Surf clip - seeking criticism

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deltoidjohn

Veteran
Here's another surfing edit I thought I'd share with everyone. I shot this yesterday with my 550D. It was damn hard to shoot with pouring rain most of the time and the camera wrapped in a couple of plastic bags, but I managed to nail a few shots nonetheless. I would love any feedback positive or negative!


Lenses used were the Tamron 70-200mm and the Sigma 10-20 f/3.5. I used a Pro-aim slider (the cheap one from eBay) and it performed better than I expected - So far I'm happy with it particularly for the price.

For those who know anything about surfing: It was one of the most impressive sessions I've ever witnessed at this particular break. Joel Parkinson, Jordy Smith and Mick Fanning headlined the cast which also included former world champions Mark Occhilupo and Tom Curren. Unfortunately due to the weather I missed alot of opportunities. Being limited to a 200mm lens didn't help when trying to find somehwere sheltered to film from, but hopefully my 2x convertor will arrive later this week and it'll be one less thing to think about.
 
The footage looks good. Im a fan of the vignetting you added, makes it feel a bit more like film. really great smooth pans. What head are you using that was panning so smoothly at 200mm? I would worry a bit about using a 2x converter softening my footage. I also remember reading soemwhere about how it effects your f stop but im not sure if it was truly stopping you down or just making your DOF different than it used to be. Either way when you have guys like Mick Fanning in the lineup your bound to get a couple of good shots.

You have inspired me to get my a$$ back into the water and try some surf shooting.

Good work
 
Some very nice tracking shots in there, too bad about the rocks blocking though.
You might want to run it through Magic Looks to see if you could lighten it up a bit, too bad there's always bad weather when you want clean shots.
Did you add in the vignetting at the corners?
Looks pretty good.
 
Thanks guys.

I used a Libec TH-650 tripod - great value.

I'm getting the 2x kind of as an experiment - I bought a cheap 2nd hand Kenko MC7 which is in the post at the moment. The MC7 has mixed reviews. It's the model below the 'pro' version but is better than the cheapo 4-element versions. I'm not sure how much softer it will make the image but I hope shooting video at 1280x720 it won't be too noticable. A 2-stop light loss is nothing to worry about considering most of my surfing footage is shot at around f/22. Hopefully I'll be able to comment on the MC7 by early next week, as there's a great swell forecast and big talk of all the pro's coming to town for it on Monday/Tuesday, so I'll hopefully have a few more clips to show off.
 
Nice stuff, like the cheap slider results.

Moving this into the appropriate section (t2i footage), we're trying to keep the forum more organized around here.
 
deltoidjohn said:
Here's another surfing edit I thought I'd share with everyone. I shot this yesterday with my 550D.


Lenses used were the Tamron 70-200mm and the Sigma 10-20 f/3.5. I used a Pro-aim slider (the cheap one from eBay) and it performed better than I expected - So far I'm happy with it particularly for the price.

For those who know anything about surfing: It was one of the most impressive sessions I've ever witnessed at this particular break. Joel Parkinson, Jordy Smith and Mick Fanning headlined the cast which also included former world champions Mark Occhilupo and Tom Curren. Unfortunately due to the weather I missed alot of opportunities. Being limited to a 200mm lens didn't help when trying to find somehwere sheltered to film from, but hopefully my 2x convertor will arrive later this week and it'll be one less thing to think about.
Click to expand...

I would add some contrast to some of the shots. Also you may try cutting it shorter. The 2x extender does get things soft so you plan to shoot these long shots you should get a longer lens. Of course everybody wants a Canon L telephoto but if you don't have 2 grand or more and if your budget is low I would suggest a 500mm like this one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/500mm-Lens-Cano...58713952?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item53e70d9a60

I got one of these for $100 years ago and although it's very slow at f8, the picture quality is often better than a 2x extender. I have a 2X Zuiko extender which is great quality but softer than the 500mm cheapo. Nothing to loose buying this lens. Also has a mount on the lens.

If you start doing this for a living and have a lot of cash these are these are a few choices.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-Zoom-Tele...76317858?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item33674b43a2

http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-EF-600-mm...61197115?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item4158b6013b
 
ROCKMORE said:
I would add some contrast to some of the shots. Also you may try cutting it shorter.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. I consciously wanted to avoid adding much contrast becuase too many surf clips these days (particulaly anything shot with DSLR's) seem to be pushing the contrast too far and overexposing. I wanted to go the other way and have it be a bit darker and flatter. I agree about making it shorter though, particularly if I want it to be watchable for a non-surfing audience. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

As for lenses, I've been thinking about the Canon 100-400, as well as looking around for a 2nd hand Sigma 300mm f/2.8. That way I could use it with a 1.4x convertor which has much less of a quality loss. Of course I dream about the 600mm L but I think I'd rather put a deposit on a house first...

On days it's not raining, I've actually enjoyed the challenge of being limited to a 200mm lens (320mm fov in 35mm equivelant, or about the same as most camcorders between 8-10x zoom). It forces me to seek out new angles, to get closer to the action, or to think more about composition and put more foreground objects in the frame.
 
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deltoidjohn said:
As for lenses, I've been thinking about the Canon 100-400, as well as looking around for a 2nd hand Sigma 300mm f/2.8. That way I could use it with a 1.4x convertor which has much less of a quality loss.
Click to expand...

The 100-400 is one of the most used and sought after field lenses and a good price compared to the 600mm of course.
I'm not a Sigma fan. Many Sigma zooms have soft spots at the long end.

As far as contrast I was only suggesting +5% brighter +5% contrast just to pop your surfers out and maybe +5% chroma. That small amount makes a big difference without changing the character of your shot
You had one shot in there I believe had sunlight that was "in my opinion" above the rest in terms of commercial quality. Another thing to think about is since the waves and surfers all move from right to left, it starts becoming monotonous.
You may want to break it up more with shots like the great close up you shot of the surfer walking into the surf. That shot was very commercial and added a bigger than life perspective.
Try taking you best variety on shots and cut a 30sec commercial with it. You will be amazed at how great it will look cut that short. I also like the shot of the cameras on the rocks, it adds a different perspective. Also try to grab a lot of tight portraits next time. You can use them if you need a cutaway. It's as much about the emotion on the players faces as the surfing. Good stuff, less is more.
 
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ROCKMORE said:
I'm not a Sigma fan. Many Sigma zooms have soft spots at the long end.
Click to expand...

Good thing the Sigma 300mm is not a zoom then :)

Thanks for the tips. There'll be plenty more waves over the next few days and with half-the world's Top-10 rated surfers currently in town I'll surely be getting some more clips. I'll keep your tips in mind while shooting over the next few days and have a new clip online soon.

I'll hopefully be getting my old SR1 out in it's water housing tomorrow to mix things up a bit.
 
So the 2x convertor finally arrived, and upon first testing my impression in "not as bad as I was expecting based on everyones comments." In quick testing I did not notice any softness at 1080p, but I'll have to shoot some 18mp stills and really see how much detail I'm losing.

I'm buried under at the moment editing weddings (I let myself get behind with all the good waves that were around for the past week) but as soon as I get a chance I'll go out and do some proper shooting with it.

I really love the compressed, flat look you get at 400mm. Even at 20x zoom my FX7 doesn't give you that look (because it's only about an 80mm lens). It really can makes things appear a lot closer together and more intense - really great for tight action shots.
 
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