Skateboarding in the West

[rotisiao]

Went out to shoot some of my friends at jurong west, first time shooting skateboarders. I found that day time shots resulted in largely cluttered backgrounds, thrashed loads of shots due to that. Added some artificial blur to the day shots hoping isolate the subjects, does it look too fake?



#1
Bail!


#2
Bail 2!


#3
Ollie


#4
Preload

[rotisiao]

#5
High Speed Manual


#6
Kickflip


#7
Boardgrab


#8
Air Time


#9
Five! (obviously he didnt land this. lol)

[rotisiao]

#10
Street


#11
Skater


Thats all! Do give me some critiques and comments. Thanks!

[stellarbeam]

I love #6 and #11. Fantastic shots!

The blur looks fake on #5, but the rest look fine to me.

I'm not keen on the ones that give the lads strange shaped heads

A great set though!

[rotisiao]

Originally Posted by stellarbeam I love #6 and #11. Fantastic shots! The blur looks fake on #5, but the rest look fine to me. I'm not keen on the ones that give the lads strange shaped heads A great set though!

ha..thanks...#5 is too fast?

The boarders liked the distortion so i decided to keep some shots.

[boyboy]

nice capture for 1, which still doesn't look too fake to me. but try to go closer. the closer u are, the better. of course, until you bang them or vice versa

the distortion is wideangle lens distortion right? if u use it to ur advantage to show the viewer how close u are...

[rotisiao]

Originally Posted by boyboy nice capture for 1, which still doesn't look too fake to me. but try to go closer. the closer u are, the better. of course, until you bang them or vice versa the distortion is wideangle lens distortion right? if u use it to ur advantage to show the viewer how close u are...

ha...thanks for the comments, will keep that in mind. Cause my frens not used to getting photographed so they are nervous when i position myself close to the action. Will try shooting with them again soon!

[kruger]

For the first 4 pics, it could tell the blurring of the background was post processed, especially the 2nd pic, I could see all the mismatched pixels around the skateboarder. Distortion is normal for wide angle lens but used properly, the impact of the trick will be delivered to the viewer. You still have much to learn about flash too. View more skateboarding magazines and see how the photographers capture the pictures.

[rotisiao]

Originally Posted by kruger For the first 4 pics, it could tell the blurring of the background was post processed, especially the 2nd pic, I could see all the mismatched pixels around the skateboarder. Distortion is normal for wide angle lens but used properly, the impact of the trick will be delivered to the viewer. You still have much to learn about flash too. View more skateboarding magazines and see how the photographers capture the pictures.

Noted about the blurring, will pay more attention to detail next time.

Regarding the flash how would you suggest i place it? Would a 2nd flash providing rim be better? My shots were taken with sb600 with flash bracket off shoe all angled to freeze action and provide light for the skaters hoping the pics not to turn out too flat.

Sorry for the questions, i dont have much access to skateboard magazines and i mostly view them online. Would like to do better on the 2nd time.

[kruger]

No need to say sorry. You don't have to blur the background. Get your basics, like composition, angle more polished. Of course, not all the times, we can ask for nice background for these shots because certain tricks have to be pulled off from certain obstacles. Flash photography is another area to learn, I've told someone before, master the understanding of the flash angle, power before going into slave flash. Magazines are a very good source of pictures to learn from. Having said all this, I have to say I'm neither an expert nor a pro, just someone who have the interest and still learning through trial and error.