boarders.

(1) The lighting has a lot to do with it. With flat lighting you do not much in the way of modeling.

(2) The surfer is partially underexposed, however the main problems is that he is too far away from you.

(3) Shooting at wide apertures are fine, if you focus is accurate. F9 is not really very wide.

Re the lens.
250mm is not real long for shooting relatively small subjects at a distance.

Re your technique
Basically your settings are ok
Centre focus point only and continuous focussing is the way to go.

Re: Getting your pic to "pop"
It's a bit difficult with such flat lighting, however shooting in RAW may give you more leeway when PPing.

I would also consider a tighter crop keeping only some of the sky, the sailboarder and wake and a bit on the bottom and left (fore the subject to move into.

[FlyingKiwiGirl]

Thanks Richard, as always informative information which helps me greatly. It was as I thought, the further I get into serious photography my need for a few new lenses (and possibly camera) grows. Trouble is I am finding I love all genres of photography from macro to landscape to action which all a range of different lenses. I guess the new set of golf clubs will have to take a back seat for awhile unless I win LOTTO!

And you got me on the crop, I religiously viewed and took special care of my cropping on all 60+ photos. Trust me to miss this one! Thnaks again.

[pesawa]

What about black and white? Just an idea that would make the picture look more dramatic. Almost like the surfer was in danger of the storm.

/p