More skateboarding stuff...

dazftw

I went back out today and got 2 more pictures, which I like alot more.

I had alot of misfires with the pocketwizards which wasn't a nice feeling at all. Maybe its the batteries?
I feel I could get a little closer with the fisheye..
Flash placement... is difficult... especially on a busy road.
I was panning with the skater this time which works better I found.
Its gets dark here around 4pm

Anyways.. pick them apart again please..

landed.


this one wasn't landed, the one he did land the flash on the left misfired so it looked terrible.



view larger:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dazftw/

Im posting this on a skate photographers website also and its interesting the different replies I get. A site full of skate photograpers and here where theres basically only me.

Creamy Goodness

after a youth of looking through skate mags and idolising rodney mullen i have to say shot number 2 is the better of the 2.

there's more action in it, good lighting around the skater and there's no photographer shadow (on the wall) as there is in photo number 1.

dazftw

Yeah I feel the timing is a little off in the 1st one as well. Oh well.. Theres always next time.

pete4130

I've been using PW's for years now. I'd say your misfiring issues are probably down to battereies in your flashes. Make sure you give them enough time to recharge before shooting again...but don't leave them too long so that they go to standby! Just charge them before you go out everytime. I dunno what setting you are using, but generally in any sort of lighting conditions, f5.6 and 1/16th or 1/32nd at 400 ISO usually works out ok for me. Sometimes it deviates a little form those setting (ISO 200 maybe, or f4 or f8 etc....).
One thing to remember is that if you start to shoot at 1/8 power or more, the flash duration is a little longer from what I've found and doesn't quite freeze the action. Thats another reason why I opt for 1/16 and 1/32 power and try to compensate with apertures and ISO so I the flash can actually freeze whats going on.

Another killer thing with shooting fisheye is its hard not to get your own shadow in the shot too unless your lying underneath your flashes!!!!!

Pivot_Al

I'm not into skateboarding at all, but purely as an action photograph that first one is brilliant.

challengemaster

Here's my advice - Stop going from the one angle all the time. All of your recent shots look the same, because they're from the same position. It's meant to be an extreme sport, yet there's nothing reflective of that from your pictures.

With the fisheye, and get closer and lower. Even lie down under where he's jumping (maybe lie down beside the wall) I just think the angle you're shooting is really, really boring.

Also your shadows are showing up in the photos.

My 0.02€

dazftw

Yea the 1st day I was out they were fine... today it was all over the shop.. Ill try new batteries.. the ones I have in them now are bog standard duracell ones.. Ill stick in the rechargeable ones I have.

pete4130

I've also pretty much stopped shooting with fisheye as well the past few months (so upgrading my trusty Sigma 15mm fisheye to a Nikon one seems sort of pointless since I've not used it sine buying it) and have really begun to start shooting at much longer focal lengths with off camera flash. The fisheye is easy to overuse. I got an 80-200 2.8 reasonably cheap and I've been using that alot for my BMX shots lately.

I think your shots are lit from the right places (although I always find myself wanting more flashes to balance everything out, I've got 3 right now). I'd say that your flash settings might be a little bit too high and blowing out the subject a bit too much.

dazftw

challengemaster wrote: »

Here's my advice - Stop going from the one angle all the time. All of your recent shots look the same, because they're from the same position. It's meant to be an extreme sport, yet there's nothing reflective of that from your pictures.

I know what you mean, the angles are the same though becasue the trick is the same.. off a ledge and over a curb.. different tricks will call for different angles. I was going to shoot straight on with my 70 - 300 but there was way to many cars coming in and out.

I have some other ideas coming up to try.. Just depends on when the lads get around to skating different spots.

In the 1st picture, the flash behind me is low so theres a strong shadow.. On the second picture the flash was up a bit higher and theres not much of a shadow there.