Camera Labs

Hey everyone,

A few friends of mine here are hardcore skateboarders and mountain bikers. They have seen me around campus taking pictures for film class, and have asked me to take pictures of the while skateboarding/mountain biking.

Any tips on how to do this?

My gear is as follows:

Nikon D50-Has AF-C
18-55
70-300 Non VR
SB-24


Cheers!

Eric D.

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Eric D.
Nikon D90 | 18-200 VR
"Less is the new Black"---Chase Jarvis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25947744@N03/

I was actually taking some action shots of my friend biking some trails.

I was using my 24-85, because it's my sharpest lens, and I wasn't positioning myself too far from him.

Basically, here's my tips:

-Wide angle, Kneel down by the side of the trail, and pan with the guys. You may want to fire your flash if you want more of a "stopped in action" type of shot.
-Make sure you know what trails they will be hitting, and how they will be riding them.
-Watch out for yourself, and pick a nice perspective to shoot from, but watch out for any openings of light in the trees or wherever. You don't want to shoot against the light, unless you want a "foggy" silhouette.


For the skaters, you'll be better off firing your flash for the shots. Typically, if the board is blurry, it's not "that" nice of a shot.

I suggest that you get on the ground, and take a shot from a low perspective. This adds "height" to the shot, and overall makes it a cool looking shot.

Make sure you communicate with your subjects, and know what they will be doing and how they will be doing it.

Some general tips:
-Put your camera onto Continuous high burst shooting so you can get the maximum amount of frames per second. Also, it might not be a bad idea to bracket your shots. Something like -1,0,+1, or -0.3, 0, +0.3. You get the idea.

Also remember to have fun, and I'm sure you'll do great.

Watch out for your own safety too!

Best,
-Sean.

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Wow, thanks for the fast reply!

What would be a good shutter speed to use to induce motion trails? I think that would make a pretty sick shot if my friend had some motion trails while in mid air.

Also, while using a tripod, what would happen if I set the camera onto the tripod, used a shutter of say... 1 second at the most? Take the picture while my friend is doing a trick.

Would it just be a big blur of movement?

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Eric D.
Nikon D90 | 18-200 VR
"Less is the new Black"---Chase Jarvis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25947744@N03/

Your welcome?

For the shutter speed, if you want to pan with the subject, you need to take a couple of things into consideration:

A) How fast is he or she going?
B) What's your distance to your subject?
C) How large is your frame?

Basically, if your subject is going fast, you won't need a fairly slow shutter speed, as long as you can pan with him that instant he or she flies by.

If your subject is going at a moderately "average" speed, then you may want to slow your shutter down. I suggest going into Shutter priority and starting from 1/30th down. Remember that during your panning motion, try and keep the camera as level as possible.

I suggest that you retain from making a tight crop of your subject in the frame. If you can get your subject at a reasonable area in the frame, keeping some bleed/crop room around the side, that will be much better.

If you want your subject to have a motion blur, you're probably going to want to fire your flash using a Rear-Curtain/Rear-Sync flash. This will give you that "motion" trail if your subject is either going faster than your shutter, or if you have a moderately slower shutter while panning.

If you put your camera on a tripod and fire a 1 second or more exposure, and your subject flies by the frame, everything that has been still will be in sharp focus, while a completely blurry "ghost" is in the frame. Not exactly a nice image

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Aright, thank you very much!

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Eric D.
Nikon D90 | 18-200 VR
"Less is the new Black"---Chase Jarvis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25947744@N03/

Yeah no problem. Have fun and remember to post some shots!

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-Blog- || -My Flickr-