Kayakers - group 2

[Frankie]

This is the second group of Kayakers at Great Falls. I was closer and had a different perspective.

Thank you for viewing and I welcome any and all comments and criticism.

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Thank you again for viewing.
frankie

[Donald]

Again (as in Kayakers - Group 1), these are good action shots. But, for me, these are not as strong as in that set.

The angle of the shots is more constricting, I think. You seem to be above, looking down instead of more at eye level as in the first set.

Also (and this relates to what I said in that other set about cropping but retaining enough space to see the context and tell the story), we're not really seeing what's around so much in these. Okay, we can see they're on wild water. But set #1 had those fierce looking rocks that, in my opinion, very much added to the strength of those images.

So, I think these are good images of some people doing white-water kayaking. I think those in the first set are super sports action images. And I think it all comes down to your choice of location. In the first set, you got it spot-on.

[Frankie]

Thank you for your thoughts Donald.

i was much closer to these guys and was practically on top of them looking down. I also had a very narrow window between some bushes. So, I feel that these were more constrained. And there was no cropping.

It was nice to have the opportunity to photograph something different and I had a lot of fun. It also gave me the opportunity to play with shutter speed and exposure. It was late afternoon so I was dealing with some shadows, but it gave me the opportunity to just play.

I get the sense that these kayakers do this regularly so maybe I can perfect my skills and try to find some better vantage points the next time I'm at the park (which I plan on frequenting a good bit).

Thanks again for your comments!!! They are much appreciated and I highly respect your opinions!
frankie

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Frankie,

Yes it pays to be adaptable

Seeing as this in 'group 2', I used Doanld's handy link to group 1 first for the background story.

Exposure is a challenge; and not just for the need for a fast shutter speed in probably dim light, but also because the kayak's look easy to blow a color channel with.

Of these; I think a manual Levels tweak of the grey point from "1.0" to "1.2" (or thereabouts) would help several images pop a little more, as might some LCE.

Here's one example;
Before:


After:

Levels 1.3 and USM 20% 40px 0th
and final sharpen after 700px downsize; USM 90% 0.3px 3th

I'm not saying what I did is as good as possible, more care will probably bring a better result, I just did a 'quick win' edit that gives a less muddy image - the main skill was in the captures, well done with those.

Also, I don't see the same problem in the sunlit group 1 images - I guess I just have more experience with non-sunlit images (one benefit of living in the UK )

Hope it helps,

[Frankie]

Thank you Dave!
I see what you mean and I will spend some time playing around with some levels.
But as we all know... sunlight can have its disadvantages :-)
Thanks again!
frankie