How to: Shoot skateboarding

[jerseyfresh]

ok guys ...im new to this board and dont want to be a dick but there is some stuff you guys are not even thinking of when shooting skateboarding or anything like it...

A flash is recomended . You can get some GREAT NATTY light shots but you have to have the right lighting to acheve that .
You dont want to shoot with too fast of a shutter speed ...when using flashes set your shutter from 200 to 250 and play with the app. The reason why you get the motion blurr is because there is not enough light to "freeze" the action...

If you need help email me ..I will go into detail about flash photog...its too much to get into on a board like this ...

You guys have to think about your photo b4 you shoot though ..You need to show the viewer the whole scene NOT just the skater on the rail...Think about skate photography like you would any other photography ...know your subject and use the surroundings to lead you to him ..show where he is coming from and where he will be landing ...MOTION BLURR IS NOT OK ! Ghoste ...with your two if you backed away and shot those they would be loads better ...work on your timing and THINK about the photo b4 you just go shoot it ...Here is a recent flick..try to do what i did here and let me know how it works out for you

here are two...fisheye and long lens

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[Hantge]

AWESOME!! I live right next to the Denver skatepark, i'll see what I can come up with now that i've read your post!

[Sachphotography]

good info.

Your pictures are good. It is so wierd. The way your pictures are lit, it looks like you cut them out of a different picture and pasted them into those ones. Interesting lighting.

[ocular]

when using flashes set your shutter from 200 to 250 and play with the app. The reason why you get the motion blurr is because there is not enough light to "freeze" the action...

Unless you have a speed light compatible with nikons creative lighting system a.k.a you need a nikon camera. For nikon users enable auto fp(high speed sync), with this enabled you can shoot at any shutter you choose, and no blur.

[KmH]

when using flashes set your shutter from 200 to 250 and play with the app. The reason why you get the motion blurr is because there is not enough light to "freeze" the action...

Unless you have a speed light compatible with nikons creative lighting system a.k.a you need a nikon camera. For nikon users enable auto fp(high speed sync), with this enabled you can shoot at any shutter you choose, and no blur.

The duration of the flash of light from a speedlight set to full power is about 1/1000 of a sec.

The flash duration gets shorter as power output goes down. At 1/128 power, flash duration is about 1/40000 of a sec.

When you slow your shutter speed below the flash sync speed, it allows more ambient light to effect the exposure increasing the chance of recording motion blur.

That can be a powerful way to convey speed and movement. It can look odd though if your camera is left in it's default setting of front/first curtain sync. In that mode the blurred bits preceed the direction of movement.

Set the sync mode to rear/second curtain to have the blurr trail the direction of motion.

The flash duation at full power (1/1000) is usually more than plenty to stop motion.

So, you don't have to go to FP sync mode, unless you are shooting in daylight. FP sync mode eats up batteries very quickly because the speedlight is firing many times during a single exposure (though at reduced power levels)

[jibbinglibbing]

so here are just some photos ive taken and i was wondering are these good?

Flickr: jibbinglibbing's Photostream

flickr.com/jibbinglibbing

[KyleWillis]

Good advice. I film skateboarding, almost always with a fisheye and I love the look of it but it doesn't work for all shots. Just starting to take pictures of skating.

[KmH]

Wow! A thread started in 2005!

[snapcult]

Used to shoot a lot of skateboarding. For the most part everything posted is true. Try to keep your shutter speed at 250th or faster, use fill flash, keep the flash at half power to get a faster flash duration. The more flashes the better, I used three for most shots. Fisheye is played out unless you're doing sequences of big gaps and really need to show the space. Toward the end I mostly used my Blad and shot everything at 500th of a second. Now I shoot a lot of BMX racing which is very similar, fast motion, multiple fill flashes, ect...