Making Skate Shots in the day Crispy??

[MBudny]

Hey, took this photo over the weekend of my buddy, because of the mass amount of sunlight overhead I used a flash to try and light his face as well. The lighting I was more or less okay with but obviously the crispness of the skater suffers. Because he's so high in the frame I managed to get away with i believe 1/320 and I'm shooting at a larger aperture (f8). I was using a youngo speedlite set at about a quarter of its full power. So aside from getting hypersync capable triggers and flashes what can I do to make this as crisp as possible for the next time I shoot in the daylight? Boosting my flash power even more? I didn't have a ton of time to mess around during this shoot

Thanks for any advice you have!

 

[TheNevadanStig]

Shoot when the sun is more directional (the golden hours). Maybe try having the subject fill more than 5% of the frame? I wouldn't have used any flash in all honesty. The light on his face looks very unrealistic and funky, almost like his face has been poorly photoshopped on afterwards. There are a handful of things I think that could improve this photo, but lighting is towards the bottom of that list.

 

[KmH]

To make the skater as crisp as possible, get a lot closer to the skater.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I agree, you've got plenty of light to work with, I'd think about the time of day and direction the sun's hitting. You could try a smaller aperture to have him well in focus if you're not able to be real close.

I'd think about framing the shot to not have so much foreground - think about your vantage point and where you can shoot from. You stopped the action nicely with him in midair, a lot of shooting sports is the timing and you seem to have gotten the shot at a good moment.

 

[412 Burgh]

The more powerful your flash is, the longer the light will be exposed. So if you want to freeze motion, and make sure everything is lit well.. I would suggest using multiple speed lights at a somewhat 1/64. Let others chime in. But the weaker the strobe, the more action will be frozen.


Hopefully that makes somewhat sense. I can't really describe it well over text. Good thing I'm not a teacher.

 

[FITBMX]

Your buddy has some skill! Did he land it?

 

[Wozza]

I disagree with the getting in close. For me Skate images are as much about context of the environment. You need to see the take off and landing, just a shot of a skater up close does not achieve this. Different time of day, maybe moving to the left a bit more and having the foreground less in focus could all make this better in my mind. It is a good shot and props to the skater, I'd love to know someone that can pull off that kind of move (for me to photo).

 

[runnah]

I disagree with the getting in close. For me Skate images are as much about context of the environment. You need to see the take off and landing, just a shot of a skater up close does not achieve this. Different time of day, maybe moving to the left a bit more and having the foreground less in focus could all make this better in my mind. It is a good shot and props to the skater, I'd love to know someone that can pull off that kind of move (for me to photo).

Exactly. Lots of folks here have no idea what makes a good skate/bmx shot.

 

[ShaneF]

I have a friend that rides flatland BMX and i shoot him every now and again, i came across this post when searching for ideas on shooting him. There are some suggestions you might find helpful next time your out.

19 Radical Skateboard Photography Tips - Beyond Photo Tips

 

[MBudny]

Alright thanks a lot everyone, and yeah shooting skateboarding seems to have a different formula compared to other sports, context is key. And yes he did land it, we ended up getting to the spot late, I had only about fifteen minutes before I had to get going. Thankfully he managed to put it down before I left.

 

[curtyoungblood]

How did you focus this shot? It looks lot me like it is focused on the crack between the wall and the ground. If the critical focus is on the ground, then the skater will never be crisp.

I also think that the composition is really hurting the image and effecting the "crispiness" of the skater. There's a strong focal point in the middle of the image where the wall, sky, tree, and black downhill slope all converge. On top of that, the lines from that point take you out of the image.

 

[Braineack]

your flash + ambient combination led to the soggy picture. If you look closely, there's a halo around the skater because when the flash fired it made a second exposure of him while the shutter was open. But you also shot in a manner that the primary light was ambient, so you see that as well.

This is why the rest of the shot look decent in this regard.

You also put the skater in the corner of your frame, which might be soft on your len and it looks like he's at the far limit of your DOF field--you can see the middle pole is getting soft and he's off-axis to your camera, so his left arm is falling out of your DOF.

not a bad shot, but maybe in this sort of condition just try using a reflector to remove shadows or less ambient as a light source