Surfing action shot

[lmurillo]

I took this shot during the last day of the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games in Jaco Beach Costa Rica



This is actually one of my favorite shots but I'd like to get your perspective on the post processing of the shot and also comments on what makes or breaks this shot.

I took this on my Nikon D60 with my 200mm Nikkor lens at 165mm 1/640 @ F/5.3

I still find it a bit difficult to get a great composition in high action shots but I'm getting there

[mikedugganphotography]

Luis, You captured a nice actions shot here. I would recommend a tighter crop on the top to draw more attention to the surfer. As it stands now there is too much negative space with the sky and I find that my eye is not drawn to the surfer as it should be. The tighter crop would provide me with more impact and a more powerful shot overall.

[lmurillo]

I actually would have loved the shot more if there was a blue sky and not so cloudy. I'll give that crop a try and see how it comes out

[cziz]

Love this pic! What a great scene. The detail in the water is awesome. I would bring out the clouds a bit. I can do it with lightroom. Can I edit and repost you pic? I want to give it a shot.

Chris.

[lmurillo]

Sure, if you want I can send you the RAW image so that you can play with it...

won't be releasing the rights though

PM me your e-mail address and I'll be more than happy to do so

[cziz]

Not interested in the rights just a little touch up fun. What do you think. I'm not a pro but sometimes I get it right.



I cropped it so the "third" line was in the center of the surfer and used the tone curve to pop the clouds a bit.

[lmurillo]

Originally Posted by cziz

Not interested in the rights just a little touch up fun. What do you think. I'm not a pro but sometimes I get it right.

Whoa, I actually like it, guess I should have put a bit more work on it

Care to expand exactly what you did? I'm guessing that you played with levels...or maybe just used the adjustment brush with the exposure setting lowered...

[mikedugganphotography]

You can see the separation in the clouds beautifully here.

[cziz]

Specifically I made the following changes in Lightroom:
Recovery to 90
Tone curve Highlights to 60
Blue luminance to -50

That’s on top of whatever you did to the original.

I used the "Adjust by dragging" tool to start, then cleaned the sliders up once I isolated the major changes the drag tool did.

Oh yah I up'ed the clairity really high to 85 as well. I tend to like how it pops out the details in scenes where it dosen't distroy someone's complexion.

Great shot to start with!