Lee at Porthleven

Hi, this is a moment the sun is in your favour and lights the scene from the side of the surfer rather the back. Yet, despite that I have uploaded a picture where the value of light has been increased and the value of the green colour has been increased. Nothing wrong with ISO100 during a bright day but for recording sport you could have raised the value to ISO200 or ISO400. Regardless the ISO issue this is by far the best of your surfing pictures I have seen so far. Bravo. pablophotographer

Hi, this is a moment the sun is in your favour and lights the scene from the side of the surfer rather the back. Yet, despite that I have uploaded a picture where the value of light has been increased and the value of the green colour has been increased. Nothing wrong with ISO100 during a bright day but for recording sport you could have raised the value to ISO200 or ISO400. Regardless the ISO issue this is by far the best of your surfing pictures I have seen so far. Bravo.
pablophotographer

A fine composition, but the chap is not very sharp and the lighting has caused him to be rather under exposed. Your attempt to brighten him is not terribly subtle, but that is part of the learning curve. Are you using tracking auto focus? I would be at f8 or even f11 and ISO400 or even 800 even in bright sun. f7.1 will not get the best from your lens and the focal point looks too far forward. The 7D Mk11 will easily handle these higher ISO and the potential improvement in general quality will far outweigh any ISO quality drop. With rapidly changing lighting and tones as the waves break, I would be using manual exposure and firing in bursts. paul

A fine composition, but the chap is not very sharp and the lighting has caused him to be rather under exposed. Your attempt to brighten him is not terribly subtle, but that is part of the learning curve.

Are you using tracking auto focus? I would be at f8 or even f11 and ISO400 or even 800 even in bright sun. f7.1 will not get the best from your lens and the focal point looks too far forward. The 7D Mk11 will easily handle these higher ISO and the potential improvement in general quality will far outweigh any ISO quality drop.

With rapidly changing lighting and tones as the waves break, I would be using manual exposure and firing in bursts.

paul

Quite good. Loaded the usual mod. I assume you use tracking autofocus, Paul asked above. Is the lens a Tamron? Is it the V1 or the V2 W

Quite good.

Loaded the usual mod.

I assume you use tracking autofocus, Paul asked above.

Is the lens a Tamron? Is it the V1 or the V2



W

Sigma 150 to 600 sport lens. How do I set up auto tracking?

Sigma 150 to 600 sport lens. How do I set up auto tracking?

You must know about Servo Autofocus, as it is called on the Canon, surely? You have a top flight camera there, and you must learn what it does, especially when shooting specialist sports as you are. Read the manual, study the features and how to use and change them during shooting. The camera is but a tool. You must learn what it can do and you must make it then do these things. There are three auto focus settings. Single shot and two servo modes. One attempts to track moving subjects, the other tries to decide wether to use single shot or tracking systems. This may be explaining why you have had a few problems. You must master the gear, it will not do the job for you. Buying top gear does not guarantee top quality, in fact the more complexity of the best gear may preclude decent images if you do not fully understand how it works Paul

You must know about Servo Autofocus, as it is called on the Canon, surely? You have a top flight camera there, and you must learn what it does, especially when shooting specialist sports as you are.

Read the manual, study the features and how to use and change them during shooting. The camera is but a tool. You must learn what it can do and you must make it then do these things.

There are three auto focus settings. Single shot and two servo modes. One attempts to track moving subjects, the other tries to decide wether to use single shot or tracking systems.

This may be explaining why you have had a few problems. You must master the gear, it will not do the job for you. Buying top gear does not guarantee top quality, in fact the more complexity of the best gear may preclude decent images if you do not fully understand how it works

Paul

I use A1 servo.

I use A1 servo.

Good composition / timing, but the light was rather against you here, particularly combined with black wet suit. Lighten the face and figure and this comes alive. Simple light adjustment isn't rocket science, so to speak. It's part of our basic understanding of digital photography. You do need to get to grips with it. Moira

Good composition / timing, but the light was rather against you here, particularly combined with black wet suit. Lighten the face and figure and this comes alive. Simple light adjustment isn't rocket science, so to speak. It's part of our basic understanding of digital photography. You do need to get to grips with it.
Moira

The Canon experts will be able to tell you what and how - though there's probably good stuff on YouTube, as well as in the manual. Processing - the key thing is to get to grips with how some of the tools work: I think you've used the dodge tool here, possibly set to quite a high opacity. Set it around 2%-3%, and use repeated passes. This lets you build up the effect, and going outside the target area once doesn't affect the surroundings too much. Incidentally, you can also set it to brighten highlights, midtones or shadows - each has a different effect. The default is usually midtones, and a far higher opacity. The burn tool is very similar, but works the opposite way, of course. You can also do good things with the Levels tool, playing with highlight, midtone and shadow sliders. The tool that I find most useful for this kind of shot is the Adobe Camera Raw converter/filter. In Elements, you have an option to open a file - including a JPG - using ACR. In PS, it's a filter. There, you have separate control of highlights and shadows, as well as exposure. And, of course, if you open a RAW file, you're using it already. Other software will have similar tools, of course, but they may have different names, and operate slightly differently.

The Canon experts will be able to tell you what and how - though there's probably good stuff on YouTube, as well as in the manual.

Processing - the key thing is to get to grips with how some of the tools work: I think you've used the dodge tool here, possibly set to quite a high opacity. Set it around 2%-3%, and use repeated passes. This lets you build up the effect, and going outside the target area once doesn't affect the surroundings too much. Incidentally, you can also set it to brighten highlights, midtones or shadows - each has a different effect. The default is usually midtones, and a far higher opacity. The burn tool is very similar, but works the opposite way, of course.

You can also do good things with the Levels tool, playing with highlight, midtone and shadow sliders.

The tool that I find most useful for this kind of shot is the Adobe Camera Raw converter/filter. In Elements, you have an option to open a file - including a JPG - using ACR. In PS, it's a filter. There, you have separate control of highlights and shadows, as well as exposure. And, of course, if you open a RAW file, you're using it already. Other software will have similar tools, of course, but they may have different names, and operate slightly differently.