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Shooting from the boat...

 
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Dante2004
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PostPosted: Apr 13, 2011 5:21 am    Post subject: Shooting from the boat... Reply with quote

I'm not new to boating...not new to photography...but I am new to shooting wakeboarding from a boat.

Do you shoot handheld? Ever use a monopod?

From what I've seen so far, it looks like most of you are using fast shutter speeds, so maybe this isn't an issue. I was just curious about the vibration in the boat (from the engine, not the waves). Is this an issue? If you're sitting up, are you isolated enough?

All my experience has been from me standing on solid ground taking pictures of cars, buildings, people, airplanes, etc...so this will be a new experience to add to my "portfolio". Once I get to the lake this weekend, I won't be able to go back and grab different gear if I have the wrong glass. Not really equipped properly for this, but I'll make the best of it.

I'll only able to bring a 18-105 and a 80-400 which I'm sure is probably too much. Wish I had something else, but this was presented to me last minute.

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Dante2004
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PostPosted: Apr 27, 2011 5:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Forgot to update this...


It rained so we never went out.


So I'd still be interested in an answer since I never got to test this out...

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scott a
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PostPosted: Apr 27, 2011 9:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't use a monopod or tripod. All the vibration from the floor will transfer directly into the camera.

You should be shooting at 1/1000th or faster so vibration shouldn't be an issue if you're hand-holding the camera.

I'd start with the 18-105mm so you can also take pics inside the boat, and then figure out if you really need to be closer than that lens will allow.

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fotoshark
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PostPosted: Jul 11, 2011 5:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I always found balance was an issue for me when shooting from the boat
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Climber
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PostPosted: Jul 16, 2011 9:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

fotoshark wrote:
I always found balance was an issue for me when shooting from the boat


Put small loop of rope on tower, put your hand through loop and lean away.
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ediotism
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PostPosted: Oct 16, 2011 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i shoot with a 400D with a 70-200 f/2.8 lens. here're some tips

1. vibration/motion blur don't look that good in most cases, if your friends are doing 1-wake or two-wake jumps, a 1/500 shutter speed can be fast enough, but if there're lots of big jumps/grabs/spins you'll want to go near 1/800 or 1/1000 shutter speed asscott a mentioned above. Since your shutter speed now has a high minimum level, you'll probably want to up the ISO/ larger aperture to allow correct exposure - how high ISO/aperture is weather depending, of course.

2. i always find it easiest to kneel on rear left/rear right of the boat, so that my body faces the rider. i can then 'sit' on my heels if there're rollers coming/boat is rocking, or 'kneel tall' if the wake obstruct the view at certain angles. position other people in the boat AFTER the photographer's taken a place for the ideal wake and pictures.

3. i wrap the camera strap in my left hand then hold the under barrel of the lens with it. it is very easy to take off your right hand to grab the boat and sit on your heels whenever your balance goes off. i'm also very used to lifting my left arm just above shoulder at the same time to avoid the wake backwashing into the boat/onto the camera. make sure you're in wakeboarding gear yourself, jeans etc WILL get soaked.

4. my 400D is a 1.6x crop factor camera, i find around 100mm on the lens to be the ideal zoom distance for enough background and keeping the rider at a reasonable size in the picture. if you zoom in too much, you'll have to tile up the camera to take picture of the rider while he's in the air, and by not seeing the water in the picture, there's no telling the height he's got. keep that water in the picture unless you have other things to keep the picture in perspective.

5. maybe your camera isn't as slow at focusing as mine since mine's old and pretty low grade, but i find that manual focus actually works better, since your camera is almost the exact same distance from the rider, determined by rope length. by not using auto focus i have zero chance of accidentally focusing into the background, or the lens going far then back in the find the rider's focus. easy trick i use is to turn on auto focus, focus on the rider as he gets up out of water, then click the lens into manual focus mode. from now every picture will be in focus unless you use some crazy big aperture lens, i shoot at f/2.8 with manual focus on lock all the time, never have out of focus pictures unless i accidentally the focusing ring on the lens. in which case i pop the button into autofocus, focus the rider, then click back to manual focus. the whole thing only takes half a second when you've done it a few times.

6. to save stamina (left arm does get tired if you're holding up a big long lens to your face the whole time) i usually hold the camera at my chest until the rider's edged out the wake, then i bring up the camera to my face only when he starts edging back in towards the wake.
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