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Yet another change in subject. I went down to Rother Valley on Sunday afternoon as there were some Jet Ski races on. While I do occaisionally dabble in various sporting events, this was my first time at water based sports. Boy, do the faster versions of these craft shift!!
This one was taken during one of the races, and with all the spray it looks like a stormy sea, but the water was fairly calm when the races had finished. I know that sport isn't that popular on here, but who cares! 
| Camera: | Canon EOS 5D |
| Lens: | Canon 100-400L |
| Recording media: | RAW (digital) |
| Title: | Flat Out! |
| Username: | 
martin.w |
| Uploaded: | 10 May 2012 - 1:51 PM |
| Tags: | Jet ski, Rother valley, Sheffield, South yorkshire, Sports / action, Spray, Transport, Water |
| VS Mode Rating |
99 (0% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | 26 |
Comments
Great action shot, Martin.
Shutter speed looks spot on.
I'd be tempted to move the white point a little for some extra zing to the highlighted spray. It could be my crappy monitor here at work, but they look just a tad dull. You'd probably need to mask the guy's hat though
Bill
You're right Martin sport doesn't go down too well on here but you've captured the action well.
Darren.
Very well captured action Martin. Pin sharp focus.
Derek
A little late to reply, but thanks Bill. I'm not sure what the white point is, but this did seem brighter before I uploaded. I only alter the saturation, contrast and a quick curves and in this case a crop.....that is pretty much all I do will all my photos......and have never done a mask on anything!
Martin
Quote: ......and have never done a mask on anything!
LOL! 
You don't know what you're missing!
White point:
Put up a levels adjustment layer. The white point is controlled by the little arrowhead thingy under the right hand side of the histogram window. Moving it to the left will brighten the lighter tones (specifically the brightest tones or white).
If you hold the alt key while you do this you will see the whole image will go black with just a few white speckles starting to appear as you move the slider - your brightest pixels.
I usually do this until I see white pixels appearing and back off the slider a tad. This is your clipping warning. Release the alt key and you'll see the image again and bingo! the white point will have been optimised. (You can do the same with the black point, too)
With this image you will definitely see the helemet pixels start to appear before the spray does.
That's where the layer mask comes in. Activate it by clicking on the little white mask icon next to the image icon in your layers palette, your mask will now be active. You will see some "square! brackets around the icon to show it's active - this bit is important, because otherwise you will be painting the image: not good!
Paint over the white parts of the helmet with a small, soft black brush around 35% opacity and repeated strokes to prevent the helmet from blowing out - basically masking the levels adjustment from the appearing.
It may take a little practice but it's one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop and helps to direct adjustments to just where you want them.
Good luck 
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