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Igor Kraguljac
{K:410} 6/10/2004
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Great shot David.
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kathleen fonseca
{K:11992} 5/15/2004
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hi, David! What a great response! Yes, the 5700 is very slow..grr..i shoot my son and his friends doing skateboard jumps and so forth in an urban environment as opposed to a park with ramps and prefabricated jumps. It's interesting shooting like this but each site is a new challenge. i do prefocus (manual focus is so not an option on the 5700--they have the capacity but do a crap job) on the spot where the peak of the trick will occur and keep the shutter pressed halfway down so i can be ready to go at the right moment. Even so, it's hit or miss..sometimes my fault for failing to coordinate the speed of the skater with the speed of my shutter, sometimes the skater's fault. They abort the trick at the last moment if they don't feel right going into it. Fortunately skateboarders do the same tricks over and over and you almost always get a second, third, fourth and fifth chance. In the end, it's how coordinated the shooter is, how fast the camera is and how well the subject actually performs.
Still and all, this shot of yours is just so perfect..seeing it a second time was better than the first. It's obvious that the final and one of the most important factors for shooting action is experience which you obviously have tons of! Just wonderful work, David..thanks so much for the discussion! (now i'll go look at the link) kat~
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David McClenaghan
{K:9481} 5/15/2004
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Hi Kathleen
Its always a tough capture to get the exact peak of any action shot, regardless of the camera your using.
The most important skill is the ability to predict and fire the shutter fast enough to get what you expect to happen in the frame.
In that sense I have to start pressing the shutter button just before the peak of the action. If I had pressed the shutter at the instant the kid was in the position on the photo I would have missed this shot, does that make sense?
My digital camera which is styled on traditional 35mm cameras, has an advantage over yours, in that I can predict the shot and fire the shutter at almost the same instant. This is more to do with a thing called shutter lag rather than using a fast motor drive.
The Coolpix 5700 and most other prosumer cameras have a slow response time from the moment you press the shutter until the camera actually takes the shot. Im only talking about fractions of a second here, but thats enough to miss the shot completely, as your well aware :)
If you do want to capture shots like this with your camera it may be possible, but you have to train yourself to predict the time lapse between pressing the shutter and the camera taking the shot. Whereas I can press my camera shutter very close to the actual peak of the jump you will probably find that you have to release the shutter as the kid is halfway or 3/4s up the ramp. It would also be a good idea to turn off your autofocus and do what pros generally do and pre-focus on the spot where the action will take place. This will help reduce the shutter lag problem considerably.
I usually focus all my shots manually, I hardly ever use the autofocus and I tend to take one shot at the peak rather then fire off 1/2 dozen with the motor drive.
If you view my pic at http://www.usefilm.com/image/404267.html
This is not a motor drive sequence. Each photo is one single photograph from four seperate jumps. Each time the bike was in the air I took one shot.
There endeth the lesson for today :)
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kathleen fonseca
{K:11992} 5/14/2004
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ok, David, tell me THIS wasn't a tough capture with your digital. My son skateboards and i've shot him time and again. You really have to anticpate the peak of the movement and shoot ahead of time. Or maybe your digital is much faster than mine but i can shoot 40 and get 2 that work. You captured absolutely the right moment, when he's totally suspended in mid-air, not going up and not coming down..absolutely perfect action..congratulations. How do these kids have the nerve to do this stuff? Do they all have a death wish? Just super! kat~
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WALT MESK
{K:10691} 5/14/2004
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excellent...great captured.walt.
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Roberto Arcari Farinetti
{K:209486} 5/14/2004
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stunning "achrobatic" shot.. wonderful and difficult capture!
magnific..
roby
7
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Paula Goddard
{K:8492} 5/14/2004
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Mmmmm, biting, are we? Rather passionate.
Anyway, enough nonsense. I'm sure it works very well, here it's just too small but there's nothing you can do about that.
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David McClenaghan
{K:9481} 5/14/2004
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Thanks I wouldnt have bitten you... much.. grrrrr :)
The panorama actually works really well as a big poster print, but loses a lot on the web.
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Paula Goddard
{K:8492} 5/14/2004
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yes, was considering suggesting a crop like this, but was too shy... :-)
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Stephen Bowden
{K:64141} 5/14/2004
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Excellent capture David - my son will definitely want this in his favourites :-)
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