Sailing Shots... will you help me please?

[Nicola]

A friend of mine (who is also a collegue), with one of his friends have designed and engineered a new kind of sailing dinghy (if it is the correct meaning in english). The first prototypes have been built with the help of craft ship yards here in italy and abroad.
They asked me to take some photos of their boat.
So I'm here trying to post processing about 200 pics...
the first photo-day was (last saturday) really bad. lack of wind and a hazy-foggy day that i've seen only in Uk (please don't get angry, I write so only to let you imagine). this is the weakest point (excluding my incompetence)
so, i'm going to post some pictures, I hope you will help me to let them "pop" a bit...
I start with a couple that will make me damned!

thank you very much for viewing!
have a nice day
Nicola

[Antonio Correia]

Nicola, I have to go now to my thursday evening photographic meeting with 5 friends.
Send me a raw file of your choice please.
http://www.mediafire.com

See you

[Nicola]

Nicola, I have to go now to my thursday evening photographic meeting with 5 friends.
Send me a raw file of your choice please.
http://www.mediafire.com

See you

oh!
yes, of course!
thanks!

[Sahil]

Share the link here ( or with me thru PM). I too would like to try my hand on it.

[Nicola]

Share the link here ( or with me thru PM). I too would like to try my hand on it.

Thank you Sahil!!
You will find the raw file of first picture above at the link below

http://www.mediafire.com/?si9bb52w95avc

At the moment it is the picture that requires more PP, in my humble opinion

I will upload other few raw files, so you, Antonio and whoever else wants, can choice the picture to work on...
cheers!
N

[arith]

It is a very interesting looking boat and if I may say very well shot. Looks very close to the water though, I don't know anything about boats but I like watching them.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Nicola,

Here's a quick effort for you, if this helps ...

[Nicola]

Hi Nicola,

Here's a quick effort for you, if this helps ...

Thanks Colin! it helps, as always!
I like the sail in your version, but perhaps the two guys are a bit too dark...
I 've to work in this direction
cheers

N

[Antonio Correia]

Of course my try is not so good as Colin's. It's normal.
But about this photo I have to say:
The weather looks dull and cloudy what doesn't help.
The frame is / was too tight. More room in front and more room at the back of the boat would be better
Why not the hole boat ? Vertical shot ? with lots of room around to frame easily ?
Try to get bolder angles, like shooting right in front of them or from behind...
Are they going fast ? Pan a bit trying to get your friend frozen.

Use raw file to get some detail from the whites.
And here is my humble try Nicola
Again Nicola, I would like to be not so telegraphic but again, I have to go. Sorry man !

[Nicola]

Yes, it has a quite new design
as the name says, "2 B FAST", this boat can reach high speed.
they are managing in order to introduce a new "race class" (I don't know the exact terminology)
as the already existent classes "470", "Vaurienne" etc etc

[Antonio Correia]

Yes, it has a quite new design
as the name says, "2 B FAST", this boat can reach high speed.
they are managing in order to introduce a new "race class" (I don't know the exact terminology)
as the already existent classes "470", "Vaurienne" etc etc

another reason to shoot in pan mode giving the sense of motion.

[arith]

best I can do

[FrankMi]

best I can do

Hi Steve, I like how you have enhanced the image (and I'll take a crack at this later today myself), but I noticed an anomaly that has plagued me in the past so I thought I'd pass it on. Although the boat is not in the sun, the sitting man's white shirt shows the direction of the light coming from the right but the clouds show the light coming from the left. If you were to flip the sky background horizontally, I think it would look more natural.

[arith]

Hi Steve, I like how you have enhanced the image (and I'll take a crack at this later today myself), but I noticed an anomaly that has plagued me in the past so I thought I'd pass it on. Although the boat is not in the sun, the sitting man's white shirt shows the direction of the light coming from the right but the clouds show the light coming from the left. If you were to flip the sky background horizontally, I think it would look more natural.

Yep; thought about that afterwards. The clouds are from a London shot with sun over mast, the only sky interesting and big enough. I wished I saved the stages.

Another way, since I spent hours on this trying different things; was there some settings already applied? I used DPP to adjust curves and found contrast and sharpness set. Then Topaz deNoise, then Helicon Filter,then Topaz Detail, then Photoshop elements to add the sky adjusted in ACR, then layers 11 of them........

Another way; just dodge the top of the cloud a bit.

[Nicola]

Of course my try is not so good as Colin's. It's normal.
But about this photo I have to say:
The weather looks dull and cloudy what doesn't help.
The frame is / was too tight. More room in front and more room at the back of the boat would be better
Why not the hole boat ? Vertical shot ? with lots of room around to frame easily ?
Try to get bolder angles, like shooting right in front of them or from behind...
Are they going fast ? Pan a bit trying to get your friend frozen.

Use raw file to get some detail from the whites.
And here is my humble try Nicola
Again Nicola, I would like to be not so telegraphic but again, I have to go. Sorry man !

Of course my try is not so good as Colin's. It's normal.
But about this photo I have to say:
The weather looks dull and cloudy what doesn't help.
The frame is / was too tight. More room in front and more room at the back of the boat would be better
Why not the hole boat ? Vertical shot ? with lots of room around to frame easily ?
Try to get bolder angles, like shooting right in front of them or from behind...
Are they going fast ? Pan a bit trying to get your friend frozen.

Use raw file to get some detail from the whites.
And here is my humble try Nicola
Again Nicola, I would like to be not so telegraphic but again, I have to go. Sorry man !

Thanks Antonio!
don't be sorry, your contributions are always very important even if "telegraphic". You spend even too much time with my bad works!

about this picture, I'll try to justify me ;-)
1- I posted this picture as I usually post the pictures I think needs more PP work; usually aren't the more beautiful i've captured. It's in this case that your helps is more important for me. I don't need the "this is a beautiful picture" comments.

2- I 've captured 488 picture in 3 hours last saturday
and of course there some of those with the whole boat and many room around it
anyway the weather so ugly makes these pics not so interesting: there is nothing of interesting in the sea and in the sky

3- I've in mind some bolder angle shots: from near the water up to the top of the shaft, with the boat 'running' on the water, with a WA lens. but I will perform that next time: I will follow the boat with a motor boat (we are also going to borrow a submarine kit...!) Last saturday, I was shooting from a floating deck, and the boat wasn't so close to me: I had to use the 70-300mm

4- front or back is not so good. One of the goals of these shots is to show the new kind of boat with its sails and so on: the back or front view isn't so useful for this purpose

5- this picture is quite important, because, despite the lack of the wind, the boat has the sail well "engaged"

6- I was shooting from a floating little deck: my position isn't steady at all, I hae had to be aware of water spray too. the only way to capture something was shooting with shutter 1/500s at least... hard condition for panning

I hope you will understand me..
many thanks to who has spent some time on it and who is going to
cheers
N

[Antonio Correia]

best I can do

In spite of the direction of the light pointed by Frank, you have done an excellent work Steve.

[Nicola]

Yep; thought about that afterwards. The clouds are from a London shot with sun over mast, the only sky interesting and big enough. I wished I saved the stages.

Another way, since I spent hours on this trying different things; was there some settings already applied? I used DPP to adjust curves and found contrast and sharpness set. Then Topaz deNoise, then Helicon Filter,then Topaz Detail, then Photoshop elements to add the sky adjusted in ACR, then layers 11 of them........

Another way; just dodge the top of the cloud a bit.

wow Steve!
how much is your bill for a work like that??
I told you, some time ago that you're the master of Sky...!!

[Antonio Correia]

Be aware Nicola of the salt water !

I want to see those photos you are going to take from the submarine.

How about a GoPro in the top of the mast ? or inside the boat ? or at water level ?

[Antonio Correia]

And the winner is... Steve !

[Nicola]

And the winner is... Steve !

Definetly!!


what a nice competition !! isn't it?