Skateboarding C+C

BlastedGlute

Hey guys, in a kind of tribute to red_ice's thread, I thought I should throw these up to see what you guys think. This was my first time doing any sports/motion photography and we had an hour at it. I learned a good bit about my flash though. I'm happy to say that both images are straight off the camera, with only a very mild vignette added to the first one and my watermark. Sure let me know what you think. I have some critique of my own for these but id be interested to hear what you guys had to say first!





Thanks for looking

I've never really been sold on combo shots (like the second one) but it's good for what it is. As individual images, i like them.

The big image though, is fantastic, in my opinion. You must've been shooting flash off camera?

I'm not sure what it is that I like so much, to be honest, but I find it very striking. I like that the sky is as dull as the grey in park behind him. Really makes him stand out in the image (and perfectly timed, with the skateboard, too!).

Great stuff.

marko93

I must say, I think these are some great shots, well done!

BlastedGlute

Thanks very much lads! I really wish there was more skaters in town, well at least guys who were actually good at the sport. i see a fair few guys with boards in eyre square all the time but they cant even ollie onto the flat that's there. Spend most of their time sitting around smoking cigarettes, oh how things have changed :P

marko93

Dare i ask, what equipment did you use for these shots?

hoganpoly

Love them shots ,well captured, only criticism i,d have is maybe add a panning effect shot to emphasize speed ...

Zillah

I quite like the first one, very effective use of the flash!

challengemaster

Serious contrast boost needed....

BlastedGlute

I actually tore the contrast out of them! haha! I'm going to try and define a style. It's an idea I'm messing with,purposely flattening images. Higher contrast would probably make a better looking picture, but I want my photos to look like I shot them. Sound odd?

BlastedGlute

I use a canon 60D and a 550ex flash. The lens is a 17-55mm 2.8. You could achieve this exact shot with lesser kit. Again the only thing im happy about was the 0% post work with these other than basic levels(such as contrast )

BlastedGlute

hoganpoly wrote: »

Love them shots ,well captured, only criticism i,d have is maybe add a panning effect shot to emphasize speed ...

I like that, didnt really think about it at the time! If I ever find another skater I will

marko93

I must say, quality of skaters you see isnt as good these days, although Kings Of Conrete this summer, that's where it's at!

BlastedGlute

What is the mystical event you speak of???

marko93

BlastedGlute wrote: »

What is the mystical event you speak of???

Skating, graffitii and other stuff!
http://www.kingsofconcrete.com/

dazftw

King's of Concrete is an event that happened last year in Dublin or the year before that? It has basically all the best skateboarders in the country, even some from the states. I was there and it was pretty much impossible to get a good photo unless you were willing to get in the way or unless you had an extremely good vantage point up high. You may be wondering why I said it was impossible to get good photographs when so many photo's that were posted here received decent feedback. Well 99.9% of those photographers weren't skateboarders. Most of the shots were over-processed, shot zoomed in too much and tilted angles.

Now that's not a bad or wrong way to shoot skateboarding. I'm merely going to explain how I would have done it from a skateboarders perspective. I understand this is your 1st time trying it so don't take what im about to say too seriously! It doesn't matter what way you want to do it.

Your 1st shot isn't great! The composition is all over the place, it makes me dizzy to look at for more than a few seconds. You should have composed it so you could see the take off and landing to really show what was going is going on. Your timing is a little bit early by looking at it. You should try to be catching it mid trick, here you've caught it just before that. You did use flash which was a good thing. When your shooting skating flash will freeze that action and avoid motion blur.

This isn't a great example but its the best I could find:

What not to do:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrin/5759258127/
What to do:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martins_album/4511796909/

You know take a step back, use your eye to work up a composition, use the ramp's lines to help it, frame only the ramp and nothing else if you can(getting up high is a good way to do this) especially if its overcast. Overcast and tearing the contrast out really isn't helping. Maybe try it black and white?

Your 2nd photo is quite alright, ill nitpick and say the 2nd last frame his feet aren't on the board which doesn't look great but the guy isn't a pro or anything so its fine.

I'm not a fan of the processing at all but that's just personal taste.

Just to show you some of my shots to give you an idea of ideas!!



1st shot here im up high(on a recycling bin:p) adding in all of the benches in the area into the shot and I was lucky to be able to time it as the girl on the left is looking at him as well as the guy on the right.



2nd shot is up high(on top of my car:p) and I really wanted to use all the lines/shadow. You have lines coming down, going across and going diagonal.



This last shot is timed a bit late but what I wanted to do and its a great little thing to try which can give great results. I used two off camera flashes here, I knew it was going capture the motion fairly well so I dialled down the shutter speed a bit so it would catch some blur when the camera/skater moved a bit. The clock tower is blurred and there is a light shadow coming off of him.

JayEnnis

Was just about to post the same as Daz, Skateboard photography is very much about incorporating the environment into the shot. "Guy in the sky" shots like your first one aren't generally very well received in the Skateboarding world. If you're interested in learning more about skate photography check out

Skate Perception.

Also Daz, I know the first shot was outside the people park right? But where is that ledge set up in the second photo? Looks super fun

BlastedGlute

Cheers for that fellas. i must take a look at that kings of concrete, but if as you say its a ****ing cram fest, I'd sooner just find a skater with a bit of swagger who doesnt mind setting up tricks for photos! Sure I'll stick with it, but it's quiet times around galway for the sport. It generally takes good skaters to inspire the beginners, pity there's none around....

challengemaster

Yeah, KoC is a bit crazy alright - I ended up as an official photographer (Dubbed KoCtographer by the lads here ) for it a few years ago, and while it's most definitely an event worth going to, it's not the place to get the shots Daz is on about.

It's a seriously enjoyable weekend, the amount of events going on... it's just brilliant, and there's a great atmosphere and usually decent weather too.

marko93

BlastedGlute wrote: »

Cheers for that fellas. i must take a look at that kings of concrete, but if as you say its a ****ing cram fest, I'd sooner just find a skater with a bit of swagger who doesnt mind setting up tricks for photos! Sure I'll stick with it, but it's quiet times around galway for the sport. It generally takes good skaters to inspire the beginners, pity there's none around....

Get a pass that lets you in between ramps and other areas, it's a much better vantage point, while I do agree it is quite full. There's always opportunitys for some nice shots.

BlastedGlute

Any information on where to apply for such a pass? Or just a basic photographers pass?

marko93

As far as i know, you just sign up when you get there!

tommyh1977

OP love the first large image, just goes to show you can have all the top kit (1D, L Lenses etc) but if you really know what you are doing with your camera fantastic shots can be achieved just as good.

BlastedGlute

thanks very much for the kind words dude, much appreciated! and your right about kit, there's some very cheap effective ways to get great work done!