How to take Sailing photos?????

Hi guys,

 

Finally I got my first paid job, or I should say wine paid job!

 

A friend of mine asked me to take some picture of his boot sailing for the

sailing school website.

 

Here is what I have:

Nikon d70

Nikoor 18-70

Nikkor 70-210

CF 1 Gb

 

They?ll be sailing in north italy on Como Lake, so surrounded by mountains and

really amazing Villas, weather is supposed to be good, the boat is yellow with

red sail.

 

Any suggestion on aperture, shutters speed, composition and on all other aspects

are really welcome.

Don?t forget that I?ll get paid with a case of wine so if you contribute to the

job I?ll offer you a glass when you stop by.

 

Thanks

 

 

Luca

Well there should be lots of good scenery but dont forget to take some shots of just the boat and perhaps in a more abstract form?

 

Angle wise Id say try lots of different angles, get down low as possible for some shots will be nice. Also harbours sometimes make good shots, but too cluttered sometimes.

So will this be a fleet? or just one boat? For composition i'd check out pacificfog.net. The photographer, Sean Trew is awesome. Also look up Billy Black and Onne VanDerwall (sp?). As far as shutter and aperture goes.. Keep the shutter speed up at 210 you probably don't want to go below 1/350. Also, I assume you will be folling the boat in a tender. Have the tender driver move at a consistent pace it will keep the vibrations of the boat down.

 

check this page.. There is a whole thread about it..

 

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39825&hl=canon+lens

 

and http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24485&hl=

Are you shooting from another boat, aboard his boat, from shore or from a helicopter? Each has its advantages. What exactly does he want the photo to achieve on his website...the answer should guide you in how you approach the shot. The water can be really deep blue, which can throw off your metering, so take some preliminary test shots to find the correct exposure. You may also want to use a polarizing filter to really make the colors snap. Generally, when I used to sail, I found fast shutter speeds to be my best friend.

As both a sailor and photographer (and having just finished 4+ days on the water shooting a regatta) I think I can offer some suggestions.<br>

<br>

First, unless it's calm out (or the lake is very small) you will be fighting a fair bit of motion. Most boats just aren't designed to be a stable camera platform. The best boat type I've shot from were <a href="http://kathleens-photography.com/SailRaceWeb/images/IMG_6424.jpg">pontoon boats</a>. Because they are wide and relatively long they don't roll around as much as smaller V-hull boat. High shutter-speed will be you friend. I'd suggest at least one stop faster than the 1/focal-length rule under most conditions. Check your shots as you take them to make sure they're not too blurry. You will probably find the telephoto the better lens for most of the shots. Exposure can also be tough. Sometimes the sun highlights on the water can fool the meter into underexposing badly. Alternatively, a broad expanse of dark water may cause the white sails to be completely over-exposed. Check the histogram and highlights as much as you can while you're out to make sure they're OK. If you can, I'd suggest shooting RAW so you have more latitude to adjust things later. Sometimes small changes in your angle relative to the sun can have a huge difference.<br>

<br>

Much better than trying to chase the sailboats is to position the camera-boat and have the subject sail past you. If you're setting up a shoot where you control everything (except the weather!) this is a bit easier than if you're just out photographing boats sailing around. Races are also good because you know the boats will all head to a number of marks, so you can position yourself to get the angle(s) you want.<br>

<br>

As always, I'd talk with the client about what kinds of shots they are looking for. Personally, I tend to favor <a href="http://geoff-s.net/mtp-gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-5227">closeups</a> to <a href="http://geoff-s.net/mtp-gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-5291">capture the human-element</a>, but most of my client seem to like a bit <a href="http://geoff-s.net/mtp-gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-5289">wider shots with more of the boat</a>. Smiles <a href="http://geoff-s.net/mtp-gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-5207">are always good!</a><br>

<br>

If you have the chance to get out for a practice session with the boat you'll be shooting from (and hopefully also the driver) before the "big day" that will help a lot. That way you can try a variety of different things and look at the photos carefully later to see what worked and what didn't.<br>

<br>

Good luck! Post some of your results!<br>

<br>

Cheers,<br>

<br>

Geoff S.<br>

<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4837929"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/4837929-sm.jpg"></a>

Hi Guys, you are great source as usual.

I will be on a tender with an instructor.

 

So from what you said, I'll try to use high shutter but I'm not sure about the polarizer, I can buy one but I don't know if I want to use it right that day without any practice.

 

Few other questions:

-what ISO??

-what metering??

-which lens 18-70 or 70-200??

 

I promise this is the last post, next one will have the pics in it.

 

Have a great shot guys!!!!!!!!!!

 

Luca

> -what ISO?? -what metering?? -which lens 18-70 or 70-200??

 

For metering I'd use the regular matrix mode; it seems the most robust in the face of varying conditions, but I haven't done any comparisons to make a really informed decison.

 

I'd use the 70-210mm lens.

 

I would pick the lowest ISO setting that allows you an "adequately fast" shutter speed (probably at least 1/500, 1/1000 would be even better) with the lens stopped down a bit (for better image-quality and to give you a bit more DOF).

 

I'm not sure if I'd choose aperture or shutter priority mode. It's a balancing act between reducing motion blur and softness from the lens and focusing-errors. I've generally found that the softness from too wide a lens opening is less objectionable than motion blur. If it was very bright it probably doesn't matter if you pick a fast shutter speed (1/800 or 1/1000) or pick the widest aperture you think will give you the DOF you want. Keep an eye on the non-fixed parameter to make sure the shutter speed isn't dropping below your minimum, or the aperture is opening up too much. In bright sun there's not much to worry about; your settings will almost always be good. If the light was more marginal, I would probably choose shutter-priority and start with the lowest shutter speed I thought I could get away with for the conditions (1/500?). While I was shooting I would keep an eye on the aperture and increase the shuter speed if I saw the aperture was consistantly below f/8, or bump the ISO up if I saw the lens opening up almost all the way.

 

One thing you didn't mention is the AF mode. For moving subjects the continous mode is usually best (sorry, I forget the Nikon term). When you depress the shuttter release half-way the AF starts and tries to track the subject. Choosing the AF points is another issue. I'm afraid I don't have a good suggestion there, probably the best to start with is the center point only. Before switching to Canon I tried single-point and multi-point modes, and never found one that worked beter in all (or even most) situations. One problem is the D70's "nearest object" algorithm when you are using the multi-point mode, it can sometimes shift the focus to some foreground detail that happens to fall on an AF sensor. Hopefully someone else can give more specific suggestions on this topic.

 

Another suggestion: if you can afford the frames, shoot in bursts - especially if you are working at the slow end of the shutter-speed range. I've found that when I'm tracking moving objects and shoot a burst of three or so frames often one of them is much sharper than the others.

 

A single 1Gb card is not very much memory to have (I'll generally shoot about 500 shots - 5 Gb of RAW - in a couple of hours). If you plan to be out for more than an hour or so, you might want to try and borrow or buy another card (or two, or three...).

 

If you think you'll need more than the ~120 RAWs that will fit on a 1 Gb card, and can't get more memory in time, you may have to shoot JPEG. In that case I'd set the WB to match the conditions (daylight, cloudy, ...), and check your exposure histograms really carefully between shooting sequences to make sure you aren't "blowing out" the highlights.

 

Good luck! Enjoy the day "on the water".

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff S.

Some advise from my experience in addition to all the great points you just had.

<p>

If the boat is a keelboat with a rig of suitable dimensions I would advise you shot with the

18mm from the mast or the spreaders, either with a

<a href= http://www.photo.net/photo/4379632>single person </a>

in sight below you or with <a href=

http://www.photo.net/photo/2791195>more action</a>. Using the

long lens to single out actions from above also leads to interesting results. Vibrations are

a lesser problem than if you are on another boat, but I try to stay within 1/125 at wide

angle (I go up to 20mm).

<p>

As for vibrations, provided the boom is suitable, you can also remove most of them by

hanging below it like

<a href= http://www.photo.net/photo/3942740&size=lg>here</a>.

<p>

For either large or small boats,

I suggest to try and shot in the morning or afternoon, to get the

<a href=http://www.photo.net/photo/4379726&size=lg>sails

backlit</a>, in which case I usually centre-weight meter on the sail and dial a +1

compensation. Since you have hills around that lake it would be a good thing to try to

frame the boat when the sun is backlighting your sails but leaving some dark background,

in the shadow, so that the boat will "pop-out" of the picture.

<p>

A good perspective for light boats (but you need a good tender driver and possibly a

waterproof case for the camera) is to shot the people hiking out from very close, with a

wide angle, from below...

Hi Guys,

 

Sorry for the late reply but it took me some time to proof all the pics and pp some of them.

I followed your suggestions but I did some mistakes. I underesxposed 1 stop in order to get the right light on the boats but exposition wasn't always great. Other thing that I need to learn to master is the autofocus, in fact with the central point sometimes the focus was on the background since the boats where on the sides of the viewfinder.

 

I posted here some shots, please let me know what you thin and how I can improve composition and light.

 

P.s. I didn't receive any wine for compoensation at the moment...only two lousy sandwitches....

Another shot

again

last...I promise