| Photograph Information |
Photographer's Comments |
Challenge: The Four Elements II (Advanced Editing V)
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X Pro DX
Location: Offshore of Matheson Hammock Park, Miami, Florida
Date: May 26, 2007
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/160
Galleries: Sky, Sports
Date Uploaded: May 27, 2007
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This is close to being exactly the shot that I was hoping to get. I asked Christian to jump over me so that I could get a close-up, wide angle shot that would include him and his kite. It is so difficult to get a close-up shot of both because the lines attaching the rider to the kite are so long.
I wanted to get as much detail as possible in the kitesurfer. So I started shooting when the sun was about 90 minutes from setting and I used a flash to fill in the shadows. I waded out about 150 yards and he made pass after pass, jumping over me while I quickly composed and took shots of him almost directly overhead. He has been kiteboarding for only about a year now and I have watched his skills increase much faster than the other kiteboarders that I shoot. He followed my suggestions (like looking directly at the camera while airborn) and he took great care not to get me, or more importantly, my camera wet.
Not very many shots came out good on this shoot because my camera kept saying that the exposure was too high. So I decreased the aperture which was fine with me because I want a lot of DOF. But, in fact, the results were too dark and too slow of a shutter speed. To make matters worse, my camera has a problem that won't present itself to the repairman but it did again while I was out there. I couldn't review the shots that I had taken.
Post processing -
* Opened in Nikon Capture
* Increased exposure compensation slightly.
* Saved as Jpeg and opened in Photoshop CS2.
* Levels numerous times, alternated with history brush.
* Photo filter (deep blue) to get the lower part of the sky to match up better with the top, then history brush.
* Shadow tool, history brush.
* Unsharp mask on the kiteboarder and kite.
* Brightness and contrast
* Spot healing brush to get rid of some noise and dust spots.
* Despeckle
* Burned the sky and dodged the water drops.
* Unsharp mask on entire image.
* Cropped, image size, and saved for web.
I think that pretty much covers the post processing.
I'm expecting a score of about 6.4 because of the 'wow' factor, but I'll probably get dinged a little for having only one element (other than the water drops). Oh well, I like it. |
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