• 1
  • 0
Ruth Carll's picture

Surfer

I mentioned surfers in another post this morning so I thought I'd drop this in. When I was teaching myself about action/panning, I started hanging out at the beach taking shots of surfers. I would connect with the kids and give them anything I got.

My goal for them was to make them look like they are riding huge waves when in reality these are typical NJ 4 to 5 foot swells. Now I have a little following since, as you can imagine, for these kids to have a wild photo of themselves riding the curl is a once in a lifetime thing. I love doing this! It gives me some real joy.

I really do color of them but the surfing group isn't active so here is a couple in black and white.

Feedback Welcome! Exposure is hard as the foam and spray can blare out when I need the light for shutter speed. ??

Log in or register to post comments
6 Comments

They're great, Ruth! Especially the first and third, with their purity. No wonder you're queen of the kids! Is the first in colour, but very desaturated?

No- but I definitely did something in the conversion didn't I!?

Sure did! I get the impression that in the final version, the sea is still slithgtly greenish-blue and the sky faintly magenta - but that could be just by comparison.

I always get a kick of how something isn't noticable until it is! I have been thinking if doing a quick flip flop of my workspace background from black to white when I think I'm done editing. The bright white of this page certainly makes the final image look different and I find I see things like this color issue much more readily. Thanks Chris! Pink skies are a definite no for me so I appreciate you pointing it out!

Funny you mentioned this. When I'm converting to B&W with Silver Efex, there is a button that allows switching the background from white to gray to black in sequence. I will use this ALL THE TIME during the conversion editing to get a better idea of the contrast and levels of the image. I can quickly decide if my whites are too dark or blacks aren't dark enough. The gray background gives me a better idea of the overall contrast of the photo. I never finish an edit without going through all three several times.

I have started doing this since I posted this and here is another one that looked fine on black but on white ..... Hilarious! Now I think he is looking at me thinking " is she kidding?"