Skateboarding Photography!

[dj-cline]

Hi. a few of my friends skateboard, and they would like me to take some pictures of them at a local skateboard park. can anybody give me some tips on how to get some decent shots. I would be using my built in flash. and my 18-55 lens. i also have a fisheye adapter, which i can bring aswell.

 

[Big Mike]

"Decent shots" and "built in flash" don't usually go well together. But if you are shooting during the day, then the flash might be useful as fill.

 

[dj-cline]

Thank you. I have taken a couple photos of one of my friends once, and they didnt turn out to well.

 

[Crushy]

For one, try to get a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the skater without any motion blur. I'm not sure how small or crowded your skatepark is, but try to get shots with no one in the background or anything. Other than that, just try to get cool compositions and angles to shoot from.

 

[wesd]

You have good results with what crushey said but also spend some time and play around trying different apature and shutter speeds. If you slow it down a little you will get a little motion blur which can help to show some action and when you want to really freeze the action cut it down. Your flash can be really good for freezing time, because the flash is a really short burst much shorter then the shutter speed. also if you are planning on running two lenses in the feild think about getting a second camera body, or try and change the lenses in the cleanest of situations especaly if you are working with a digital body.
Wes