Surfing Photography

Two weeks ago I had the chance to shoot the 2009 Rincon Classic. Luckily Rincon isn't far from me and during that weekend we had a very nice swell. You need a few things in order to get a good surf shot. I'm no pro at this, but these are the things that I found helped when shooting this great sport.

1st) Equipment - Rent a long lens - Preferably a 300mm or longer. For the 2009 Rincon Classic I used a Canon 400mm 5.6L. You can rent a lens like this from Samy's for cheap, so it's good to rent when you need specialized glass rather than buying it for $1000+. If this is going to be your profession, I'd say go 400mm or above.

2nd) Equipment - Tripod - You'll need a solid tripod or monopod to support that big lens you rented. They may not seem very heavy, but after a few hours, you'll be happy you brought the tripod. I like Manfrotto gear, but that's just me. As for tripod vs monopod, I'm glad I brought my tripod. With a monopod you always need to hold on to it. With my tripod, i could take a break and my gear was ready for the next shot. Just get a good ball head for the the tripod and you have the flexibility you'll need for surfing.

3rd) Camera Settings - AI Servo Focus - This focus type tracks your subject as they are moving. Even using this setting, focus on my little Canon Rebel XT was stugglin'. You should be using a 30D,40D,50D or a pro body if you want better focusing and speed.

4th) Camera Settings - Continuous Shooting - Most cameras will have a continuous shooting setting that lets you hold down the shutter and it will fire rapidly. I'd say this is a good option because the action is so fast you just can't react fast enough to catch the action (at least I can't).

5th) Camera Settings - ISO - You need to shoot at 1/1000 sec or faster in order to freeze the action. If you don't do this all your shots will be blurry. I learned this the hard way during the first day of the competition. Depending on the weather, I'd say use ISO 200 or 400 so you can get a faster shutter speed. Use whichever setting that allows you to shoot 1/1000 sec or faster in your lighting conditions.

Lastly, I wouldn't even think about trying to use a point n' shoot for this kind of photography. They just don't have the reach needed and they aren't fast enough to catch the action. I'd say this is one style that you'll need an SLR to get good results. Sorry Point N' Shooters :(

To check out more of my surfing pics, visit my portfolio at www.morganmessina.com

What is ISO?

The other day a buddy of mine asked me about iso. I don't want to go too in depth about iso considering there are a bunch of resources online, but here are a few key things to know.

1) Sensitivity - ISO is the sensitivity of your film or your digital sensor. It's easy to think about...the higher the ISO # the more sensitive the sensor is to light (ie ISO 100 is less sensitive than ISO 1600).

So why would I want to change ISO?

2)Lighting conditions - During a bright sunny day there will be a lot of light hitting your sensor. In this case you can use a lower ISO because there is lots of light. If you were to go inside though, you don't have as much ambient light. Therefore you would want your sensor to be more sensitive to light and you would increase your ISO.

3)Noise - The problem with ISO is that as you increase your ISO the more visible noise you will get in your pictures. Easy rule; Higher ISO=More Noise. Noise appears as little dots on your pics. Not cool! This is especially true with point n' shoots where you will be limited to using lower ISO to get clean images. Here are some examples (thank you www.cameralabs.com for these images):In this example the left pic was taken with a point n' shoot (Canon G10) and an SLR (Canon 450D) on the right. Even at ISO 100 you can notice that the 450D pic is cleaner, with less dots than the G10.

In this example the pics were now taken at ISO 400. On the left, the point and shoot is starting to show a lot of visible noise (click the image to see higher res). The SLR on the right is still clean with little additional noise.
...and finally ISO 1600. The point and shoot on the left is stugglin'. Many cameras will try to fight noise with software, but this noise reduction "smears" the image making it less sharp. The SLR on the right is now showing some noise, but the detail is still there and usable.

NOTE: the G10 is the top of the line point and shoot from Canon going for ~$500!!! Lower end cameras will probably display even greater noise at high ISOs. The 450D is the bottom of line DSLR. It goes for ~$560...check out B and H for camera prices. You can even find used equipment there. Here's a good deal on a base DSLR (Canon XTi). Only $329 used!!!

I don't like noise!!! If you have a point and shoot you're probably getting a lot of noisy pics...well buy a digital SLR...they're cheap now!! These cameras allow you to use higher ISOs without nearly as much visible noise as point n' shoots. If you really like your point and shoot, and don't want to make the switch to an SLR, then here's your rule of thumb:

Use the lowest ISO possible for the conditions you're shooting in.

This is the key rule whether or not you have a point and shoot to get the cleanest images possible. Some newer cameras now even have an "Auto ISO" setting that does this for you. The camera senses how much light there is in the picture and then automatically chooses the lowest ISO possible to accomplish the best exposure. Use it if you have it!

Here are some more resources on ISO if you really want to learn all the intricacies:

http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_iso.html

http://www.cameratown.com/guides/iso.cfm

Sunset Portrait Basics

Sunset/Sunrise Portrait Basics - Over the holiday break a few friends and I went up to Lake Tahoe to go snowboarding. On the way we encountered a beautiful sunrise. What a great backdrop for a portrait shot!!! It's actually really easy to make a good sunset shot. Here are the steps...(keep in mind, this is for people with point and shoots or any camera for that matter that has a built in flash; you could get really elaborate with off camera flash if you had the time/equipment. Check out Strobist if you want to learn more about off camera flash techniques)

1st - Flash!!!
Make sure your flash is on or you're going to get silhouettes. If you're going for the silhouette look don't flash, but in every other case you need to flash if you want to expose correctly for the people and the sunset.

2nd - Focus!!!
Focus on the subject not the sunset!!! A lot of times the auto-focus in the camera will want to focus on the sunset and not your subject. This will result in the sunset being in focus but your subjects are blurry. Many cameras allow you to pick your focus point. Be sure to choose a focus point that will accurately focus on your subjects and not the background.

3rd - Compose!!!
Try to stay away from putting your subject's head in the middle of the picture; put their head on the upper or lower third of the frame. This rule also applies if you were going to take a picture of the landscape alone. Be sure to put the horizon line on a third and not directly in the middle of the frame.

4th - Exposure (Advanced)
Expose for the sunset first without the flash! Once you get the sunset exposed properly then turn on your flash and adjust it to expose your subjects properly. Most cameras will use built in auto-flash exposure for this (aka ETTL) but you could do it manually too if you had an external flash.

I hope this helps with your sunset shots. These rules can also be applied to pictures taken during the day. The basic idea is Use your Flash!