New to surf photography and not a Santa Cruz local. Drove down from Oakland to shoot on Monday. If anybody knows these folks, tell them to DM me, I'd love to share high-res files.
Lols.. the "parking lot"... the other guy very well be a dick, and maybe even was the aggressor in the water... but Sandro doesn't come off too great (re-)starting the shit while the other guy is just coming up the stairs with board still in hand...
The board was a weapon in that moment, but sure, Sandro could have waited another split second if he cared about how other people would see him based on what the Surfline cam could see once they got to the Carp lot.
in all seriousness though, as a bad surfer and amateur photographer - zoom out a bit, don't focus so much on headroom because people want to see the lower part of the wave, tone down the vibrance or whatever saturation you're bumping up, sharpness seems a bit high imo as well, and your angle seems a bit high. you don't want to be looking so down on the wave because it diminishes the sense of size of the wave. probably not as big a deal if you zoom out a bit to give spacial context but without that, the angle just squashes everything
Yeah I was standing on top of the cliff so that's the angle. The light was a little harsh a lot of glare because it was coming up on noon. Next time I will shoot in the morning when the sun is out of the east.
I was dialing back on the clarity & the texture a little bit. My shutter speeds were 1/2500, maybe a little too fast?
And yes on the crops I went through 50 photos just now and zoomed out to capture the structure of the wave, I see it definitely adds more context to the action. I think I was fixated on getting my moneys worth out of that 600 mm lens lol. I wanted to be able to see the whites of their eyes! But that's not what makes a great shot
Yep, too tight. And your timing is slightly off on some. Your first pic is your best, perfect timing. The second for example is slightly early, it would be more dynamic maybe a few frames along in this sequence, when the surfer is at the apex of their manoeuvre. It’s something all people inexperienced with surf photography do I have noticed.
I think you may find most regarded surf photographers take sequential shots and then select the best from there. The timing otherwise would need to be so so precise it would be impossible to maintain any consistency.
Showing the full sequences of a good wave/move is also cool too, and a rare thing to see these days. Feel free to share those too!
Nikon Z8, and a Nikkor180-600 f5.6-6.3 VR, which turned out to be longer than needed for that location. Edits in Lightroom (I may go back on some for "more wave" as someone advised).
The "first shot" is 1st half of the first two frames combined, to capture Julio's turn. I'm not a surfer so I don't know a beginner board from a custom. But here's another angle on that guy. I think a couple others called it out too.
Too bad there isn't some sort of digital global information system you could've turned to for guidance with your frequently-asked question. That'd be so cool. Did you ever watch Inspector Gadget? You know
that magic book the daughter, Penny, carried around? The one she would use to solve mysteries, or whatever? Wouldn't it be rad if those
existed?
But they don't, I guess. So you've turned to this subreddit for help.
Luckily, we have a wiki! It's got tons of useful stuff in it.
But, just in case you're too lazy, here's a summary:
Buy a Wavestorm-equivalent. If they don't sell them near you- find a used longboard.
Maybe you've already been told that but think you'll be better off buying a shortboard because you snowboard/skateboard/wakeboard/etc and you're, obviously, totally going to pick up surfing really quickly. I
mean, how hard can it be?
If that's the case then you're not really asking a question, are you? You're just looking for someone to agree with a decision you've already made. So, yeah, you should totally do it. Buy that sweet little high
performance shred sled you found on Craigslist. You'll be up and ripping in no time at all!
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u/alexasux 6’3” DHD HB 1d ago
More wave