Mid-jump
Garmisch Ski-jumping - one of the major World Cup competitions
Garmisch Ski-jumping - one of the major World Cup competitions
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Jan, 2016Views
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chrispisuk
December 27, 2019
I used to do ski jumping when I was 6 yo to around 13 yo,next door lived my cousin Stefan Hula who is now in national polish team,you might know him as you attending the competitions,say hello to him hehe ;),since I have moved like 15 years ago to U.K. never had a chance to take a picture of him ....this is a really nice photo ;) hello from Scotland ;)
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Behind The Lens
Location
At Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Germany, south of Munich, close to the border with Austria. This was the World Cup ski-jumping competition on New Year's Day, 2013.Time
Mid-afternoon. The whole competition took 2 to 3 hours.Lighting
Lighting was excellent with a completely clear sky and the sun not directly overhead (important when taking near-vertical shots).Equipment
This was actually the very first afternoon of using my newly acquired, second-hand Canon 450D, bought on eBay! This was the first Canon camera that I had obtained (after previously using a Panasonic DMC FZ-50 for several years). It came with a standard Canon 18-55mm lens, but I had also acquired a new Canon 75-300mm lens which I used for the ski-jumping shots. There is no way of using a tripod for this type of action shooting with every competitor having a slightly different line in the air. So it was just careful shooting, trying to concentrate on getting one good shot while the ski-jumper was almost overhead. I was able to get about half way up the hill towards the take-off point or else it would not have been possible to get such close-ups of the ski-jumpers in the air (see the image looking back down the hill showing the crowd).Inspiration
I had never taken ski-jumping photos before, or had ever even been to a ski-jumping competition. So it was very interesting on both counts. The fact that I was also using this newly acquired camera for the first time completed the "triple firsts"! So it was an interesting afternoon trying to get some good shots.Editing
Yes, just minimal post-processing, using one of the free photo-editing softwares, Photoscape. Firstly a bit of cropping to make the jumper nearly full frame, but as it was taken with the full 300mm zoom, it did not need much cropping. Then a slight adjustment to the brightness to help make his eyes more visible behind his visor - I think that increases the effect of the photo in a good way if you imagine this ski-jumper flying overhead past you normally, when you have no chance of seeing a detail like his eyes. Finally some minimal sharpening, but in fact not really needed for this shot.In my camera bag
The Canon 450D used for this image has now been upgraded to a Canon 70D, which is a bit closer to the professional level cameras in the single digit Canon range. Apart from higher resolution, the big thing that the 70D is better for is the high ISO capability that the 450D did not have. I am often taking high-speed sporting shots (and now also bird shots) and then it is helpful to be able to play with the ISO setting according to the lighting so that the shot can be very fast (with the bird shots I often use up to 1/4000 or 1/5000, particularly when using full zoom). The 70D is rated as one of the best of the sub-pro range cameras in terms of not being too grainy with high ISO shots and I am very pleased with the results so far. I am continuing to use the standard Canon 18-55 and 75-300 lenses, and without yet being able to consider a longer zoom lens, I am planning to experiment with a 2-times teleconverter just to see if it gives adequately good results. The 70D also has RAW capability, but so far I have hardly used it. The experiments I have made have semi-convinced me that the shots are marginally better after converting back to jpg than the original jpg shots saved in parallel, but I think it is minimal. I now use a monopod for some shots when it is possible (like for the cricket shots in the portfolio where the point of action is very precise and the shots are taken some distance off at the boundary edge) and I still regard myself as being at the learning stage as far as that is concerned. I also have a dedicated flash unit to attach to the camera, but so far I have hardly ever used it. If I suddenly want to use flash, I generally just rely on the inbuilt flash on the camera and that seems very effective for limited, reasonably close use.Feedback
My increased interest in photography has primarily developed through taking many horse competition shots over a number of years, both showjumping and dressage, with shots sometimes getting used for websites and internet libraries of events. This has meant that I am very focussed on taking reasonably fast shots (at least 1/500) and I get particular enjoyment out of achieving very good results when there is fast action. That applies to the ski-jumper of course, flying by at high speed, the bird shots and things like the cricket shots, getting the ball frozen still in frame after it has been struck, when it could be travelling at over 80 mph. So my best recommendation for people wanting to take similar shots is not to compromise on keeping the speed fast, and then to use ISO adjustment to get the right lighting balance. I nearly always take such shots on the time setting, and rely on the automatic aperture adjustment to adjust things correctly according to the ISO setting chosen, but I obviously experiment and try to adjust the ISO so that the aperture naturally sets as open as possible rather than having the ISO higher than it needs to be. Recently I have started to work on taking more regular shots at lower speeds, particularly for stationary subjects, and that is still an ongoing process! But that is not for fast action shots!
