So you want your photo taken? Read this first

We all like having photos taken of us riding, and it's pretty obviously that's the case. Just watch the arrival of any photographer to the beach with a long lens and kite surfers immediately flock in their droves like moths to a flame, or 5 yr. olds around a soccer ball.

Great photos are one thing, it comes back to a couple of things:

1. The rider
2. The photographer
3. The lens
4. The body

The key with the rider part is that is not so much about how good you are, but where you position yourself AND the kite. The photographer can make some magic happen, but he can't perform miracles. The lens and the body of the camera just add the finishing touches.

When I come down with my camera, it's amazing how many people don't bother to look at a couple of basics before flocking in so I'm going to cover some of them now and hopefully both you and the photographer will benefit from the result.

Rule 1 - Look at the sun

Now before you stare at the sun, go blind and sue me, what I mean by this is look at the position of the sun. In essence, what it means is if you want a decent photo, the sun needs to be behind the photographer. The more behind him, the better the photo. Let me give you some examples.

This is photo of a rider with the sun behind them. It's really hard to get a decent photo because there is no light on the person body (think of it like being on the opposite side of earth when the sun is shining on the other side). There is also a massive reflection on the water.



So, if the photo is into the sun you have to pull this kind of **** and there are only so many arty photos you can get



Here we have a photo of a rider with the sun in them. Better lighting on the face. No shadows (shadows are on the far side so you can't see them).



Here is a graphic of what I mean. This example shows the good, average and worst places to throw your tricks.



Now, you may think I'm speaking **** because you've seen a kiting photo of a sunset with the guy kiting, but it doesn't happen often and normally happens using a flash. Sometimes you can get a silhouette photo but again, it doesn't happen often.

So, the short and sweet of this, is know where to throw your tricks to position yourself for the camera.

Rule 2 - look at the camera

In photography, you generally score extra marks for having a face, particularly with action shots. Sure, it's hard to look when you're facing away from the camera but there are many occasions where people can and don't. And no, that doesn't mean you need to pull a strange face. Be natural.

Rule 3 - do something

I mean this in two ways. Riding back and forth mowing lawn gets boring. I have a AF-ON button on the back of my camera which allows me to track focus while you're riding, when you ride for 300m and do nothing, my finger gets tired and I get annoyed. People mowing the lawn isn't much fun so unless that's all you can do, when you get in front of the camera, stop doing it.

Grab the board or something if you jump. It looks better than just bringing your board into your chest. Even if you can't grab the board, try. If you fall, that's not a major, it's not video so I don't care if you land the trick or not as unless you're pulling spectacular tricks, they're probably not worth using in a sequence.

Rule 4 - remember the lead time to a trick

When you're trying to jump, remember that you're not going to instantly pull the trick. You have an area of lead up time to the trick so make sure you get the over with early or before you get the prime spot. 90% of the time, people start their edging where they should be doing the trick, it's too late and they miss the good angle.

Rule 5 - pro lenses look longer than they are

Pro lenses always look longer than they are. my 24-70 looks massive and weighs a ton. My 70-200 f 2.8 is a monster. A decent 200mm lens costs $2500, a decent 400mm lens costs $12000 which is out of reach for most semi-pro photographers. If they are pro, they probably get paid to shoot better riders (no offence intended). won't go into the full frame vs crop or that may confuse people, but the short answer here is that you need to get closer to the photographer than you think, no matter how big the lens looks. Its not too close unless you spray him with water which is likely to result in him beating you severely with the long lens and presenting you with a replacement bill.

The further away you are, the more the photographer has to crop photos and the more the quality sucks. If you want high quality, stay close to the photographer.

Rule 6 - kite position is important

Think about where you have the kite. There are times when it's good to have the kite in frame, but this is probably a little more difficult to explain. Look at some pictures with kite in frame and then think about where the photographer was and the Kiter was. To put it into perspective, if you are riding natural in the direction of the photographer and he's downwind of you with wind directly onshore, if you do an unhooked backroll kite loop just before you get to him, the kite will almost never be in frame because you are looping the kite back and out of frame. In this case, if you ride past him and do the unhooked backroll kite loop, the kite effectively lines up with him like an eclipse which is the type of magic you want at times. If on the other hand the photographer is on a bank upwind, doing the backroll kite loop before you get to him works better to get both in frame. This is one of the toughest parts about photographing random kiters because you often don't have the ability to direct kiters on where to do their tricks which is what happens in a typical professional shoot.

Rule 7 - don't hog the camera

I know you think you're amazing but often we don't want the same hippy posing for the camera on every shot. It's nice to have variety different colours, different coloured kites etc.

Rule 8 - don't critique the photographer

Unless you are prepared to stand there taking the photos, don't give the photographer tips when he posts your photos online. He may be some schmuck who has just bought a kit lens and doesn't know how to use it, he may think he's a photography god and has the talent of Rozanne Barr trying to run a marathon in reality. At the end of the day, he's there taking photos and probably losing kiting time because of it. Be considerate and bite your tongue. Unless the post specifically asks for critique, he's not looking for it and there are much better photography websites he can get critique from.

Its the photographers job to position themselves well for photos not the riders. You should know where the best light is, you should know the angle the rider is coming in on, you should be able to preempt what they are going to do, you should know what time to go out, you should know who to bother taking pictures of and who not to.

Sure pro photos are a result of a rider and photographer working together to get a great shot. A photographer going to the beach to take a couple of cheeky shots should be positioning themselves well to get a decent shot.

This is where I'd disagree. With every sport you'd be correct, but when you are reliant on wind and a body of water which affects your ability to position yourself in the best possible position, you can put yourself in the best spot and still have a miserable time (with the exception of having a water housing or a boat). This is a classic example of we encounter in Melbourne.

The problem with this picture is if you move left to try position yourself better, the entire problem moves left. I.e. all that happens is riders think they need to do tricks directly in front of you but further along. Given that 90% of photographers out there aren't going to have access to waterhousings (or shallow water you can walk out into), they can't really position themselves any better. The second issue I wanted to highlight in this article is if they think they are doing the trick in front of you, they are probably further across.



The other point is this is to advise everyone. Sure i could focus on the one guy who is actually where he is supposed to be (and probably doesn't understand why he's the centre of attention) but ultimately its about educating the masses. If riders know position, they'll be helping themselves and the photographer.




I use filters on the beach as well, sometimes a polarising filter if its a bright day. For most conditions I rely on the weather sealing of the better lenses. I carry a couple of disposable rain covers which I use if its really miserables (strong wind, lots of sea spray) but otherwise I don't bother and just give the lens and body a wipe down with a damp cloth after the session.




Rule 3 - Do something (different) then

and don't make any photo a gayley.

You missed Kodak Courage in your opening segment, love watching kooks on camera

I think the message is pretty clear...If you want to have a good pic taken follow the advice given...If you don't care then do what ever.

EASY

Evidently if you want to take a good photo, the Kiter has to wear his boardies over his wettie?

(This is also related to the strict 'NO JUNK VISIBLE' rule on Seabreeze, which is there to protect us all.)

Does the Canon have a setting for focus tracking with lock on that allows you to tell it to avoid a shift in focus? On the Nikon its called focus tracking with lock on and you can tell it to ignore the change in focus unless it happens for a long time to shift the AF focus. You normally have settings for Long, normal, short or off. This prevent it shifting focus if a rider rides past in front of the rider you are focusing on.

Thanks Saffer, great advice!

sorry cannon 7d sigma 80-400 image stbilised. circ polar filter. hand held. from 200 metres away. Great setup and under 3k

What a load of absolute rabble...

If you want a good photo, get a rider that understands what to do, or at least tell a good rider what to do yourself. That is what a decent photographer does (he is the director as well as the camera man).

Oh, and as said above - never take a photo of a Gayley .

Good thread.

+1 for getting closer to the photographer regardless of how big (long) the lens is (that's if you want to have a decent photograph taken).

I had first hand experience (my first kitesurfing attempt) two weeks ago photographing at Altona (this thread)
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/Victoria/Photos-Altona-on-Sun-18-Nov-2012/ and instantly noticed the 'moths to a flame' phenomenon; this made things easier for me.

Steve.

Pretty sure you don't want to be close to a fixed 600mm...

Rule 8 - don't die

Doing something you wouldn't normally do in front of a camera is a well known way for people to die in the outdoors (climbing, skiing, base jumping etc).

While kiting is less risky, it is a good idea to be a bit cautious.

You can always get another photo or video, but you only get one life.

Photo tips are good, thanks Saffer.

Sorry, my bad. First time I read it as "pretty sure you don't have to be close for a 400mm"