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.......how am i doing?

a cold, early start for the wakeboarders at Wakestock in Phwelli, Wales, a couple of weeks ago, apparently the sun was out for the preliminary rounds, twas not the case at 8am on finals day.....

all images on a D70 with sigma 75-300 zoom at full stretch, wide open at f5.6, tired, cold photographer..........

befores.......






afters...



check the knee brace on this guy.......



adjustments made in PCS2 using levels and a touch of saturation / contrast and smart sharpening......

all comments on the shots / technique / pp welcome.

Cheers

Chris

the dark grey day is always a bit challenging ... your PP'ing seems fine, but the images look underexposed to start with ... try bumping your EV compensation up, if shooting jpeg, then perhaps also use a brighter curve.

cool though, and good on you for getting out in winter .. myself and mates do the same

Personally i shoot around ISO400 , a mode F7.1 to maximise sharpeness of my tamron compact ... but you probably dont have a softness problem at wider apertures like my lens does

http://darb.net/wakeboarding-surfing-metro

Good captures considering the grey conditions!

Keep up the good work.


Gecko

Those are really dark!

I think its better to find a nice bright day than to try and overcome a gloomy one.

its nice to see a different angle all mine are from the back of a boat. you get much better results on a sunny day with a polariser.

i have an apointment to have a knee brace made for next season costs an arm and a leg but its still cheaper then another acl reco.

apologies for the dealyed reply folks, and thanks for your comments.

Most odd about images appearing dark at your end, tehn i looked onmy monitor at work and there are dark there too - even with brightness up full.....

darb - great shots on your site - mine were taken mid summer here in 'sunny' england!!!!!.i'm not a boarder myself, though i just know i want to have a go, i just happened across the event whilst on my hols.
Dallas Summer was in the ladies event (#1 female boarder in the world?)
Didnt get any great shots of her though - the ladies went first and i was still sussing out the best angles / picking my jaw up when Dallas did her runs - i reckon she'd have beaten the blokes - big air moves, only person all day to do a clean run over the A frame......and she's short and cute....

zeb00 - hope the kneee brace works well- guess it ligament damage from trying to twist to far whilst tied into the bindings.ouch!

mmmmm hot wakeboarder chicks

Good try on the PP Chris, I had a go at PPing your original photos as I found them underexposed and your edited ones a little washed out and the highlights over brightened, here are my results:




My steps were:
1. Adjust the levels
2. Adjust the curve (using a slight S curve)
3. Used the 'Shadows/Highlight' adjustment to bring some detail back into the boarder as he was underexposed on both versions.
4. Used the 'Photo Filter' by adding a 'Cooling 82' at 10% density.
5. Used the 'Unsharp Mask' filter to sharpen up the boarder.

It's always hard shooting on the water especially under overcast conditions. The glare on the water often results in the subject being underexposed and PP can be quite difficult. Feel free to ask if you need any help with your PPing.

michael - thanks for that, as i said its early days for me in PP - your technique uses tools i have heard of but not yet dared play with - ie curves
and others - ie 'shadows / highlights' that i have not even heard of........
i really should try to read my copy of the 'Dummies Guide to PCS' , in the meantime i will keep asking for assistance, thankyou, and i 've also booked a short nightschool course on basic PCS skills which starts september.......

Thing with PCS - i find it almost addictive - each little step i achieve leaves me thinking of more ideas i'd like to try so its back to the bottom of the learning curve to try and work out how to acieve that next idea...........
What happened to the good old days when you dropped a film at the lab and then just called back in to collect the results.....

so where are the photos of the girls ?

darb - just for you i'll check the folder when i get home tonight and see if there are any worth dragging out !
problem was there were only 4 of them in their little competition, by the time i'd worked out the best location to shoot from and some sort of adequate technique, they'd all finished.........

edited to add......here we go then mate just for you, they aint classics but hey.......

Miss Dallas Friday giving it large on the A frame.....



Cold and wet just after her run